A Moment of Science
Episodes
Carnivorous Bees
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bees love honey, but did you know that some bees crave flesh?
Sometime Cavemen
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did "cavemen" truly make homes out of caves? It turns out, our ancestors were constantly on the move.
Soft, Stretchy Batteries
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Engineers have designed an electric battery with the consistency of stiff jelly, inspired by the anatomy of the electric eel.
The Amazing Flash Illusion
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Amazing Flash Illusion
Rejection Leads to Agression
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rejection Leads to Agression
What is a Hypnotic?
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is a Hypnotic?
Where Are the Giant Spiders?
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Where Are the Giant Spiders?
A Treadmill for the Mind
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Treadmill for the Mind
Acanthostega
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Acanthostega
Science Joke
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Science Joke
Dr. Mori's Uncanny Valley
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Mori's Uncanny Valley
Dad called Dibs: First Pick for Feasting
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dad called Dibs: First Pick for Feasting
Good Reef!
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Good Reef!
Blue Lobsters
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Blue Lobsters
Pine Processionary Caterpillars
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pine Processionary Caterpillars
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Cats Who Flex
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cows have their own personal preferences
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cows, like people, have preferences, and those preferences impact behavior, especially when it comes to grazing.
Are you recollecting or reconstructing?
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We all assume that we remember things that have happened to us with great accuracy--after all, we were there!
Camouflage isn't perfect
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are a few camouflage survival strategies, but there's no perfect solution to blend into the background.
A trip to the beach with Earth's largest marine reptile
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2020 amateur fossil hunter Justin Reynolds and his eleven year old daughter Ruby were walking along a beach near their home in Somerset, England wh...
Our brains and confirmation bias
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Learn about confirmation bias with a simple experiment
You've gotta have hearts
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Octopuses have three hearts, each one crucial to maintaining the robust blood pressure that allows them to be active hunters and powerful swimmers.
Take a look at that: The eyes of the Opiliones
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spiders have eight eyes, horseshoe crabs have ten, and, daddy longlegs only have two. Or do they?
What not to do with your microwave
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Microwave ovens are wonderful, revolutionary cooking devices. But there are some things that you cannot, or should not, do with microwaves.
Eggcellent equipment, eggcellent results
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Egg whites are often touted as a health food, filled with more proteins than fat-rich yolks. Surprisingly, though, those proteins are also the secret ...
What are anacondas really like?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hollywood's version of the snake in the movie "Anaconda" was pure fantasy--a 100 foot long giant with an appetite for B-movie actors
Working memory and math anxiety
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Does doing math make you anxious? A Moment of Science has more on why that might be.
Are dragon myths based in reality?
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are stories and myths about dragons from everywhere--from Europe to China to Australia to the Americas. Couldn't there be some reality behind th...
'Cause I eats me spinach
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to get strong, you're supposed to eat spinach like Popeye. But how powerful is that leafy green really?
Hyenas once stalked the Arctic
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We know from ancient skeletal remains that around one million years ago, hyenas of the Chasmaporthetes genus prowled the US and Mexico. But they also ...
Anecdotes vs statistics: Who do you believe?
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Let's say that ninety percent of the people who take a certain drug report that it works like a charm, but you know one person who says it didn't work...
What makes our ears pop?
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When traveling by plane what makes our ears pop, and what is it exactly that pops?
That's no plum: Meet the purple tomato
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A team of scientists have created the Purple Tomato, featuring skin of deep amethyst, like a plum, and insides a vivid violet. But why would they want...
When a sweet tooth meets a numb tongue
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In an ideal universe you could scarf carton-loads of super vanilla swirl ice cream every night after dinner without remorse. In the real world, howeve...
The giant penguin discovered on a field trip
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What was your favorite field trip as a kid? The zoo? The modern art museum? For a group of New Zealand students, it’d be hard to beat one memorable ...
The false underwater city of Zakynthos
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In shallow water off the Greek Island Zakynthos, you can see what appears to be the remains of an ancient city. But is it really?
Scales, feathers, and fur, oh my!
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mammals, birds, and reptiles are so different from one another. How could they all evolve from a common ancestor?
