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A Moment of Science

Science

These vignettes remove some of the mystery from science, but not the wonder. A Moment of Science makes you think "Wow, that's neat!" and go tell somebody else about it. We've all hit our "funny bone." Why does it feel like that? What do bicycles, footballs, and space shuttles have in common? Can you really learn while you are asleep? Why do some birds hop and others walk? These and other questions about the world we live in are answered in A Moment of Science.

These vignettes remove some of the mystery from science, but not the wonder. A Moment of Science makes you think "Wow, that's neat!" and go tell somebody else about it. We've all hit our "funny bone." Why does it feel like that? What do bicycles, footballs, and space shuttles have in common? Can you really learn while you are asleep? Why do some birds hop and others walk? These and other questions about the world we live in are answered in A Moment of Science.

Location:

Bloomington, IN

Description:

These vignettes remove some of the mystery from science, but not the wonder. A Moment of Science makes you think "Wow, that's neat!" and go tell somebody else about it. We've all hit our "funny bone." Why does it feel like that? What do bicycles, footballs, and space shuttles have in common? Can you really learn while you are asleep? Why do some birds hop and others walk? These and other questions about the world we live in are answered in A Moment of Science.

Language:

English

Episodes

How Mosquitoes Find Us

10/17/2019
Mosquitoes can smell carbon dioxide from up to 100 feet away, and when we exhale, we emit CO2. Once mosquitoes catch a whiff of it, their brains start scanning their surroundings for their next meal.

Duration:00:01:59

Cloudy Vision

10/16/2019
Cataracts are the result of the natural breakdown of proteins in the eye's lens as you age. When lens proteins lose their three dimensional structure they cause the lens to become cloudy.

Duration:00:01:59

Gut Microbes And Depression

10/15/2019
In 2019, a team of Belgian researchers obtained new evidence correlating gut bacteria with depression in humans. They found a correlation between the patients' depression and the absence of two bacteria species.

Duration:00:01:59

Penguins, Biodiversity And Antarctica

10/14/2019
Colonies of penguins that live in Antarctica create hotbeds of diversity by doing something that all animals do: pooping. Researchers found that when penguins poop, they enrich the soil in and around the colony, creating the perfect environment for mosses and lichens to grow.

Duration:00:01:59

Help On Horseback

10/11/2019
Horses can help people learn to walk again through a form of physical rehabilitation called hippotherapy. The patient rides a horse, and as it walks or trots, the movement of your legs and pelvis reminds your body of what it feels like to walk.

Duration:00:01:59

Ants To The Rescue

10/10/2019
In 2019 ethologists published evidence that a species of harvester ants will rescue their nest mates when they become trapped in a spider web.

Duration:00:01:59

Grunting And Tennis

10/9/2019
While watching tennis, it's hard to miss the unmistakable grunts the players make when they hit the ball. The sound can get up to 100 decibels, which is basically as loud as a motorbike. There is still controversy in tennis about how grunting affects the game.

Duration:00:01:59

A New Atomic Clock Could Help Spaceships Navigate Better

10/9/2019
NASA recently launched the Deep Space Atomic Clock, or DSAC, on a test mission. DSAC should allow spacecraft to chart their own trajectories, essentially becoming self-driving spaceships.

Duration:00:01:59

Birds Of A Feather Flock Together

10/7/2019
Social niches are made up of the social aspects of a species' environmental relationship. In the case of humans, this means that your friends, family and coworkers influence you just as much as other environmental factors.

Duration:00:01:59

The Abominable Yeti Crab

10/4/2019
Like the fantastical abominable snowman, also known as a yeti, the yeti crab is white, and its long claws are covered in pale fur. And even though it's a mere six inches long, it's definitely strange.

Duration:00:01:59

Mosquitoes On The Scent

10/3/2019
Scientists have known for over half a century that most mosquito species are attracted to carbon dioxide, heat and moisture. Since that time researchers have been trying to figure out what specific odors in humans attract disease carrying species.

Duration:00:01:59

Madly In Love

10/2/2019
Scientists have found that when you're in love, your brain is flooded with different chemicals, including dopamine. In the right amount, dopamine can make you behave recklessly and become manic and obsessive.

Duration:00:01:59

How Ants Turn Into Zombies

10/1/2019
Scientists have found zombie ants in the Brazilian rainforests. The ants are infected by a fungus. In fact, scientists have just found four new species of the zombie‑creating fungus, Ophiocordyceps.

Duration:00:01:59

The Cleaning Powers Of Goat Stomachs

9/30/2019
Researchers from the University of Zurich examined 28 goats that were fed different pelleted diets of grit and hay. The scientists performed CT scans of the goats’ stomachs at the beginning of the experiment and then again six months later.

Duration:00:01:59

Habits Of Highly Successful Animals

9/27/2019
Those who love anteaters and rhinoceroses might be out of luck if we want to see our favorite animals thrive in the next century, according to a group of researchers who used statistical tools to predict what kinds of animals will predominate over the next century.

Duration:00:01:59

The Ocean’s Fish Are Running Out Of Clean Water

9/26/2019
The ocean is getting louder. Fish make noise. They whistle, chirp, hum, sing, swish. But boat engines, sonar, and deep-sea mining cause quite the racket, making it difficult for fishes to hear the call of friends or potential mates.

Duration:00:01:59

Born To Own A Dog

9/25/2019
In 2019 a team of Swedish and British scientists published a study claiming that whether we chose to own a dog or not may be influenced by our genes.

Duration:00:01:59

Craters On Mars

9/24/2019
A high-powered camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft recently took a picture of a newly formed impact crater on Mars. Researchers know that the impact happened sometime between pictures of the area taken in September 2016 and February 2019.

Duration:00:01:59

Language Learning And Puzzles

9/23/2019
According to new research, if a person is good at recognizing patterns, that’s a good indicator that they’ll be good at learning languages, too. There’s mixed research on whether language learning ability is based on language specific capacities in the brain, or whether it draws on more general pattern-recognition abilities.

Duration:00:01:59

Grounded, With Wings

9/20/2019
According to natural selection, species evolve in ways that better enable them to survive and pass on their genes. But sometimes evolution takes what may appear to be odd and unexpected turns. Take, for example, birds that have wings but can't fly. What can explain this strange phenomenon?

Duration:00:01:59

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