Did you ever make up a joke? I mean entirely, start to finish, not using anybody elses ideas or repeating something youve heard before? Not just filling in the blanks, as in the knock knock variety, or retelling a funny story? Did You Yourself Ever M...
Hey, Don, did you know that soil deterioration is one of the main contributors to global warming? Uh, no. Yael. What do you mean? Well, soil holds a big portion of the earth carbon in the form of organic matter. But when we work soil intensively and...
I know Jimmy Carter once put solar panels on the White House. Are they still there? If not, where are they now? Great question.In the late spring of 1979, Carter did in fact install a solar system on the White House. There were four solar arrays with...
At some time we've all probably taken a long bath, or been in the pool for awhile, and then noticed that parts of the palms of our hands and the bottoms of our feet become wrinkled. This Moment of Science answers two questions about this: why does it...
Oill a kettle with water, then turn on the burner. In a while, your kettle will start belching white billowy stuff into the air. What is this stuff? Steam? Actually, no. We'll learn what it is, on this Moment of Science?. Steam is water that's heated...
In your pants, the straightened polymer chains have a natural tendency to spring back to their original, tightly-coiled state. Fortunately for clothing manufacturers, its not exactly easy for the natural fibers to do this. In order to curl back up, t...
How ?Its because whe the r you evolved in the savannas of Africa or the woods of North America, the sun was always in the same place: overhead. That means more light comes from above than below. True, light gets reflected back up from the ground, but...
Don: Hi everyone. On this show we usually talk about other people's experiments, but today we're going to do an experiment of our own. Here's the deal: see if you can tell if I'm smiling or not as I speak. Ready? Here's goes. Am I smiling now? How ab...
River deltas are the broad coastal valleys where rivers end their long trek and empty into the sea. Standing on a river delta, you might expect to see rushing water, but you wouldn't expect the ground beneath your feet to be rushing anywhere. Actuall...
Try standing on one foot. Not so hard, you say? Try it with your eyes closed. Aha! Suddenly things got much harder. With eyes closed you may begin to wobble and tilt, but as soon as you open them, things get easier again. You can achieve this same ef...
If your hair drier shrunk your head to the size of a grapefruit, youd be astounded. If your wool pants shrank in the drier, youd be angry but not amazed.How can clothing disobey the laws of common sense, and shrink in the laundry? To understand why t...
Ever notice how many animals have lighter fur on their bellies than on their backs? Think about it. Cats and dogs often have lighter-colored bellies. Deer and foxes. Wolves. Coyotes. Chipmunks. You get the idea. But Why? We can understand, for exampl...
Did you ever do this when you were young: Dive to the bottom of a swimming pool with a friend, then have your friend yell a phrase into the water? You listen to the phrase all low and garbled, then try to guess what it was. This low, muffled, underwa...
The Results? Without question, double dipping significantly contaminated the dip with oral bacteria. After three dips of an unbitten chip or cracker there were fewer than 800 bacteria in the dip. But after three dips by a pre bitten chip, the bacteri...
You've seen them in spy movies. The evil assassin is about to kill the helpless victim, but he's worried that someone might hear the shot. What's an evil assassin to do? In Hollywood, the answer is simple: He deftly attaches a silencer to his gun, fi...
