Earth and Space Science

The Red Planet is putting on a show this July. It'll be closer to Earth than it’s been in 15 years and that means at night it'll appear bigger and brighter than average. In fact, you should be able to see it easily without a telescope! In this episode we'll tell you how to spot Mars plus, you'll hear the planet itself answer your questions. Plus a mystery sound and, in our Moment of Um, we'll explain why lava moves slowly even though it's a liquid. Brains On is sponsored today by Build-A-Bear Workshop (buildabear.com), Kind Snacks (KindSnacks.com/BRAINS), P.volve (Pvolve.com/brainson) and Plated (plated.com/reddem and promo code BRAINS). Find more episodes of Brains On at brainson.org

The aliens are coming to dinner! In this episode we wonder what food aliens might eat and talk to real scientists who've thought long and hard about this question. Plus, our friends at America's Test Kitchen show us how to whip up a delicious beef and broccoli dish. We'll lay out the cooking instructions step by step throughout the podcast so you can cook along. When the episode is over, you'll be ready to chow down. Find the recipe here: https://www.brainson.org/shows/2018/07/03/alien-cook-along And for more awesome recipes like this one head to americastestkitchen.com/kids This episode is sponsored by Plated (plated.com/redeem and offer code BRAINS).

From ice cubes to ice cream, cold things are a crucial part of cuisine. How do we use chill to our advantage? This is part two of our series on the science of cooking, a collaboration with the brilliant foodies at America's Test Kitchen Kids. This episode is (literally) super cool. We're figuring out how refrigerators work and why some of their parts are hot. We're traveling back in time to find out how selling ice became a very big business (for a while anyway). And we'll learn why ice cream makes people thirsty and how to make incredibly delicious paletas. Plus: Our Moment of Um tackles the question, "Why do mints make your mouth feel cold?" For more recipes and information for young chefs, head to americastestkitchen.com/kids to sign up for their newsletter. Brains On is sponsored today by Children’s Cancer Research Fund (ccrf.org/brainson)

One of the weirdest substances in the universe is right under your nose. No, not boogers. Water! Water seems ordinary, almost boring, but take a closer look and you’ll find a wonderfully weird molecule that behaves like nothing else in the universe. It can move up against gravity. It can absorb lots of heat energy without getting super hot. It can dissolve almost anything. It carves canyons and quenches our thirst. Why is water so weird, and why does that matter? Listen to find out! Today’s episode is sponsored by: KiwiCo (kiwico.com/brainson); Children’s Cancer Research Fund (ccrf.org) and ModCloth (modcloth.com and offer code BRAINSON)

Ready for some mystery? This Smash Boom Battle takes on two famous places: the Bermuda Triangle and Loch Ness. Which is cooler? Is it the Bermuda Triangle -- a puzzling patch of ocean where ships, planes and plenty of people are said to have disappeared? Or is it Loch Ness -- a Scottish lake best known for spooky sightings of a long-necked creature? Listen to hear what our judge decides and then head over to smashboom.org to share your opinion with us!

What’s in your water, and how did it get there? Clean water is a must, but modern living can put a lot of bad stuff in it. Road salt, fertilizer, dog doo-doo, heavy metals - how do these things get in our water? Why should we care? And how can we tell if our water is healthy? In this episode we hitch a ride on the water cycle with a pair of water drops. We learn about what caused the Flint water crisis. And we hear about one young girl’s award-winning idea for a faster way to test lead in water - spoiler alert - it involves carbon nanotubes! This is the first in a series of water-related episodes we’re working on over the next few months. We hope it makes a splash with you!

Want to learn if you have a lead pipe carrying water into your home? Check out this helpful link from NPR:

https://apps.npr.org/find-lead-pipes-in-your-home/en/#intro

The near 24-hour-cycle that keeps us on track is conducted by the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It’s a tiny part of our brains, but it’s super, super important.

In this episode we ponder some big questions from Brains On listeners about the vastness of space.

A few weeks ago, we got two emails that were so similar and so intriguing we had no choice but to investigate.

There are all kinds of volcanoes all over the world, but how are they formed? And how do they erupt? To find out, we’ll travel to the center of the Earth, and we’ll meet a NASA robot that’s going on a very special volcano mission.

You know those beeps in old NASA recordings? They’re called Quindar tones. This episode explains them and talks to a couple musicians who incorporate archival, NASA recordings into their songs.

In this episode we learn about Mars’ ancient past, meet an architect hoping to build cities there and we hear from Mars itself, thanks to the planet’s video blog, of course.

There are some basic ingredients to make thunderstorms and tornadoes. We’ll find out what they are – and how to observe these powerful and amazing storms safely.

To help us understand sunburns, we’re going deep into the skin to look at cells, molecules and electrons.

It’s time for the next Brains On debate! This intense matchup brings us to the depths of darkness, under the water and beyond our earth’s atmosphere. Who will prevail?

Our planet needs some carbon dioxide, but cars are pumping more into the atmosphere than our carbon cycle can handle. We’ll explore what all this carbon means for our planet. And we talk to a scientist who is working to change how we fuel our cars, so we can cut back on all this carbon dioxide.

If you’ve ever been the ocean, you’ve tasted that salt. But where does it come from? And why aren’t lakes and rivers salty too? A sea shanty is probably the best way to explain, right?