Moment of Um

On Earth, water gets evaporated by the sun from the planet’s surface, and then drops back down from the clouds when it rains. That’s a great source of water, but..is that water safe to drink? We asked environmental researcher Dr Jonathan Sexton to help us find the answer. Got a question in your bRAIN? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help filter out the answer.

Black holes are areas in outer space that have gravity so strong that not even light can escape its pull! Some black holes are formed from stars…so how does a star go from a burning ball of gas to a light-swallowing void? We asked UCLA astrophysicist Dakotah Tyler to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s really pulled you in? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you gravitate towards the answer.

Fireworks are loud and exciting! You light a fuse and the firework rockets up into the air, and then BLAM! It explodes into colorful, sparkling bouquets of light. How the heck does a firework do that? We asked chemist David Chavez to help us find the answer. Got a question exploding in your noggin? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we certainly won’t reFUSE it!

Batteries power lots of stuff that people use everyday, like cellphones, toys and laptop computers. Some batteries can even be recharged after they run out of juice. But how do batteries store electricity? We asked chemistry professor James McKone to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s got you all charged up? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll run a whole battery of tests to find the answer.

Have you ever turned on a light and wondered, “How does that thing light up, anyway?” Us, too! We asked Tim Pula of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to help us find the answer. Got a question that has you glowing with joy? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help illuminate an answer for you!

Sometimes, doctors use something called anesthesia to help them treat patients. Anesthesia can be different substances, but they all prevent our bodies from feeling pain during a medical treatment or surgery. So how does anesthesia stop us from feeling pain? We asked Dr. Kaveh Hoda to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s topical? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a painless answer!

We all have a belly button. Right there, in the middle of our belly, there’s a nub. Some go in, some stick out, but what exactly are they for? We asked pediatrician Emma Gerstenzang to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s hard to stomach? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help digest the answer for you!

Bug spray helps us keep mosquitoes and other insects away. But how does it work? We asked insect expert Meredith Cenzer to help us find the answer. Got a question buzzing around your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll bug some experts until we get an answer!

Antibiotics are a kind of medicine that a doctor might give you to help you fight off an infection. But there are also things called probiotics in food and vitamins. So what’s the difference between probiotics and antibiotics? We asked Dr. Kaveh Hoda to help us find the answer. Got a question that your gut tells you is a great one? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll send you a small-batch, artisanally fermented answer!

Music boxes are hand-cranked toys that play a tinkly little tune. How do they make their music? We asked music box maker Richard Upchurch to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s making you cranky? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a harmonious answer.

Have you ever played with a Magic 8-Ball? They’re black and white toy balls – but with a twist! People ask the Magic 8-Ball a question, shake it, and it gives you an answer! How do these toys work? And when were they invented? We asked Chris Bensch, head curator of the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY to help us out. Got a question that you’re toying with? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll shake up an answer.

Flannel is a soft, comfy fabric used to make shirts, cozy winter bed sheets and all kinds of other stuff. But how is it made? We asked fabric expert Susan Brown to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s got you woolgathering? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you weave your way to the right answer!

A volcano forms when the hot melted rock deep under the Earth’s crust bubbles to the surface and breaks through. Sometimes, a volcano will go from active to dormant, meaning it doesn’t erupt anymore. How does that happen? We asked geochemist Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a question of seismic proportions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a MAGMAnificent answer!

A volcano forms when the hot melted rock deep under the Earth’s crust bubbles to the surface and breaks through. Sometimes, a volcano will go from active to dormant, meaning it doesn’t erupt anymore. How does that happen? We asked geochemist Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer. Got a question of seismic proportions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a MAGMAnificent answer!

Our body has lots of ways to fight off the germs that make us sick. One of those ways is to crank up our internal temperature to make it too hot for harmful bacteria to survive. This is called a fever. How do our bodies reach those hot fever temperatures? We asked physician Dr. Joe Alcock to help us find the answer. Got a burning question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that’s a real fever reliever!

QR codes are little black-and-white squares that you might have seen on food packages, movie tickets, restaurant menus, and lots of other places. You take a picture of the code with your smartphone and then your phone takes you to a certain website! But how does your phone know what all those random little dots mean? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a question that you just can’t crack? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help decode the answer.

Solar panels absorb light from the sun and turn it into electricity. They can power everything from a calculator to a whole country! How does this sunny science sorcery work? We asked solar power expert Karl Wagner to help us find the answer. Got a sUN-believably cool question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll power through til we find the answer!

3D printers are pretty awesome. Unlike the machines that print pictures or words on paper, 3D printers can create things you can hold in your hand – like fun-shaped food, cameras and even guitars. So how do they do it? We asked printing expert Robin Schwartzman from the University of Minnesota to help us find the answer. Got a question that jumps off the page? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll see if we can get an answer to materialize.

Computers are awesome machines. They help us do so many things – from looking up facts to watching hilarious videos. But what exactly makes a computer a computer? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s hard to compute? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help process it.

Computers can do all sorts of amazing things, from solving complicated math problems to showing us videos of dancing birds. Computers do all that thanks to something called “binary code”, which is a code that is made up of only two numbers, 1 and 0. But exactly how does it all work? We asked computer engineer Sam Dickerson to help us find the answer. Got a question that’s hard-driving you bonkers? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help compute the answer.