Ever Wonder? from the California Science Center

One of the first things you might notice when you wake up is a weird taste in your mouth, followed by the realization that your breath smells… bad. So, you grab your mouthwash and get on with your day, hoping no one feels the need to offer you a breath mint. Ever wonder why your breath stinks? To find out, we asked Dr. Batbileg Bor ( @BatbilegBor ), a scientist who studies the bacteria that live i...

When the new Jurassic World movie came out last month, we invited Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum, onto the show to help us think about whether or not humans could ever coexist with dinosaurs . She blew our minds a little bit when she told us that we already have dinosaurs living among us today—birds! If birds are examples of living dinosaurs…. Ever wonder if prehistoric...

Last week, the James Webb Space Telescope released its first full-color images of the cosmos, finally showcasing why it is expected to be the world’s premier space telescope. Ever wonder how scientists will use the James Webb Space Telescope? Today, we’re going to meet someone who has been dreaming for years about what we could see with this technological marvel.  Vivian U, PhD ( @JustTheLetterU )...

Throughout the pandemic, public health officials have offered guidance on how to slow the spread of COVID-19. Since March 2020, we’ve learned how to properly wash our hands. We’ve practiced physical distancing. And wearing face masks has become a regular part of our daily routine. All these interventions are designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 based on everything we know about how respiratory...

Have you ever wandered the yogurt aisle in the grocery store and stumbled upon yogurt or other foods with the label 'probiotic'? These foods claim to support your gut health or your 'gut microbiome' – and some even go so far as to say they can help your mental health! Although that last claim is mostly just marketing hype, some scientific experimentshave connected what’s going...

Science Center interns have taken over the show! David Magaña, Jaime Lopez, and Dillen Render from Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles were excited about this summer’s new movie Jurassic World: Dominion and had a question: Ever wonder if humans can coexist with dinosaurs?   Dinosaurs have been extinct for a very long time, so what would our world be like if dinosaurs were roaming the earth once...

On December 25, 2021 , NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope —the most powerful telescope ever put into space. This $10 billion technical marvel is a complex and massive spacecraft—think of something roughly the size of a tennis court—that scientists and engineers have been working on for decades to explore the deepest reaches of our universe. Many experts view Webb as the rightful successo...

One of my all-time favorite movies is Inception . No joke, I recently rewatched it, and even though it came out over a decade ago, it still holds up. Between the character’s adventures in different dream levels and the manipulation of time in the story, I still find myself picking up on new details when I watch it again for the umpteenth time. It’s all great movie magic, but… Ever wonder if there’...

Think about the last time you had a dream… Was the dream fun? Scary? Maybe you barely remember anything at all. Or maybe the dream was so vivid that you knew you were dreaming even while the dream was happening, a phenomenon known as ‘lucid dreaming.’ Some people are so good at it that they can even control their dreams. Ever wonder if you can learn to control your dreams? Karen Konkoly is a gradu...

NASA is going back to the moon later this year with the Artemis I mission. And in March, NASA rolled out their massive new rocket for Artemis to the launchpad . Ever wonder who builds those rocket engines? On this episode, we talk to two of those people. Nate Perkins and Doug Bradley both work at Aerojet-Rocketdyne , the company that makes the engines for NASA’s new rocket. Nate and Doug work on a...

Our immune systems are always hard at work protecting us from viruses, bacteria, and other critters that can infect our bodies and make us sick. But on an earlier episode , we learned that the human body is teeming with microscopic creatures. These microbes—collectively known as the human microbiome—are always with us, coexisting with us and even benefiting our health. Ever wonder how your immune...

If you ever visit the kelp tank at the Science Center, you might notice that we have a complete ecosystem on display, including both predators and prey. So, naturally, people often ask our staff if the fish eat each other. Ever wonder if our kelp tank fish eat… other fish? It is a rare event. But to answer this question, we’re digging into our archives to bring you an unaired clip from our past in...

