Here’s this guy:
I just wanted an excuse to post that Vine (on what is supposed to be a science blog). I was wondering what I could say. Then I looked up squirrels. Apparently, they chew incessantly — just like the guy in the Vine — because their teeth keep growing. Otherwise, they’d end up with teeth so long they’d basically bite themselves to death.
Also, their top and bottom teeth interlock so that, as well as keeping them non-chokingly short, they’re kept nicely sharpened. So they need to keep moving and chewing. Just like the guy in the Vine.
In fact, squirrels are rodents, and the word rodents comes from the Latin rodere, which means “to gnaw”. They are gnawers: they are defined by their gnawing. Just like the guy in the Vine.
They can’t actually talk though. That bit’s not entirely scientifically plausible.
Still, overall that’s more than I’d expected to come up with.
Tomorrow: “Why bunnies snuggle!”
Brian Hughes is an academic psychologist and university professor in Galway, Ireland, specialising in stress, health, and the application of psychology to social issues. He writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, medicine, and politics.