Moment Of Um

Flannel is a soft, comfy fabric used to make shirts, cozy winter bed sheets and all kinds of other stuff. But how is it made?  We asked fabric expert Susan Brown to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s got you woolgathering? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you weave your way to the right answer!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A volcano forms when the hot melted rock deep under the Earth’s crust bubbles to the surface and breaks through. Sometimes, a volcano will go from active to dormant, meaning it doesn’t erupt anymore. How does that happen? We asked geochemist Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a question of seismic proportions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a MAGMAnificent ans...

If sharks were around in the time of dinosaurs, how are they still here today when dinosaurs have gone extinct? Were some just really, really good at hiding from the asteroid that hit Earth? For this episode, we talked to Karen Chin, a professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado.  Got a question you want to sink your teeth into? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll t...

A volcano forms when the hot melted rock deep under the Earth’s crust bubbles to the surface and breaks through. Sometimes, a volcano will go from active to dormant, meaning it doesn’t erupt anymore. How does that happen? We asked geochemist Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a question of seismic proportions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a MAGMAnificent ans...

A lot of people like root beer! But it’s kind of hard to describe, right? It’s really got a unique taste. We asked Ashley Rose-Young, a historian from the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, to help explain exactly what the flavor of root beer is, and share a little of the history behind this yummy drink.  Got a question that’s poppin’ around your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact,...

Our body has lots of ways to fight off the germs that make us sick. One of those ways is to crank up our internal temperature to make it too hot for harmful bacteria to survive. This is called a fever. How do our bodies reach those hot fever temperatures? We asked physician Dr. Joe Alcock to help us find the answer. Got a burning question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find...

QR codes are little black-and-white squares that you might have seen on food packages, movie tickets, restaurant menus, and lots of other places. You take a picture of the code with your smartphone and then your phone takes you to a certain website! But how does your phone know what all those random little dots mean? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a questi...

Solar panels absorb light from the sun and turn it into electricity. They can power everything from a calculator to a whole country! How does this sunny science sorcery work? We asked solar power expert Karl Wagner to help us find the answer. Got a sUN-believably cool question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll power through til we find the answer!  See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

3D printers are pretty awesome. Unlike the machines that print pictures or words on paper, 3D printers can create things you can hold in your hand – like fun-shaped food, cameras and even guitars. So how do they do it? We asked printing expert Robin Schwartzman from the University of Minnesota to help us find the answer. Got a question that jumps off the page? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact...

Computers are awesome machines. They help us do so many things – from looking up facts to watching hilarious videos. But what exactly makes a computer a computer? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s hard to compute? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help process it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Computers can do all sorts of amazing things, from solving complicated math problems to showing us videos of dancing birds. Computers do all that thanks to something called “binary code”, which is a code that is made up of only two numbers,  1 and 0. But exactly how does it all work? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s hard-driving you bonkers...

Our world is full of sound, but what happens when we leave Earth’s atmosphere? Is it true that there’s no sound in space, or are there ways to listen to the universe? We asked NASA scientist Dr. Kimberly Arcand to help us find the answer. Got a question that sounds interesting? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll make space for an answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

There are lots of reasons to sneeze - you have a cold, you get a whiff of pepper or someone tickles your nose with a feather! But why is it that dust makes us sneeze? We asked otolaryngologist Laura Orvidas to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s gathering dust in your brain? Send it to us atBrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you sniff out the answer. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

Iron is a metal that we dig out of the ground and use to make everything from kitchen knives to skyscrapers. Most of the iron we use comes out of rocks. But do all rocks have iron in them? We asked geochemist Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s totally metal? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help iron out the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of breaking a bone, it’s not the most fun. But can muscles break in the same way bones can? One listener was wondering about this, and physical therapist Karen Litzy helps us get a leg up on the issue.  Do you have a question you’d like to ask? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find the answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

Sometimes when we get sick, our body reacts by cranking up our internal temperature to make a fever. This helps get rid of invading bacteria or viruses. But sometimes when you have a fever, you feel cold instead of hot. What’s up with that? We asked ER doctor Joe Alcock to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s just chillin’ in your brain?? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll...

Hermit crabs carry their shells with them wherever they go…but they don’t make their own shells! Unlike other species of crab, hermit crabs use shells from other animals for protection. So why aren’t they born with shells of their own? We asked crab researcher Tuck Hines to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s making you crabby? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll share the...

Are you left-handed or right-handed? Chances are you’re right handed, because more people are (though if you’re left-handed, that’s cool too!). So why are more people right-handed? We asked paleontologist Alexander Claxton to help us get to the bottom of this question.  Got a question whose answer you can’t quite put your finger on? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help point out t...

There are thousands of species of butterflies, all with unique patterns of color on their wings. How did those designs get there? We asked butterfly collection curator Blanca Huertas to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s cocooned in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll send an answer winging your way! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An inevitability of life is that humans have to go to the dentist. Some people love it, some hate it! But taking care of our teeth is super important. Do our kitty friends have to do the same thing? Large animal surgeon Whitney Cutrone answers this very question. Got a question that’s got some bite? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer right meow! See omnystudio.com...

Lava is the red-hot gloop that comes pouring out of an erupting volcano. But what is it made out of? Some sort of supercharged Silly Putty? Volcano guts? Super-spicy habanero sauce? We asked geoscience grad student Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a real scorcher of a question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, we’d LAVA to find the answer for you. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

It’s impressive to see a gorilla beat its chest. But why do they do it? We’ve tackled this question before, but  there’s a new scientific scoop about this primate percussion! We asked primatologist Andrea DiGiorgio to tell us about it.  Got a question that you want to get off your chest? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll get an answer ready to GO(rilla).    See omnystudio.com/listen...

Lots of plants are smooth to the touch, and some are even soft and feathery like flowers! So why are cactuses prickly and sometimes even painful? We asked botanist Rachel Jabaily from Colorado College to answer this spine-tingling question.  Got a question that’s prickling at your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help sharpen you up. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

Bananas are a delicious, nutritious fruit! You can pack them in a picnic lunch or bake them into a sweet nutty banana bread. But are bananas radioactive? We asked Dr. Robert Chin to help us find the answer. Got a really a-PEEL-ing question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find bunches of answers for you! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve ever stood up quickly and felt a little wobbly and tingly in your legs, you might be familiar with the sensation of having a body part that has fallen asleep! Why does that happen and how can we fix it? Otolaryngologist Karen Litzy helps us get to the bottom of this mystery.  Got a question that you just can’t stand not knowing the answer to? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we...