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Moment of Um is your daily answer to those questions that pop up out of nowhere and make you go… ummmmmmm. Brought to you by your friends at Brains On at APM Studios.
554 Episodes
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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.
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).
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.
1Bananas 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!
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’ll help you get a leg up on that topic!
You can use a scale to measure how heavy something is…but what if that something is really big? Like, really, REALLY big? Like the WHOLE continent of North America? There’s no scale big enough, so you gotta use science and math! We asked geoscience grad student Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s weighing heavily on you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help lighten the load by finding the answer!
Have you ever looked at the keyboard on a phone or computer and wondered why the letters are arranged the way they are? The English alphabet starts with A-B-C-D-E, so why do keyboards start with Q-W-E-R-T-Y? We asked historian and museum curator Kristen Gallerneaux to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s just the right type? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help spell out the answer.
You don’t see most horses wearing pants, jackets or hats but one thing is for sure - they’re almost always wearing shoes! You know, those u-shaped things attached to their hooves. Why is that? Large animal surgeon Whitney Cutrone helps us find the answer. Are you saddled with a big equestrian? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll get to the mane issue.
It’s so satisfying to pour a glass of sparkling water. All those tiny bubbles, popping in rapid succession, creating a soothing fizz. Sparkling drinks are also called carbonated beverages. But what is a carbonated beverage? Where do the bubbles come from? We asked food scientist Adam Johnson to explain.Got a question floating around in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll make sure an answer pops up!
If you plant certain seeds in the right condition - a plant or tree might grow. But what happens if you plant a popcorn kernel? Will a bowl of popcorn grow right out of the ground? We needed to know, so we asked Phil Fox of Popcornopolis to help us find the answer. Are you searching for a kernel of truth? Send your question to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and you butter believe we’ll help find the answer.
The internet has been around since the 1960s, and since then it has become a huge part of our lives. We use it to look up cool facts, send messages, order pizza…and listen to podcasts! But how does the internet actually work? We asked computer scientist Vikram Iyer to help us find the answer.Got a question written in your search bar? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help connect you with the answer!
Outer space is far from empty. There are chunks of space rock zipping around, and occasionally one of them finds its way through our atmosphere to smack into Earth’s surface. There’s usually metal contained within those space rocks…but where does the metal come from? We asked planetary geologist Paul Byrne to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s totally metal? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll STARt looking for an answer!
So there’s this big, bumpy muscle inside of our mouths and we know it’s important and that we have to take great care of it. But what’s it even for? We asked Otolaryngologist Laura Orvidas from the Mayo Clinic to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s got you all tongue tied? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll muscle an answer out of an expert.
Coffee is known for giving people energy. In fact, some say they can’t start their day without coffee! It made us wonder why coffee helps us stay awake. We asked dietician and nutritionist Maria Cruz to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s percolating in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an answer and spill the beans for you.
Mammals have hair to help keep warm in the cold, and in some cases - to look awesome! But why do raspberries have those little hairs all over them? They don’t get cold - do they? We asked Emily Hoover from the University of Minnesota to help us understand.Got a question that’s berry hard to answer? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll pick an expert to answer it!
There are lots of foods that are blue-raspberry flavored, like candy, popsicles, or fizzy drinks. But there’s no such thing as a blue raspberry…so where does that flavor come from? We asked food scientist Adam Johnson to help us find the answer.Got a TASTEful question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll do you a flavor and find the answer.
Sometimes people dream about similar things, like losing teeth, being chased by monsters, or forgetting to study for a test. Why are there some kinds of dreams that people share? We asked dream researcher Tore Nielsen to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s just dreamy? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll share the answer with you.
Ahhh! There is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night after a nightmare. Your heart is pounding, you’re all sweaty and suddenly your room seems so dark. Sometimes, you’re almost too scared to close your eyes and try to fall back asleep. What’s the point of these scary dreams anyway? Is there a reason we have them at all? We reached out to sleep scientist Ketema Paul to get the answer. Got a question keeping you up at night? Send it to us at brains on dot org slash contact and we’ll wake you up with the answer.
Have you ever had a dream that felt so real you thought it actually happened? Our brain can cook up some really vivid images while we sleep, complete with sounds and even emotions. So how do we tell the difference between dreams and real life? We asked dream researcher Tore Nielsen to help us find the answer.Got a question that you’re dreaming about? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact – we won’t snooze on finding the answer!
Dreams can be fun, scary or just plain weird. We typically dream for around two hours a night, but we usually don’t remember what we dreamt about. So what happens? We asked dream researcher Tore Nielsen to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s haunting your dreams at night? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we won’t rest until we find an answer!
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this podcast is amazing!♡
sorry for the incoveniance
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