Moment of Um Brains On! Universe

A-choo! Does being outside on a sunny day ever make you sneeze? You’re not alone! But what causes these sunshine sneeze attacks? We asked scientist Dr. Kira Bacal to help us find the answer. 

Got a question that you’re a-chooing on? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an answer that’ll blow your mind.

Quick, how many pasta shapes can you name?! Spaghetti, rigatoni, tortellini, macaroni, penne, bucatini…whew! There are a plethora of pastas to choose from. But have you ever thought about why this simple food comes in so many shapes? We asked pasta shape inventor Dan Pashman to give us the dish. 

Got a question that’s pastatively confounding? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll serve up the answer.

Have you ever seen a willow tree? They sometimes have long branches that hang down to the ground and make them look like green, leafy waterfalls.  But why do they have this unusual shape?  We asked botanist Brandi Cannon-Force  to help us find the answer.

Got a question that you just can’t find the answer to?  Don’t weep! Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll root around for the answer.

Have you ever taken a trip in an airplane? When you’re in the air, it feels like you’re sitting still, but you’re actually flying super fast! Some airplanes, called jumbo jets, can weigh about one million pounds at takeoff. So how do they manage to get up into the air when they’re so heavy? We asked NASA aerospace engineer Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer. 

Got a question you just can’t that’s really weighing on you?  Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll be sure to land on an answer!

Everyone poops! It’s how a body gets rid of the waste left over after it digests food.  Animals poop on the ground. Fish poop in water. Birds can poop while flying. But what about bugs? Do they poop? We asked Johns Hopkins graduate student Abel Carver to help us find the answer.

Doo you have a question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a turd-aly awesome answer!

Tongues do all different kinds of things for us. They help us taste our food and swallow it – plus they’re really important for talking and singing! Lots of other animals have tongues, like woodpeckers, cheetahs and chameleons. But do sharks have them? We asked shark scientist Melissa Cristina Marquez to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’d you’d like to sink your teeth into? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find the answer lickety split!