Claim OwnershipMoment of Um
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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.
215 Episodes
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Our skin is pretty incredible. It protects us and helps us sense the world around us. Some people have colored patches or dots on their skin called birthmarks. We wanted to know what birthmarks actually are, so we asked dermatologist Liz Farhat to help us find the answer.Got a question that makes you say “holy MOLE-y!” Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help spot the answer.
Dolphins are super cool sea creatures that can swim fast, jump high, and make all kinds of nifty noises. But did you know that they also have big complicated brains like humans do? How did they get those big brains, and what do they use them for? We asked science writer Vicky Stein to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s FIN-tastic? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll set out with a great sense of porpoise to find the answer!
Being asleep is kind of a funny thing, because you don’t know if you’re doing anything in your sleep – because you’re asleep! Some people talk in their sleep, others get out of bed and walk around… but do we ever sneeze in our sleep? We asked neurologist Michael Hall if it was even possible. Got a Moment of Um question that’s keeping you awake? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact and you could hear the answer on a future episode!
The sense of smell is so powerful. Without it, we couldn’t sniff out freshly-baked muffins, stinky garbage, or smoky campfires. Some animals use their noses, others use antennae or even their feet to smell. But what about lizards? They have nostrils, but do they use them to smell? We asked lizard researcher Laura Kojima to help us answer this question. Got a question that you need to make scents of? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you sniff it out.
You might have heard of gravity as the force that keeps us firmly on the ground and not floating off the planet. Big things (like planets, moons, and stars) have gravity that pulls other objects toward them. But what about smaller things? Like… us? Do we have our own gravity? If there’s a question pulling at you like a powerful force, we can help with that! Submit your Moment of Um question at BrainsOn.org/contact and we’ll find the answer.
Beans are delicious. From edamame to lentils, there’s a bean for everyone! But they can also make us a little tooty. Why is that? We asked pediatrician Wendy Hunter to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s a real gas? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact and we’ll rip a good one (answer, that is)!
If you get a cut or scratch that goes deep enough into your skin, your body will form a scar. But why don’t scars themselves heal and go away? We asked dermatologist Liz Farhat to help us find the answer.Got a question that cuts deep? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help stitch together an answer.
A boomerang is a specially curved wooden throwing stick that was originally used as a hunting tool by Indigenous Australians. Nowadays, you can find toy versions along with the real thing, and if you throw them just right, they’ll curve around in the air and head right back to you. At least…it works for some people. So how exactly does a boomerang fly? We asked boomerang champion Logan Broadbent to help us find the answer.Got a question that keeps coming back to you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll booma-wrangle some answers for you.
Make no bones about it – fossils are super cool! But what do you do if you find a fossil? We asked Jingmai O’Connor, the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles at the Field Museum in Chicago, to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s buried in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help dig up the answer!
Plastic is a part of so many of the things we use every day. But just what IS it? We asked University of Minnesota professor Frank Bates to help us find the answer.Got a question you’ve been bottling up? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll pla-stic to the topic.
Pasta is delicious, whether it’s rigatoni, linguine, macaroni or any shape at all! When you buy pasta from the store, it’s usually hard, crunchy, and dry. But after cooking it, the pasta is tender and toothsome! How does that work? We asked cookbook author and cooking teacher Julia Turshen to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s spa-GHETTING you all worked up? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll explore the PASTAbilities to find the answer
Have you ever looked at an animal and wondered what they were thinking? Us, too! What’s going on in a bobcat’s brain, a newt’s noggin, or a mouse’s mind? We asked science writer and author of Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals with Magnificent Minds Christina Couch to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s a real thinker? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll enter our mind palace to find the answer!
If you go to the zoo during the day - you can see that things are hopping! Animals are being cared for, people are milling about, and there’s a lot of action to observe. But what happens at night? Who takes care of the animals then? Or is everyone just sleeping? We asked Nancy Hawkes, Director of Animal Care at Woodland Park Zoo to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s zookeeping you up at night? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you find the truth – we won’t be lion!
Have you ever peeled the leaves off of an ear of corn and noticed the white hairy-looking stuff tucked inside? What is that, anyway? We asked chef and cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer.Got an a-MAIZE-ing question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that’s a cut above the rest!
Black pepper is in just about everyone’s kitchen. It’s salt’s best buddy. It comes in shakers, grinders, and little paper packets. But where does black pepper come from? We asked historian Jenna Schultz from the University of St. Thomas to help us find the answer.Want to pepper us with questions? Drop us a line at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll serve you some freshly-ground facts.
If you ask us, donuts are one of the most delicious treats in the world. Chocolate frosted with rainbow sprinkles, cinnamon twists, powdered sugar, strawberry jelly-filled, we love them all! But why are they called donuts? We asked food historian Sarah Lohman to help us find the answer.Got a question that has you feeling glazed and confused? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an answer you like a hole lot.
Cotton is soft and strong. It comes from cotton plants, and gets turned into everything from t-shirts to cotton balls. But why is cotton so fluffy? We asked biologist Candace Haigler to help us find the answer.Got a question threading through your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help spin up an answer for you.
Couscous is a delicious fluffy, starchy food that people enjoy all over the world. You can find the dried version in stores, but what if you wanted to make it fresh? How does couscous actually get made? We asked cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer.Hungry for answers to your questions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll dish up an answer!
Kids grow super fast and get taller and taller and taller and then – all of the sudden they stop! How do our bodies know when it’s time to stop? Why don’t we just keep growing until we reach the sky? We asked Dr. Frank Rhame to help us find the answer.Got a question that you think is a tall order? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll answer it shortly.
Heads up! Your hair is always growing. Like your fingernails, hair is a part of our body that will grow and grow unless you cut it. But how come we don’t feel it growing? We asked pediatrician Dr Wendy Hunter to help us find the answer.Got a question that has you tearing your hair out? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help comb through research for the answer.
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