It’s a Fact

Where our research department answers your burning questions.

“It’s a Fact” appears in the print edition of the magazine sent to subscribers with young families. Those readers are already familiar with this department, and now we’ve decided to share it with everyone online.

Question: Who started the Internet?

Answer: The information superhighway was born out of the Cold War. In 1969 a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence set up a computer network linking military sites and research centres. By the early 1970s, the network linked 23 university and government research centres. A set of procedures, known as “internet protocols,” was devised to allow information to be routed across interconnected networks. Soaring demand led the U.S. National Science Foundation to fund a new computer network, NSFNET, and in 1992 this was opened to the public as the Internet

Question: Why do women live longer than men?

Answer: The key to women’s greater longevity is how much energy our bodies devote to repairing themselves and to reproduction. Biologically, women’s bodies devote more effort than men’s do to repairing cells in order to survive long enough to suckle and protect offspring. Men, however, are biologically programmed to devote more energy to reproduction than to bodily repair.

Question: Why a “cock- and-bull story”?

Answer: One theory comes from Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire, England, where The Cock Hotel and The Bull Hotel were posts on the London to Manchester stagecoach route during the 18th and 19th centuries. News and anecdotes were exchanged both by passengers and by coachmen seeking to impress travelers with their knowledge of current affairs. Stories inevitably were embellished in the telling, and the two establishments vied to furnish the most outlandish tales, which became known as Cock and Bull stories.

Question: Why do lemmings jump off cliffs?

Answer: Lemmings are not suicidal. Dramatic increases in lemming populations every few years, and consequent shortages of food and space, can trigger mass migrations. The creatures usually inhabit low-lying areas, but if large numbers build up on cliff tops, they instinctively plunge over into the sea. Although drowning do occur, lemmings are good swimmers and generally survive.

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