Moment Of Um

Have you ever felt a little twinge or ache in your body, but you’re not sure where it came from? It might have been a growing pain! Just like a plant stretches toward the sun, your body might stretch too as you grow bigger. We asked medical researcher Kira Bacal about the science behind these pains.Got a question that’s growing in your mind? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact – it won’t be a pain to help find the answer!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We eat food to power our bodies and keep us healthy. After all, food is full of the vitamins we need to survive. If you need vitamin C, try an orange. Vitamin B? Eggs or meat. But why do some foods have certain vitamins and other foods don’t? What determines which foods have which vitamins? We asked nutritionist Ana Veloso to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s chewing at you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you digest the answer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s pretty easy to tell when someone didn’t get enough sleep and you may have even felt the warning signs yourself. Simple things might feel annoying, or more difficult and you might not feel like dealing with anything or anyone. Have you ever asked yourself why we feel so irritable when our bodies and minds are weary? We asked medical researcher Kira Bacal to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s wearing you down? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll crank out the answer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lots of animals feel itchy sometimes! Bears rub their backs on rough tree trunks, dogs love a good belly scratch and birds itch themselves with their feet. But what about flies? Do they get itchy, too? We asked Johns Hopkins graduate student Abel Corver to help us find the answer.Got a question that you’re itching to know the answer to? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll come up with the answer from scratch!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our solar system is full of incredible things, from rocky asteroids to Saturn’s spectacular rings. But most of these things are millions or even billions of miles away. Is it even possible to reach the furthest corners of our solar system? We asked NASA aerospace engineer Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer.Got a question that you keep gravitating towards? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll launch the answer your way!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rocket engines have to push REALLY hard against Earth’s gravity to get up off the ground. The rockets that NASA sends into space weigh over a million pounds! That is a LOT to try to lift into the air! So what kind of fuel do those powerful rocket engines use? We asked NASA scientist Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer.Got a question orbiting your mind? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll launch an answer your way.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3…2…1… Blast off! Rockets launch things into space, which is no easy task. They have to push off from the Earth and zoom at great speeds to break free from gravity. But how do they do it? What makes them different from airplanes? We asked NASA aerospace engineer Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s launched you into a tizzy? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll jet off to find an answer!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In movies and TV shows spaceships can often travel faster than the speed of light. It’s an idea often called a hyperdrive or warp speed, and it would let you explore the whole universe! So is hyperdrive possible in real life? We asked NASA aerospace engineer Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer.Got a question that’s out of this world? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll bring the answer down to Earth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.