Do dogs know the names of their favorite toys?
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered whether your dog understands at least some of what you say to them? Scientists have too.
What happens when good bananas go bad
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You find a perfect, yellow banana in the store, but the next day at home it has brown spots. What happened?
Why does Diet Coke float?
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here's an at-home experiment you can try: take a can of "classic" Coca-Cola and a can of Diet Coke, and without opening either one submerge them in wa...
Cue the laugh track: Why hyenas giggle and guffaw
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
These polka-dotted predators are no laughing matter. Learn all about hyenas with A Moment of Science.
Packing for your desert trip
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows that white reflects heat and black absorbs it. Does that mean you shouldn't wear black though?
Does soda rot your teeth?
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's an urban legend that teeth dissolve in a glass of soda. How harmful is it really?
What's it like on Mercury?
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The great astronomer Carl Sagan used to say that if he were transported anywhere in the solar system he would know which planet he was on just by look...
Why don't adults get ear aches?
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The typical toddler averages about four ear aches per year. But when's the last time you had an ear infection?
Is there an easy way to make diamonds?
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Diamonds are only occasionally brought to the surface. But because carbon is plentiful, science fiction, such as Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond...
Can zebras be domesticated?
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People like to ride horses, so why not zebras?
When grey goo attacks
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some nanotechnology theorists and science fiction aficiondos imagine a more ominous possibility. What if one of these tiny robots were given the abili...
Hungry porpoises may find dinner at hole foods
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s dinnertime in the North Sea, and you’re a hungry porpoise. Sadly, there’s no oceanic grocery store. What’s a famished sea creature to do?
Pigeons have their own superstitions
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Would you be surprised to learn that human beings aren't the only animals to behave superstitiously? The psychologist B.F. Skinner showed that you can...
How do clouds float?
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One thing we at A Moment of Science love is having the opportunity to explain the science behind things you see every day in the world around you.
The phenomenon of long colds
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One infamous feature of COVID-19 is the phenomenon of “long COVID.” Researchers hadn’t previously looked for long persisting forms of colds or t...
Do ants drown every time it rains?
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ants must have a variety of survival strategies. How do ground-nesting ants cope with rain?
Which came first: the woodpecker or the fungus?
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Set aside the question about the chicken and the egg, what about the woodpecker and tree fungus?
The benefits of a walkable neighborhood
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It makes sense that if you live in a neighborhood where you can walk to places to do errands and such, that would be good for your health.
Stay balanced with your center of gravity
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone has a center of gravity. Every object has one, too. It’s the point in our body where all weight is evenly balanced.
You have a bacterial cloud following you around
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pigpen's condition might seem a bit farfetched, but scientists are finding that we might all be more like Pigpen than we imagine. Only, instead of dus...
Growing up with your taste preferences
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our lifelong food preferences are largely shaped by the foods we're exposed to early on in childhood.
What makes you see the man in the moon?
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pareidolia is a term from psychology that refers to the tendency in people to perceive a meaningful pattern in a vague stimulus.
What's the autokinetic effect?
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Auto" means "self" and kinetic means "motion." When you see a tiny point of light moving, it's often because you are moving yourself--or, rather, you...
Skydiving spiders in the Amazon
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's brown, has eight legs and flies?
Even rats can be pessimistic
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever notice when you're having a bad day it always seems to get that much worse?
New Caledonian crows can infer weight
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you see an object blowing down the street, you will infer that it is light. That will be your conclusion even if you can’t determine what the obj...
Why do our eyes get puffy when we cry?
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you cry for emotional reasons, your eyes act differently. So what happens next?
Immune cells and the struggle against aging
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Aging is a complex process involving accumulating damage to the cellular mechanisms of life. Anti-aging researchers want to understand and combat this...
Color-changing monkeys
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A species of howler monkey isn't dying its fur, but they are changing color.
The spider that gives milk
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cows and humans aren't the only ones who produce milk. There are also some insects and spiders that produce a milk-like substance to feed their young.
Queen of the drowned: Bumblebees that can survive a week underwater
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When water leaked into containers of dormant queen bumblebees, the scientists assumed they’d need to hold a state funeral. But amazingly, the regal ...
