You probably know that the way to stronger muscles is a weight or resistance training program, but do you know how weight lifting increases strength? One way is by making muscles larger in circumference and hence heavier in mass. Muscles are composed...
Although there has been much debate about whether race has a biological or social basis, the bottom line is that race is a psychological reality for many people. That is, many folks assign other individuals to racial categories based on their appeara...
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...
Ya?l: Today on A Moment of Science, global warming . . . D: Uhm, right . . . Y: That's your cue, Don. D: I know, Ya?l . . . but . . . Y: What's wrong? D: Well, we're a science program, right? And I know that the accepted scientific wisdom is that hum...
On our last program we discussed a simple experiment run by an Alexandrian named Eratosthenes in the third century B.C. By noting that, at the same time of day, sticks in the ground cast different-length shadows depending on whether they were in a no...
Yael: They say that no two fingerprints are alike, but my daughter's fingerprints sure look similar to mine. Don: While the intricate details of an individual fingerprint are unique, pattern types and the overall size, shape, and spacing of the ridge...
How big a stick would you need to measure the planet? A thousand miles long? A million? How about three feet? That ought to be enough to do it, as an ancient Alexandrian man named Eratosthenes figured out. Eratosthenes was a multi-talented man who li...
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...
Ya?l and Don wonder if old folks still appreciate humor. Y: Every time I see the old crone living next door to me I joke around a little, you know, to be friendly, and she just scowls at me. Maybe when people get old their sense of humor is the first...
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...
the previous show Don and Yael discussed communication from other worlds. Well, as it turns out if E.T. does try to phone it will be much more complicated than can you hear me now? D: Okay, Yael, so suppose one day scientists pick up a transmission t...
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...
Don: It's time once again to go to the A Moment of Science Mailbag . . . Ya?l: A listener writers in: Dear AMOS: Why does it seem like guys are into video games way more than women? Is there a scientific explanation for this? D: Great question. And i...
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...
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...
