Most mammals experience what scientists call knismesis, or light tickling, that creeping sensation that sticks around for a while after a bug crawls across your skin. Humans and apes also experience a different type of tickling, called gargale

13. Wombats and Other Australian Animals

May 2nd, 2021 7m 38s

Australia is full of animals that aren’t even a little bit like the animals that live in other places. A great example is the bare-nosed wombat, which, unlike any other animal, has feces shaped like cubes.Here are some resources to learn more a

12. Fruits and Vegetables

Apr 25th, 2021 6m 19s

For most people, the difference between a fruit and a vegetable is pretty clear: fruit is sweet, and vegetables aren’t. But it’s not really that simple. Some fruits, such as lemons and limes, are sour rather than sweet, and some people like to

11. Sybil Ludington, the Other Midnight Rider

Apr 17th, 2021 7m 6s

Pretty much everyone knows about Paul Revere and his midnight ride through Massachusetts to warn people that British troops were coming. Less well-known is a similar incident a couple years later, when Sybil Ludington, the daughter of a colonel

10. Dry Ice and Carbon Dioxide

Apr 10th, 2021 7m 10s

If you ever need to keep something frozen when your freezer isn’t working, you might find yourself using dry ice, which is solid carbon dioxide. This material stays colder than water ice, and it doesn’t melt, so it creates a lot less mess.Here

9. Did Thomas Edison Invent the Lightbulb?

Apr 3rd, 2021 11m 18s

There’s a persistent myth that Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. Although he and his employees did develop some of the earliest commercially successful lightbulbs, he wasn’t actually the first to come up with the idea.Here are some resource

8. What Is a Sunburn?

Mar 27th, 2021 7m 56s

Sunburns are painful and can be dangerous, so it’s best to avoid the ultraviolet light from the sun that causes them. One way to minimize the amount of ultraviolet light that hits your skin is to use sunscreen, a product that either reflects th

8. What Is a Sunburn?

Mar 27th, 2021 7m 56s

7. Whose Foot Is the Foot Named After?

Mar 20th, 2021 8m 20s

Despite the name, the foot isn’t measured by or named after anyone’s actual foot. Whether you think of it as 16 digits, 12 inches, 4 palms, two-thirds of a cubit, one-third of a yard, or one-sixth of a fathom, the foot has an interesting histor

6. Dmitri Mendeleev and the Periodic Table

Mar 13th, 2021 9m 51s

Dmitri Mendeleev gets most of the credit for the modern periodic table. He deserves a lot of the acclaim, but he built on the work of several other chemists, and a lot of elements have been discovered and added to the periodic table since he de

5. Wormholes

Mar 6th, 2021 7m 21s

Wormholes are a mainstay of science fiction, permitting fictional trips across vast distances in reasonable amounts of time, as well as time travel. Despite some theoretical scientific basis for their actual existence, useful wormholes remain m

4. Did Benjamin Franklin Discover Electricity?

Feb 27th, 2021 11m 50s

Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity, but his experiments built on the knowledge of his day, advancing our understanding of electricity and providing us with several practical applications.Here are some resources to learn more about Be

3. Who Discovered the Pythagorean Theorem?

Feb 20th, 2021 7m 57s

We all learned in school about the Pythagorean theorem: in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Despite the name, this theorem probably wasn’t discovered by Pythagoras; the Egypti

2. Comets: Inspiring Nighttime Visitors

Feb 16th, 2021 9m 20s

Pre-modern people thought sudden new features in the night sky, such as comets and meteors, were important and often terrifying. Today, we know what comets are and why they appear so suddenly and remain so briefly, but new bright comets can su

1. John Howland: The Man Who Fell Off the Mayflower

Feb 14th, 2021 6m 44s

John Howland, the man who fell off the Mayflower and survived, lived a long and eventful life in the New World.Here are some resources to learn more about John Howland:Plimoth Plantation. (2003). Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage

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