It’s been a year since NASA JPL’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 , bringing us spectacular new images and videos of The Red Planet. And in honor of this milestone for Percy and Ginny , we’re bringing you an unaired clip from our past interview with Hallie Abarca , a software engineer and former rover driver at JPL. She takes us behind the scenes of...

One of the first things you might notice when you wake up is a weird taste in your mouth, followed by the realization that your breath smells… bad. So, you grab your mouthwash and get on with your day, hoping no one feels the need to offer you a breath mint. Ever wonder why your breath stinks? To find out, we asked Dr. Batbileg Bor ( @BatbilegBor ), a scientist who studies the bacteria that live i...

Last episode, we talked to environmental historian Jared Dahl Aldern about why California has so many wildfires . And with all the news of big, out-of-control wildfires—especially in the last two years—it’s hard to think of fire as anything but a scary, destructive force. Do you ever wonder if fire can be good? Chairman Ron Goode, the Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, has been conducti...

Last fall, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Fire! Science & Safety , which invites our guests to explore Casa Del Fuego, Apartment 911 as a fire danger detective, seeking out fire and burn hazards to make their families, pets, and homes safer—both inside the home, as well as outside threats like wildfires. It’s been pretty rainy in California lately, so wildfires have largely faded from th...

We’re continuing our coverage of the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks , and is expected to be the world’s premier space telescope. In our last episode, we talked to engineer Stephanie Hernandez about what it was like to help build this telescope . If you haven’t already, please give it a listen! Okay, so last episode was all about how we built the telesc...

In the coming weeks , NASA will launch the James Webb Space Telescope —the most powerful telescope ever put into space. This $10 billion technical marvel is a complex and massive spacecraft—think of something roughly the size of a tennis court—that scientists and engineers have been working on for decades to explore the deepest reaches of our universe. Many experts view Webb as the rightful succes...

Since the early days of the pandemic, there’s been a lot of confusing, and sometimes conflicting, information about COVID-19 and children. On the one hand, we know that disease risk is linked to age, with older adults getting sick and dying at disproportionately higher rates than younger people. But on the other, COVID-19 has now become one of the top ten leading causes of death among children . W...

Have you ever been on a road trip, only to have your car break down and leave you stranded out in the middle of nowhere? Imagine how much worse that would be if you were on your way to the Moon, Mars, or even Jupiter! But going to space is hard, and even with teams of top engineers and scientists working together, sometimes things can go wrong.  Do you ever wonder how engineers protect their space...

We’re bringing you an unaired clip from our past interview with Kirstin Petersen , a roboticist and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. In her lab , she builds cooperative teams of robots, called robot swarms, that are inspired by insects like ants, termites, and bees. Now, when you think of a robot, what do you usually picture in your mind? Probably something w...

We’re digging into our archives again to bring you more unaired vet stories from our past interview with Dr. Brittany Stevens , a veterinarian here at the Science Center. She takes care of all our animals when they get sick and need to go to the doctor. Last time, Brittany told us all about her vet exam room, how she cares for so many different animals, and even what it’s like to do surgery on fis...

Today—September 15th, 2021—is an exciting day in the history of space travel. Today is the day SpaceX’s Inspiration4 is scheduled to launch. If successful, Inspiration4 will be the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth, taking us one step closer to making space flight accessible to everyone—and not just highly trained professional astronauts. Do you ever wonder if YOU could go to s...

This week we’re digging into our archives to bring you a few unaired clips from past interviews. We noticed that when we spoke with roboticists Maja Matarić and Ayanna Howard ( @robotsmarts ), they both had a lot to say about the benefits of including diverse perspectives in the design process. Robots, algorithms, and artificial intelligence continue to get more deeply intertwined in our lives, an...

Throughout the pandemic, public health officials have offered guidance on how to slow the spread of COVID-19. Since March 2020, we’ve learned how to properly wash our hands. We’ve practiced physical distancing. And wearing face masks has become a regular part of our daily routine. All these interventions are designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 based on everything we know about how respiratory...