When it comes to raising babies, few things are cut and dried. Should babies sleep on their backs, or on their stomachs? Is this diaper dirty or clean? One thing, however, is clear: never allow a baby to eat honey. Why? Because for babies less than a...
There's a law that says that when you fire a rifle, you'll get smacked. And it won't be by a policeman: the rifle itself will smack you right on the shoulder. This is due to the rifle's recoil. Today, A Moment of Science looks at the law behind recoi...
In this Moment of Science Don and Yael discuss a conundrum that is interesting to ponder. D: Yael, suppose there's a trolley that's about to run over five people. Do you flip the switch that will steer the trolley onto a different track if that means...
A human is born one sex or the other depending on the chromosomes inherited from the parents. Even a surgical sex change, cant enable a man to produce eggs or a woman to produce sperm. But several kinds of fish not only can change sex, but do so as p...
While it might be socially acceptable for food lovers to discuss the care of the finest wines, or the best way to brew gourmet coffee, what if your favorite beverage happens to be soda pop? Chances are a gourmet wouldnt have a lot to say about this t...
Guessing that they might be locating their seed stashes based on their position with respect to other objects on the ground, Kamil buried seeds halfway between two conspicuously colored pipes in a large testing space. The birds found the seeds. Then...
When you find yourself in a new town, you probably walk around it a few times in order to figure out where things are in relation to other things! In a little while it becomes easy. That process is sometimes called constructing a cognitive map. Cogni...
If your cat vomits repeatedly or makes distressed sounds when vomiting, it is probably sick and should be taken to a vet immediately. However, an occasional barf is not unusual for a cat, and is actually a normal part of its routine. Cats swallow pla...
Have you ever seen an old-fashioned ice cream maker? Nestled inside a wooden bucket, there's a metal canister with a hand crank on top. Cranking the handle scrapes the sweet, creamy mixture from the sides of the metal canister, which sits in a bath o...
Anyone who keeps a garden is aware that many flowers actually bend toward the sun, in order to catch as much of its light as they can. This is called solar tracking, and sunflowers are a well-known example: if you inspect a sunflower in the early mor...
Remember Bill the Cat? He was a cartoon cat who was forever barfing on the rug. Felix or Sylvester would never be caught dead doing such a thing. However, as any cat owner knows, throwing up is something cats actually do frequently. It can be somewha...
3 There's a lot more to laughter than you might imagine, as Don and Yael discuss in this Moment of Science. D: Let me hear you laugh, Yael. Y: Ho, ho, ho. D: That's not a real laugh. Researchers have found that in laughter we don't make articulated v...
The glittery blues seen on bird wings are often caused not by pigment, but by the way light waves interact with the feather. Physicists call this structural color. Because of the layered structure of the feather, light waves entering it bounce back a...
One of the loveliest sights an ornithologist runs across is the iridescent blue found in some birds plumage. Sure, cardinals have red feathers and finches have yellow feathers, but if you ever run across the gleaming, almost metallic-looking blue of...
The natural fragrance of flowers counts among the simpler pleasures in life. The delicate aroma of a rose in bloom is something that does not require explanation; we enjoy it simply and intuitively. In fact, to explain in scientific terms just what a...