Climate change is making insects eat more crops
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are saying that as the climate warms and temperatures rise, we might lose more crops to insects.
Brick by magnetic brick
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that ancient bricks are magnetic?
Pandas always know what's for dinner
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
These days, pandas have bamboo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But that wasn't always the case.
Emotion differentiation makes you less angry
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Although we all get angry at times, for some people anger turns to aggression, while for others it doesn’t. The reasons for this have to do with how...
An amphibian mother feeds her offspring with 'milk'
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human mothers secrete milk to feed their babies. So do other mammals. Biologists now know that many other kinds of animal mothers also secrete milk-li...
Cultured fruit flies
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fruit flies might not have manners when they invade your home, but they do have culture.
The ocean's fish need more clean water
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Making their way through polluted water, fish become disoriented, as sights, smells, and sounds crowd the waters. Chemical and noise pollution, and re...
Putting science on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
These days, you can hear about self-driving cars when you turn on the news, or you can browse store shelves for high-tech gadgets. But in the mid-nine...
Optics and glue
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A simple exercise to do at home with A Moment of Science
Would you drink this?
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Would you drink a mixture of acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, acetone, acetic acid, and a few of the compounds known as hexenals, which give fresh-cut gra...
Schools of fish are silent swimmers
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Swimming in a school has a lot of benefits for fish, from social opportunities to avoiding predators to finding more food.
Orangutans talk about the past
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers have heard orangutans make the noise after the danger has passed—a sign that they’re communicating about the past, and the first evide...
Making an egg-cellent cake
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Craving dessert? Today’s episode considers some particularly sweet science: the importance of eggs for baking a cake.
Giving a gull a break
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a tough world out there, so really, what’s a gull to do?
It's not just the heat, it's the humidity
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If the air temperature gets close to our body temperature, something more is needed to keep the skin cooler than the inner body. We sweat.
Coprophagy keeps birds healthy
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By human standards, some animals’ eating habits are strange, and even disgusting. One example is coprophagy—eating poop.
How to see what soap does to water
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Water molecules attract each other. The molecules at the surface of a body of water make a film under tension. That film is strong enough to support a...
Your friendly Amazonian slingshot spider
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers reported that they discovered a tiny spider in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest that has a behavior that’s surprisingly similar to the we...
Reflecting on how others see you
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One mirror is not enough to see yourself as others see you. When you look at a bathroom mirror you see an image of yourself with left and right revers...
The fault that runs through Scotland
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you look at a map of Scotland, you may notice a line cutting straight through the country. This line, called the Great Glen Fault, is the result of...
Why does cotton wrinkle?
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A cool, dry cotton fiber springs back after being bent. A warm, damp cotton fiber doesn't. Moisture and temperature make the difference.
A tarantula with the blues
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Blue jays, poison dart frogs, and peacocks—each of these animals is distinct for their same vibrant color. But have you ever seen a blue spider?
When is yellow really yellow?
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why a mix of red light and green light looks yellow, in this Moment of Science.
Male mammals aren't always bigger than females
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Evolutionary biologists thought it was a general rule among mammals that males are bigger, but that's not always the case.
Robert Hook found a surprise in cork
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 17th-century English physicist Robert Hooke was curious about the remarkable properties of cork -- its ability to float, its springy quality, its ...
A summer night mystery: heat lightning
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the more mysterious pleasures of a warm summer evening is the spectacle of lightning from distant thunderstorms, flickering silently on the hor...
Why one rotten apple can spoil the barrel
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Learn about the role that ethylene plays in ripening fruit with today's A Moment of Science
Speedy snails
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past 100,000 years, a snail species has done what it normally takes a species millions of years to do: give live birth.
Rediscovered in a museum drawer
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The distant past is poorly known, and paleontologists find fossil evidence for new large animals all the time.
The fruit that grows on trees, literally
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jabuticaba is a fruit native to Brazil. It’s the size and color of a plum, with a white pulp and several seeds
What makes dreams so hard to remember?
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps you’ve heard that the average person dreams four to six times each night. But did you know that most of us are unable to recall 90% of our d...