Yael: Don, what came first? Language or perception? Don: Hey, is this one of those questions with no answer? Y: No definitive answer, but a couple of theories. The first is that the language you speak affects how you perceive the world. D: So people...
Dear Annie: I have four daughters under the age of 10. We live on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac, which we value as a safe place to raise our family. Last year, a new family moved in and we've become friends with the entire family. My children love to p...
BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and it's a way to estimate whether or not an adult is over or under weight for his or her height. No equipment is necessary. You can figure out your BMI at home with a calculator. You multiply your weight in pounds by...
Yael is worried about having enough air to breathe, but Don sets her mind at ease. Y: Oh great! This weekend I have to go to another family reunion, where I'll be sharing a room with my seven-foot-tall body-building cousin Bertha. She's nice enough,...
The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming carbon bomb if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said. Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the...
Dear Annie: My adult son, Nick, has been hospitalized more than a dozen times and treated in emergency rooms nearly 100 times over the past 18 years. He has shot himself, stabbed himself in the liver (both accidental) and has had innumerable bouts of...
Sometimes people write to us here at Moment of Science to complain that all we ever talk about are quasars or neutrinos or something. Where's the useful stuff? Well, here's something for you practically-minded listeners. Anybody who has a baby knows...
Don: The dawn's early light, or the twilight's last gleaming. Ya?l: Don? D: Yes Ya?l? Y: We've been in this art museum for five hours now, and you've spent the whole time staring at that one photograph of a sunset. D: Are you sure? Y: Of course I'm s...
Almost every animal ever studied spends a large part of each day sleeping. Sleep is thought to play an essential role in the health of almost all animals. Because of this, scientists have long wondered how cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins, get...
Don: [TO SELF] Number 9...osprey. Yael: Hey Don. What's up? D: I'm making a top ten list of the best animals of all time. Y: What's on the list? D: Dingo, aardvark, python, tapir, rhesus monkey, black widow, bullfrog, owl, osprey. Y: That's only nine...
Dear Annie: Three years ago, I found out my husband was embezzling funds from our joint accounts and then hiding the money in another account. I discovered it when my kids' school called and told me we were four months behind on tuition. When I confr...
Dear Annie: My 24-year-old son and his wife are the parents of two toddler boys and are expecting another baby soon. They live four hours away. I recently learned that my son goes off to work early in the morning and his wife sleeps until noon, while...
A long wait, on this Moment of Science. You might have heard the old adage that glass is a liquid, and if you go over to Europe and look at the stained glass windows in the cathedrals, you'll find them thicker on the bottom than the top because they...
The signs are unmistakable: the eyes water, the chest heaves, the nose twitches, the body tenses, suspense builds... until finally a sneeze blasts forth, concluding the drama. It's a momentarily paralyzing experience that can seize one at almost any...
In October of 2000, biologists on a research boat off the coast of Chile happened upon what seemed to be a group of sleeping whales. The sperm whales were completely still and hanging vertically in the water with their noses up toward the surface, an...
