Thread: What are your favourite simple things that science just cannot explain?

Why men have nipples.

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)

Oh yeah, I remember that little guy.

Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

Why men have nipples.

There is a book by the title of your question.
http://www.amazon.com/Nipples-Hundre.../dp/1400082315

just to add on to the gravity bit. yes we know how gravity relates to objects and such and relativity gives us an interesting picture of it...but is gravity really made that way? Is that what really causes gravity? I guess what Im trying to get at is...what part of mass produces gravity?

Originally Posted by tkdyo

just to add on to the gravity bit. yes we know how gravity relates to objects and such and relativity gives us an interesting picture of it...but is gravity really made that way? Is that what really causes gravity? I guess what Im trying to get at is...what part of mass produces gravity?

Mass is condensed energy. Like attracts like. Mass attracts mass. I know that this is not a scientific explanation but it is still true nevertheless.

No.

Matter takes up space and thereby warps it. The folds in space that can affect other bits of matter are what we perceive as gravity.

the thing that confuses me about that is I thought space was a vacuum. so how can mass warp it if theres nothing there?

True, gravity is warped space. Space, though mostly empty, actually has particles and energies spread out through out it, but mostly it is a vacuum. However, it has dimensions, it has distance, and in the fourth dimension it is space/time, like a sheet on a water bed, that when you sit on it it sinks and a ball will roll towards you into the depression that you create. The effect of this is that mass attracts mass because mass warps space.

Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

Why men have nipples.

Because female body plan is the default body plan in human development

Originally Posted by SnakeCharmer

Because female body plan is the default body plan in human development

To attract other nipples/

Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

To attract other nipples/

Also, male lactation. Male lactation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Dannon Oneironaut

To attract other nipples/

No. To feed babies

Does having nipples hurt a male's reproductive opportunities? No? Then where does the selection pressure to evolve genes on the Y chromosome to make males not have nipples come from?

EDIT:

And that's of course assuming that the genetic variation exists for natural selection to act on.