Moment of Um
Episodes
Episodes of Moment of Um
Mark All
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 professo
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 Ke
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
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 te
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 web
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.Go
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
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 questio
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
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
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 ques
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 an
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 iss
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 qu
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
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
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 he
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 geosci
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 curato
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