The most puzzling natural mystery people want solved is whether animals have their own language, according to a poll.
Asked to choose from 10 unanswered questions about the natural world, a third (31 percent) of British people said whether animals use language was one of the issues they most wanted answered, the Daily Mail reported.
The second most burning question was how the dinosaurs died out, with 29 percent of the 2,000 people polled putting that query.
More than a fifth (22 percent) wanted to know why cats purr.
The poll was for the launch of new TV show by David Attenborough, "Natural Curiosities", on a British channel.
It also revealed some of the most commonly believed myths about nature.
Almost half those polled (47 percent) believed female Praying Mantis eat the males after sex, although research has found that only happened once in 69 experiments.
Another 37 percent thought camels store water in their humps, rather than storing fat to provide energy. - IANS
The union home ministry takes the fight into the gay camp as it tells the Supreme Court that Section 377 of the IPC is needed to check cases of child sex abuse and other unnatural offences
Sri Lankan rulers want to destroy the concept of Tamil homeland and make Tamils permanent refugees, says the Sinhalese doctor in Australia, Brian Senewiratne, in this third part of a series
The wife of a porter, 38-year-old Sanuja Rajan, has won Rs. 1 crore in a TV reality show in Kerala. Life has come full circle for the woman, who has endured many hardships, says Sanu George
The scenic East Coast Road that connects Chennai with several tourist destinations has turned into a death trap due to increase in number of accidents. KP Subramanian analyses the problem
A small army of friends have joined hands to strengthen TWL under the banner of the Friends of Positive Journalism, a forum that was launched two years ago. P C Vinoj Kumar has the details
Ravi Kalra is a former taekwondo instructor whose NGO cares for senior citizens, and mentally challenged people. He carries on with his work though his family deserted him, says Rahul Vaishnavi
Is Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, Prasad Kariyawasam playing a dangerous game of dividing Indians? He has been accused of instigating the North Indians against the people of Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that IPL matches involving Sri Lankan players, umpires and other officials should not be played in Tamil Nadu
Indian cricketers, including Dhoni and Sachin, let their hair down after their historic whitewash of Australia by zooming and careening around the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida
Student outfit warns IPL against fielding Sri Lankan players in Chennai. Political parties echo the demand as the ‘Boycott Sri Lanka’ campaign gains momentum and casts its shadow on cricket
The Weekend Leader captures the ongoing students’ struggle in Tamil Nadu in photographs, even as the protests appear to be taking the shape of a popular movement for creation of Tamil Eelam
Buoyed by pro-Eelam freedom protests in Tamil Nadu, V Rudrakumaran, Prime Minister of TGTE, downplayed the US resolution in UNHRC and pitched for an independent Tamil Eelam, says Radhika Giri
Sanitation is the last thing crisis managers provide to people displaced from homes by disasters. Now a former banker, Promita Sengupta , has come up with a quickly deployable toilet that has come handy for NGOs, says Kavita Kanan Chandra
A young innovator from Tamil Nadu aspires to create 50,000 jobs by popularizing his herbal mosquito repellent, ‘Hermo’, which repels mosquitoes effectively but does not harm humans as it is non-allergic and non-toxic, says P C Vinoj Kumar
Village Ways, launched by Manisha and Himanshu Pande on the principle of responsible tourism, helps urbanites have a real feel of rural life. Not a ‘home stay’ kind, the enterprise ropes in the locals as partners, says Kavita Kanan Chandra
Social work is no pizza business, it requires commitment and passion says Vidyaakar, who has been running a home in Chennai, Udhavum Karangal, for 30 years. Catherine Gilon met the Papa, who now has 1263 people, 314 of them kids, in his care
A young IAS officer mobilized Rs 40 lakh through Facebook to build a road in Manipur, earning the sobriquet ‘The Miracle Man’. Gaurav Sharma met Armstrong Pame to find out why he wanted to build the 100 km ‘People’s Road’ and how he did it
A grassroots innovator, Dharamveer Kamboj, has changed the lives of people from the barren land of Rajasthan to the dense forest of Nagaland by designing a food processor. Kavita Kanan Chandra explains how it works well for women and tribes
They call him the ‘glacier man’. Chewang Norphel of Ladakh built 12 artificial glaciers that prevented farmers in high altitudes from moving out of the villages in search of alternative livelihood. Akash Bisht profiles the visionary with grit
Identifying clothing as a basic necessity after food and shelter, a journalist couple, Anshu Gupta and Meenakshi, started a social venture, Goonj, providing ‘Cloth for Work’. Then they did more, reaching parts of 21 states, says Roohi Seghal
A father-daughter duo is turning rhinoceros dung into paper, which in turn has turned out to be an economically lucrative venture. Kavita Kanan Chandra explains how Elrhino, the micro-enterprise, will also help in wildlife conservation
Driven by a desire to succeed after he was told that he did not deserve a Pilot pen in class V, Ramesh Babu who worked his way up to own a fleet of 127 cars, including a Rs 3.3 crore Rolls Royce, yet remains a hairstylist, says P C Vinoj Kumar
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