Neanderthals Were Sophisticated We modern humans tend to look down on our ancient Neanderthal cousins. In our imagination, Neanderthals were brutish, cave dwelling lunks who couldnt hack it once we left Africa and set up shop in Neanderthal territory...
What Is The Equation For A Happy, Healthy Teen? Teenagers are often a difficult bunch. With all those hormones flooding their bodies, they can be moody, unpredictable, and prone to making dubious choices. But however turbulent their teenage years, ki...
Why Does Spot Have Spots? In dogs with multicolored coats, white areas have no pigment cells. Black, brown or yellow areas, on the other hand, get their color from special pigment cells. When a dog is just an embryo, these pigment cells travel from t...
Can You Predict The Future? Its impossible to know the future. We can guess, but no one has actual knowledge of whats going to happen down the road. But if youre someone who trusts her feelings, youre more likely to accurately predict future events t...
Sleeping With One Eye Open Theres an old saying that if you think youre in danger, you might ought to sleep with one eye open. Well it turns out that many kinds of birds do just that. A group of scientists at Indiana State University studied mallard...
Bug Antifreeze Ever seen a cricket wearing a parka? Probably not, but you might have wondered how insects make it through the winter! After all, theyre cold-blooded, so their body temperature is pretty close to the temperature around them! Why dont b...
What Is Progeria? Progeria was first described in the nineteenth century. The mysterious disease is often thought of as premature aging. Children with progeria are normal for their first year of life, but then develop medical problems normally seen i...
Does Bacon Stop Nosebleeds? Time to go the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes: Dear A Moment of Science, Ive heard that pork can be used to stop a nosebleed. Is this true, or just a myth? Well, there are lots of anecdotal stories about do...
Plant Self-defense Plants may appear to be helpless in the face of hungry,toothy animals but many plants have evolved interesting systems of self-defense. Coarse meadow grasses are a good example. If you run your finger along a blade of coarse grass,...
A Cool Sunburn A listener from Ontario, California wrote to A Moment of Science with a question her sons had asked her. The boys wondered why is it that when you get sunburned you often feel chilled. It really does seem like a contradiction: youve be...
Chattering Chimps We talk to our house pets all the time, but wouldnt it be great if your cat could answer you in English? Well, maybe it wouldnt be so great! We tend to assume that, because they dont speak human language, other animals are dumb, or...
Why Do Stars Twinkle? If youve ever glanced skyward on a clear evening, youve probably noticed with some wonderment the sheer numbers of stars. Some are tiny, barely visible points. Others radiate strong white light. And from our earthly vantage poin...
The Worlds Biggest Spittoon In the spring, the eastern half of North America turns into one big spittoon for spittlebugs. Wandering through a meadow, its easy to spot the gobs of foam they produce, stuck to the stems of various plants. What makes spi...
How To Keep Bread From Going Stale Generally speaking, refrigeration helps to keep food fresh. Fruits, vegetables, and dairy products all last longer if kept cool. But dont try to store a loaf of bread in the refrigerator if you want it to stay fresh...
Why Does Sweat Smell So Bad? Our bodies have two main kinds of sweat glands. The sweat glands that are distributed over most of the body produce an innocent, clear sweat thats more than ninety-nine percent water. As this watery sweat rinses your skin...
