Moment Of Um

There are tons of cake recipes out there, from angel food to red velvet. These recipes make different types of cake, but mostly share the same ingredients, like flour, sugar and eggs. When you mix them up and pop them in the oven, it seems like magic happens! How does that pile of ingredients turn into a cake? We asked science writer Stuart Farrimond to help us find the answer. Got a question that...

OH FARTS! Passing gas can be one of the amusing or embarrassing parts of your day. How you feel about tooting can be influenced by lots of factors including where you are, who you are with, how loud it is, and- most importantly- the smell. Speaking of which, what causes the smell of farts? Is it genetics? We asked Masters of Science candidate Kaila Gabriel to help us find the answer. Got a questio...

Earthquakes happen when the rocky plates that make up the surface of our planet move against each other. But what about quakes in other parts of our galaxy? Do the stars shake? Do planets get their crusts crumbled? We asked astrophysicist Ian Hall to help us find the answer.  Got a question that’s quaking your world? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll serve you an answer on a tectoni...

Lots of trees shed their leaves to prepare for chilly winter temperatures – but not all of them. Evergreen trees, like pines and spruces, keep their needles throughout the winter. So how do they do it? We asked science communicator and plant expert Brandi Cannon-Force to help us find the answer. Have a question that’s really needling you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find...

DNA is a tiny molecule found inside almost every living thing on Earth. It’s      an instruction manual that tells your body how to grow and what it should look like! But what is it made of? We asked Kaila Gabriel to help us find the answer. Got a question that has you spiraling out of control? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help pair it up with the right expert! See omnystudio.c...

Dandelions are the best! Their sunny, bright yellow blooms make amazing flower crowns. Their leaves are loaded with vitamins and nutrients. And eventually, they turn into adorable puffballs. So why do some people consider them weeds? We asked flower farmer Bo Dennis to help us find the answer. Got a question that is rooted in your mind? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you wee...

Words are wonderful! Pickle, bubble, and hullabaloo are all super fun to say.  But some words can be hurtful, like  swear words. So if we aren’t supposed to say them, why do swear words exist? We asked linguist Carolin Debray to help us find the answer. Got a question that seems unan-swear-able? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll dis-cuss the answer.  See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Flowers help us express our love. A beautiful bouquet can say to the people in our lives, “I’m thinking of you” or even “I love you!” But what about the flowers themselves? Do they ever get to have love stories of their own? We asked plant scientist Laura Steel to help us find the answer. Got a question sprouting in your mind? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help the answer bloom....

Plants do so many different things: they grow fruits and veggies, make beautiful flowers and even pump out oxygen for us to breathe. But how do they suck up water from the dirt? We asked science communicator and plant expert Brandi Cannon-Force to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s unbe-LEAF-ably hard to answer? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll root around for the answe...

Salmon meat can make a delicious meal and, since it has plenty of vitamins and minerals, can be a great part of a nutritious diet. What really makes salmon stand out  though is its pinkish-orange color. What's up with that? We asked aquatic biologist Dr. Keegan Lutek to help us find the answer. Got a question about something that seems fishy? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help g...

Milk! It’s a cookie’s best friend. It’s a key part of a creamy cup of hot chocolate. And it’s delicious, whether it comes from a cow, a goat, an oat, or a coconut. But no matter where your milk comes from, one thing is probably the same – the whitish color. What’s up with that? We asked science writer Stuart Farrimond to help us find the answer. Got a question MOO-ving through your brain? Send it...

Quick, look up at the sky! Do you see any fluffy puffy cotton candy clouds? Or maybe long, wispy ones? What about dark storm clouds? There are so many different types of clouds on Earth. But what about space? Are there clouds up there, too? We asked astrophysicist Ian Hall to help us find the answer. Got a question that you want someone to take cirrus-ly? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and...

Star Wars famously starts with “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…” And boy are there some amazing galaxies in Star Wars. But a planet with two suns is just the stuff of science fiction, right? Maybe not! We asked astronomer Mark Popinchalk to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s forcing you to go ummm? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll Boba Fett-ch you an answer....

You may have learned that the colors red, yellow, and blue are called primary colors. It’s sometimes said you can use those three to make all the other colors. But can red, yellow, and blue really mix to make any color, or is there more to the story?  We asked color scientist Stephen Westland to help us find the answer. Got a question that came up out of the blue? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/con...

Freeze-dried food seems like something that was invented for space travel, but this technique for preserving food is actually more than a hundred years old! Nowadays you might see freeze-dried mangos or strawberries in many grocery stores. You know, the ones that are dry and crispy and light as a feather? But how exactly do you make them? We asked food scientist Dave Dominguez to help us find the...

Today’s question was sent in by a curious listener who wondered why fluffy, sugary-sweet cotton candy dissolves on your tongue. We asked food scientist Craig Sherwin to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s cotton you all confused? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a sweet answer for you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re a movie lover, a snack lover, or just a lover of things that go “POP!”, you might be wondering what makes a kernel of corn pop. We asked food scientist Dave Dominguez for the deets on this tasty treat. Got a question that’s popped up in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you feel butter about the answer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Food Week! We’re excited to bring you a whole week of delicious Moment of Yums leading up to Thanksgiving. First up: cheese! Cheese is delicious! It can be stringy, stretchy, stinky, salty, or sweet. It can be eaten fresh or aged for more than a decade.  But it only comes in a few different colors. We asked food scientist Craig Sherwin to help us find out why. Got a question on your rind? Se...

Many people take vitamins along with the normal food they eat in a day. But what if you ate ONLY vitamins? Could you survive? We asked Craig Sherwin from the biotechnology company Novozymes to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s vita-l to your life? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help feed you the answer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do curling irons, campfires, and cups of hot cocoa have in common?  They’re all hot!  But nothing is as hot as the sun – at least not in our solar system!  But what about the rest of the universe?  Is the sun the hottest thing? We asked astronomer Mark Popinchalk to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s too hot to handle?   Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an exp...

All of the planets in our solar system, and plenty of the moons, are named after gods or other figures from ancient Roman mythology. Have you ever wondered who picked those names? And why is the theme Roman gods, and not famous kings, favorite cartoon characters, or notable cats? We asked astronomer Mark Popinchalk to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s outta this world? Send it to us a...

When you’re an only child, it might feel nice to have all the attention for a few years until – DUN DUN DUN! – a little sibling comes along. Sometimes it feels like babies get all the attention. Why is that? To help us find the answer, we asked Dr. Ed Greene, early childhood psychologist and consultant for our sister podcast Charm Words. Got a question that’s grabbed your attention? Send it to us...

We spend a lot of time on top of our planet, but we don’t spend much time inside it. So it makes sense you might wonder what our planet is made of, deep deep down. Is it more rocks? Is it lava? Is it a gooey caramel center? And what about the other planets, like Mars and Jupiter? We asked astronomer Mark Popinchalk to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s tearing you up on the inside? Sen...

Have you ever seen a snail sliming along, eyestalks a-waving, carrying its whole house on its back? What are snail shells made of, anyway? And how do they make them? We asked biologist Teresa Rose Osborne to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s been creeping around your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll escar-GO find you the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

Many cactuses are covered in spikes - making them terrible to hug. But what about inside a cactus? Is it also spiky? Or is it soft and cuddly? And is it true you can find water hidden in these desert-dwellers?  We asked science communicator and plant expert Brandi Cannon-Force to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s stuck in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll he...