Moment Of Um

Ping pong is a super fun game. It’s like miniature tennis, where people use paddles to make balls fly across a table., and sometimes way, way up in the air!  But how do those  tiny plastic balls manage to bounce so high? We asked physicist Dr. Kiley Kennedy to help us find the answer.  Got a question that’s bouncing around your brain? Ping us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll serve up the answer!...

Lots of cars, trucks and buses are powered by gasoline. You put the gasoline in a little hole on the side of the vehicle, it powers the engine and then it comes out of the tailpipe as exhaust fumes. But what’s going on inside that engine? And how does gas turn into exhaust anyway? We asked chemistry professor Dr. Josie Nardo to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s really exhausting you?...

Let’s say you wake up on a Tuesday morning feeling fine and fresh. But by the end of the night your throat hurts, you’re coughing, and there’s snot dripping from your nose. What happened in the course of that one day to make you feel so sick? Dr. Courtney Jordan Baechler helps us stick our noses in this (t)issue.  Got a question you can’t fever out? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and then...

There are all different kinds of trees in the world, from towering redwoods to tiny willow trees smaller than an action figure. Why are there so many different sizes of trees, anyway? We asked tree expert Jake Miesbauer to help us find the answer. Got a tree-mendous question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll ginkGO find the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

Have you ever picked up a peach in the supermarket and noticed that its skin is covered in soft fuzz? What’s that about? Should we be taking our peaches to barbershops? And what about kiwis? They’re covered in scratchy hairs! Why do some fruits have fuzz while others have smooth skin? We talked to Dario Chavez from the University of Georgia to find out. Got a fresh ‘n’ fruity question? Send it to...

Black holes are mysterious. They are so dense that no light can escape them, which makes them super hard to find! So how did we discover the first black hole? We asked NASA engineer Varoujan Gorjian to help us find the answer. Got a mystery you’d love to shed some light on? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help search the skies for an answer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

Records are big flat discs with circular lines on them that you can use to play music. But how does a record work, anyway? We asked audio engineer Josh Bonati to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s spinning around in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that’s music to your ears! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Airplanes fly high in the sky and at super fast speeds. But is there a limit to how fast they’re allowed to fly? You know, in the way cars have speed limits? For this episode, we talked to Bobby Sharp, an air traffic controller, who helps us understand if airplanes have a need for speed. Got a question you need answered fast? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll try our plane old best...

Have you ever been to the doctor and had them listen to your body with a stethoscope? It’s that funny looking thing that looks like a long rubbery tube with a round metal circle on one end and two ear pieces on the other. Doctors always seem to have one handy, but what is it and how does it work? We asked pediatrician Emma Gerstenzang to help us find the answer. Got a question that you need scoped...

Most of us know that we have a heart. We know that it beats - sometimes faster, sometimes slower. But just how many times does it beat in a day? We asked Dr. Courtney Jordan Baechler to have a heart-to-heart with us about this question. (She is also the host of the podcast Heart-to-Heart Conversations!) Got a question that you just love? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we won’t beat aro...

Have you ever seen a sinkhole? These are spots in the Earth’s surface where the ground has collapsed and formed a hole. Sometimes they can be more than a hundred feet deep! But how do sinkholes form? We asked geologist Hazel Barton to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s a real hole in one? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help dig up the answer! See omnystudio.com/listen...

Black holes are super dense spots in space. They have so much gravity that when something falls into a black hole, it can’t escape. We asked UCLA astrophysicist Dakotah Tyler to help us imagine what it would be like if we traveled through one of these dark marvels. Is there a question that’s really pulled you in? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll spaghettiFIND you an answer! See omn...

3D glasses. Those little paper spectacles with one red lens and one blue. Put ’em on, and suddenly, POW! Images seem to leap right off the screen! Do these glasses play magical mind tricks on our brain? Do they give our eyeballs multi-dimensional superpowers? For a lens into how it all works, we talked to UW-Madison physicist Pupa Gilbert. Got a question that’s really jumping out at you? Send it t...

Vocal cords are magical things. They let us speak, sing, squawk and scream. But what are vocal cords and how do they do all that? We asked pediatrician Emma Gerstenzang to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s chattering away in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll belt out an answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you could turn your hair any color in the world… what color would you choose?! Sapphire blue, hot pink, lime green, neon orange?? There are dyes out there that can turn your hair every color of the rainbow! But how exactly do they work? We asked Chemist Michelle Wall to help us understand. Got a hairy question that needs answering? Send it to us atBrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll style an answer...

Bricks are all around us: in walls, sidewalks, park benches, and more. How are these bodacious blocks made, and what makes them different colors?  We asked construction and masonry expert Brian Trimble to help us find the answer. Constructing a question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you find a solid answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People around the world eat with a variety of utensils like forks, chopsticks, and sporks. But what did people do before silverware was invented? We asked human evolution expert Briana Pobiner from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s unFORKgettable? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll spoon-feed you an answer.  See omnys...

Clothes are FUN. We strut our stuff in them. Laugh and play in them. Sometimes we love one article of clothing so much, we never want to take it off! But eventually, all clothes do have to be cleaned. We chatted with Tide Principal Scientist Jennifer Ahoni about how clothes get dirty, even when they still look spotless. Listen and learn about the secrets of body soils and invisible dirt! Got a que...

Have you ever noticed that when you eat something salty, you feel extra thirsty for a while afterwards? Ever wondered why? Turns out, scientists are wondering why as well, and it’s a perfect example of how science is always changing how we understand the world. Gastroenterologist Dr. Kaveh Hoda tells us the salty story.  Thirsting for knowledge? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll con...

Bread! It’s good stuff, no matter how you slice it. But why do slices of bread have holes in them? Are there bread moles who tunnel through baguettes? Invisible worms in the whole wheat? Chipmunks chewing on the ciabatta? We asked food scientist David Domingues  to help us find the answer. Got a question that you knead us to look into? Send it to us atBrains On.org/contact, and we’ll find the answ...

Warts are small bumps that can show up on our skin, especially on our hands, knees, or elbows. What are they? Where do they come from? We asked Dr. Kaveh Hoda to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s got you TOADally stumped? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help sort out wart’s wart. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Platypuses seem like they were put together from other animal’s spare parts. They’ve got a bill like a duck, a flat tail like a beaver, and…venom? What’s up with that? We asked biologist Imogene Cancellare to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s as confusing as platypus anatomy? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we won’t even bill you for the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener...

Peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on earth. They’re the super sonic jets of the animal kingdom! So what does the word “peregrine” mean and how did these amazing birds get their name? We chatted with conservation biologist Imogene Cancellare to help us find the answer. Got a question soaring through your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you capture the answer! Se...

When you picture a lion, what do you see? If you thought of a big fluffy mane, you’re not alone! But how come mountain lions don’t have manes? We asked conservation biologist Imogene Cancellare to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s really hairy?  Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll make finding the answer our mane focus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Birds have a lot going on. They fly, chirp, sing, make nests, lay eggs. But can they cough or sneeze? We asked biologist Imogene Cancellare to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s flying around in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help quack the case. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.