Everything Is Interesting -With Keera & Kira

We’ve all learned about the birds and the bees at some point: when a man and a woman reeeaally love each other, they deposit chromosomal genetic material into a recipient egg cell to create another, smaller human.

But what happens when THREE humans decide to make a baby? Is it possible to possess DNA from more than two parents? (Spoiler: Yes. Yes it is.)  Join K+K in their first of many explorations into the weird world of human genetic anomalies.

We’ve made contact!

A scientist’s greatest dream is to change the way humans understand reality, by deriving new theories and debunking old ones. But for this dream to come true, the theories have to be backed up by a lot of measurements & evidence, and also be mathematically provable.

NASA’s most accurate depiction of Earth, to date. (Note: some researchers maintain that it’s actually turtles all the way down.)

Journey with K+K across the surface of a scientifically impossible Flat Earth… and see why it belongs in Fantasy Fiction novels, not textbooks.

They’re not animals, they’re not plants, and they’re delicious in stir-fry.  Despite the fact that mushrooms have been used in medicine for thousands of years, they still remain a bit of mystery to us humans.  The more research we do, the more we realize that fungi might be our greatest tool in the quest for saving the world.

Disclaimer: These ones are poison.

A special thanks to Dr. Ann Rasmussen from Oregon State University for lending us her mycological expertise!

Chances are you’re just as excited as we are for the Total Solar Eclipse coming up on Monday, August 21st.  So, here’s some handy science knowledge to help you make the most of the experience:

How does an eclipse happen?

Here’s a super zoomed out visual of what will be happening in space during Monday’s total solar eclipse.

How should I watch the eclipse?

First of all: DON’T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.  

Except if you’re in the path of totality. Then you can look at the sun, with your naked eyeballs, for 120-ish seconds the sun is completely eclipsed.  At all times and in all other places,  you need special eclipse glasses. Regular sunglasses, even really dark ones, let thousands of times too much sunlight into our eyes, which can cause serious damage. 

Also, don’t look at the sun through binoculars, a camera, or your phone, EVEN when you have the glasses on. Apparently the concentration of sunlight through a lens can damage your glasses and your eyes. This recommendation comes directly from NASA, so you have to do it.

If you can’t get a hold of eclipse glasses, you can still participate in this historic event by crafting some sort of pinhole projection device. We prefer the tried and true shoe box device we all made in grade-school. Here’s a link to some DIY instructions. With a pinhole projector, you face away from the sun, and watch the shape of a circle of light become a crescent as the eclipse happens.

But again, if you’re in the path of totality, where the body of the sun will be completely blocked out at the time of eclipse, go ahead and take off the glasses (for the duration of total eclipse only! 2.5 minutes if you’re in the center of the path of totality, less if you’re anywhere else in the path.)  Fully experience how the colors of your surroundings change, how the stars come out, just how incredibly weird the world is during a solar eclipse. But of course, before even a sliver of the sun is visible again, make sure your glasses are back on if you’re gonna look up.

It’s all around you, in your lungs, inside that balloon, it even comes out of your youknowwhere…  It’s gas! The invisible, but incredibly important, substance that makes life on Earth possible!

Kira makes a cloud!

But what exactly is a gas? So glad you asked! K+K have the background story on why gas behaves the way that it does, and the fun things you can do with it. They even get Jefferson to let them make a cloud, and light a fire, IN THE STUDIO. Man, this job is awesome.

Humans love fire, in the form of BBQ or combustion engines.  A raging forest fire, however, can be devastating for our flimsy wooden human houses. Why then, is it so important that we let them burn? In this episode, the Science Ladies uncover:

It’s not just conjecture: placebos work. The question is… how? Why is it that many diseases and physical ailments can be cured just as well with a sugar pill as they can with clinically tested medicine? K+K examine a case of mysteriously healed Parkinson’s Disease, talk about a doctor curing chronic pain with peppermint candies, and take a look at what happens in a person’s brain when they believe they’re receiving medical treatment… but aren’t.

Yum.

Human eyes are pretty impressive, but let’s be honest, our ocular organs don’t hold a candle to the eyes of animals like owls, mantis shrimp, cats, eagles, dragonflies, octopuses, bees, parrots, goats, chameleons… Ok, maybe human eyes aren’t all that impressive after all.

They’re eyeballs.

Today K+K discuss:

Isn’t it wonderful that we can own cellphones, use them to call our mothers and look up photos of dogs in hats and locate the Chipotle nearest to us, and we never even need to know how they work? (Spoiler alert: we’ll tell you how they work in this episode.)

Do you get it yet?

Join K+K to explore: