I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I’m not the right person to answer this I’m sorry. A brief scan of wikipedia suggests that no one really knows, although there are a few ideas out there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn
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I don’t know. I seem to remember back to first year human biology that it was about balancing gas exchange but from following Matthews wikipedia link that does not seem to be certain or even true.
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Because they’re tired! Ha ha. I think it has something to do with getting more oxygen into the body.
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I always thought it was something to do with getting more oxygen into the bloodstream too. The one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it has nothing to do with boredom.
What I don’t understand is why yawning is contagious! I started yawning just reading this question and the answers.
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Interestingly yawning has both physical and psychological components to it!
Yes, we yawn if we are tired and the physical side is driven by a need to flush carbon dioxide from the lungs, as I understand it. The consequence as has been pointed out, is that we uptake more oxygen.
However as Simon pointed out it can also be contagious and we often yawn if we are engaged in a conversation we would like to remove ourselves from. I’m not sure what drives the psychological side of things, but it is a fascinating phenomena!
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