Moment of Um

Make no bones about it – fossils are super cool! But what do you do if you find a fossil? We asked Jingmai O’Connor, the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles at the Field Museum in Chicago, to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s buried in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help dig up the answer!

Pasta is delicious, whether it’s rigatoni, linguine, macaroni or any shape at all! When you buy pasta from the store, it’s usually hard, crunchy, and dry. But after cooking it, the pasta is tender and toothsome! How does that work? We asked cookbook author and cooking teacher Julia Turshen to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s spa-GHETTING you all worked up? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll explore the PASTAbilities to find the answer

Have you ever looked at an animal and wondered what they were thinking? Us, too! What’s going on in a bobcat’s brain, a newt’s noggin, or a mouse’s mind? We asked science writer and author of Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals with Magnificent Minds Christina Couch to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s a real thinker? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll enter our mind palace to find the answer!

Have you ever peeled the leaves off of an ear of corn and noticed the white hairy-looking stuff tucked inside? What is that, anyway? We asked chef and cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer. Got an a-MAIZE-ing question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that’s a cut above the rest!

If you ask us, donuts are one of the most delicious treats in the world. Chocolate frosted with rainbow sprinkles, cinnamon twists, powdered sugar, strawberry jelly-filled, we love them all! But why are they called donuts? We asked food historian Sarah Lohman to help us find the answer. Got a question that has you feeling glazed and confused? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an answer you like a hole lot.

Cotton is soft and strong. It comes from cotton plants, and gets turned into everything from t-shirts to cotton balls. But why is cotton so fluffy? We asked biologist Candace Haigler to help us find the answer. Got a question threading through your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help spin up an answer for you.

Couscous is a delicious fluffy, starchy food that people enjoy all over the world. You can find the dried version in stores, but what if you wanted to make it fresh? How does couscous actually get made? We asked cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer. Hungry for answers to your questions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll dish up an answer!

Heads up! Your hair is always growing. Like your fingernails, hair is a part of our body that will grow and grow unless you cut it. But how come we don’t feel it growing? We asked pediatrician Dr Wendy Hunter to help us find the answer. Got a question that has you tearing your hair out? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help comb through research for the answer.

DNA is the secret recipe that makes you…YOU! The color of your hair…whether you like cilantro…so many traits have something to do with this microscopic, spiralized instruction manual in your cells. But what about plants? Do they have DNA, too? We asked biologist Candace Haigler to help us find the answer. Question gotcha twisted? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help decode it for ya!

Fish swim. Frogs hop. Birds fly. Well, not all birds. Penguins and ostriches, for instance, can’t spread their wings and soar. So then, why do they have wings? We asked paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor to help us find the answer. Is there a question that’s got your tail feathers all in a twist? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact and we’ll find a reliable answer – we promise not to wing it!

Onions add zesty flavor to lots of different foods, like soups, salads, omelets, and much more! But sometimes, chopping them up can make your eyes water – ugh! Why does that happen, anyway? We asked chef and cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer. Got a question ON-ion your mind? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact and we’ll find such a great answer, you’ll weep for joy!

Lizards are awesome creatures. Some have long forked tongues, others can move their eyeballs in opposite directions. And get this: some lizards can even drop their tails and grow new ones. But how and why do they do this? We asked lizard researcher Laura Kojima to help us find the answer. Got a question that you iguana know the answer to? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you find the de-tails.

You might have seen someone faint in a movie. It usually happens after they see something shocking. They close their eyes and suddenly fall to the ground. In real life, people faint for many different reasons, not just shock. We asked pediatrician Dr. Wendy Hunter to tell us more about fainting. Got a question that’s shockingly hard to answer? Send it to BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a swoon worthy explanation!

There are caves all over Earth. And people discover more every day! They’re found in rock, lava, ice, and even sand. But how do caves form? We asked geologist Hazel Barton to help us find the answer. Got a deep question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help explore the answer?

This episode is a little bit different from a regular Moment of Um. It’s a story that is specially designed to help you relax. Research shows that using your imagination to picture scenes in a story helps the brain to shake off all the thoughts from the day and cruise into a nice rest. As you listen, take some deep breaths and give your brain a little imagination vacation.

Lots of people talk in their sleep, especially kids! Have you ever heard anyone babbling away in the middle of the night? Or maybe someone has told you that you do it? Sleep talking is totally normal, but why do we do it? We asked sleep specialist Chris Winter to help us find the answer. Got a question that you’ve been dreaming about? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll search through the night for the answer.

Whales are some of the biggest animals on the planet, and they often migrate incredible distances. But how fast can they go? Like, let’s say a whale swam from California to Japan – how long would that take? We asked science writer and whale expert Vicky Stein to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s whaley hard to figure out? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll ba-LEAN into finding the answer!

Have you ever had a dream that felt so real you thought it actually happened? Our brain can cook up some really vivid images while we sleep, complete with sounds and even emotions. So how do we tell the difference between dreams and real life? We asked dream researcher Tore Nielsen to help us find the answer. Got a question that you’re dreaming about? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact – we won’t snooze on finding the answer!

Lots of people love a good cuddle. Whether it’s snuggling with a teddy bear, or cozying up with family – cuddles can make folks feel safe and comfortable. But why is that? Why do people cuddle? We asked brain expert India Morrison to help us find the answer. Got a question snuggled up in your noggin? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll wrap you up in a satisfying answer!

Have you ever used a Polaroid camera? It’s a special kind of camera that takes physical photos almost instantly. As soon as you snap the button, a little piece of paper pops out of the bottom of the camera – and in just a couple minutes, a photo appears on the paper! So how does it work? We asked chemistry expert Josie Nardo to help us find the answer. Got a question, but can’t picture the answer? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find the answer in a jiffy!