Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 July 27

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July 27

Grooming behavior

In videos of grooming monkeys put all the trash they clean into own mouth, as if eating it, rather than throwing out (same happens when a pet monkey is grooming a human). Why do they do that and isn't harmful for their health? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 10:00, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

How would they know any different? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

If they find lice, these are delicious and nutritious. Also yummy and more important are flakes of salt (dried-up sweat). Dandruff is harmless. If it was generally harmful to their health, evolution would have weeded out this specific behaviour long time ago.  --Lambiam 12:32, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

I guess when you are a social animal, putting parasites you have found back on the ground probably isn't a good idea. This is, however, what my dog does with ticks. But the ticks are apparently not delicious, even for fire ants. Sean.hoyland (talk) 05:23, 28 July 2024 (UTC)

Also, small things sometimes (often?) have some antibacterial and antifungal things in their biological toolkits to help them stay alive. Maybe eating them can be beneficial. Sean.hoyland (talk) 05:36, 28 July 2024 (UTC)

What's the opposite of "sticky"?

When a given object tends to get attached to close objects, it may be called "sticky". What about the opposite phenomenon? i.e. How should a given object be called, when it's "reluctant" to get attached to close objects? Even if all objects are at rest, so the adjective "elastic" is not sufficient for describing the opposite of "sticky". HOTmag (talk) 20:20, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Repulsive, eg. the wall repels objects and the suffix -phobic is used in chemistry, eg. hydrophobic. Modocc (talk) 20:33, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. HOTmag (talk) 22:01, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

There is non-stick, which describes objects made of (or coated with) a material with a very low coefficient of friction. Mikenorton (talk) 20:39, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. HOTmag (talk) 22:02, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Hoban (1975) used the term "anti-sticky". [1]  Card Zero  (talk) 03:42, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

"anti-sticky" is good. I guess you could write "not sticky" as "$\neg$ sticky", a downside being that it looks like a stick being described as stick-like. Sean.hoyland (talk) 07:06, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. HOTmag (talk) 13:11, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Teflon? Teflon-like? Huldra (talk) 21:59, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Also nonadhesive. Modocc (talk) 11:12, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Slippery Doug butler (talk) 11:24, 30 July 2024 (UTC)