There are thousands of species of butterflies, all with unique patterns of color on their wings. How did those designs get there? We asked butterfly collection curator Blanca Huertas to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s cocooned in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll send an answer winging your way!

An inevitability of life is that humans have to go to the dentist. Some people love it, some hate it! But taking care of our teeth is super important. Do our kitty friends have to do the same thing? Large animal surgeon Whitney Cutrone answers this very question.

Got a question that’s got some bite? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer right meow!

Lava is the red-hot gloop that comes pouring out of an erupting volcano. But what is it made out of? Some sort of supercharged Silly Putty? Volcano guts? Super-spicy habanero sauce? We asked geoscience grad student Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer.

Got a real scorcher of a question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, we’d LAVA to find the answer for you.

It’s impressive to see a gorilla beat its chest. But why do they do it? We’ve tackled this question before, but  there’s a new scientific scoop about this primate percussion! We asked primatologist Andrea DiGiorgio to tell us about it. 

Got a question that you want to get off your chest? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll get an answer ready to GO(rilla).   

Lots of plants are smooth to the touch, and some are even soft and feathery like flowers! So why are cactuses prickly and sometimes even painful? We asked botanist Rachel Jabaily from Colorado College to answer this spine-tingling question. 

Got a question that’s prickling at your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help sharpen you up.

Bananas are a delicious, nutritious fruit! You can pack them in a picnic lunch or bake them into a sweet nutty banana bread. But are bananas radioactive? We asked Dr. Robert Chin to help us find the answer.

Got a really a-PEEL-ing question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find bunches of answers for you!

If you’ve ever stood up quickly and felt a little wobbly and tingly in your legs, you might be familiar with the sensation of having a body part that has fallen asleep! Why does that happen and how can we fix it? Otolaryngologist Karen Litzy helps us get to the bottom of this mystery. 

Got a question that you just can’t stand not knowing the answer to? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you get a leg up on that topic!

You can use a scale to measure how heavy something is…but what if that something is really big? Like, really, REALLY big? Like the WHOLE continent of North America? There’s no scale big enough, so you gotta use science and math! We asked geoscience grad student Kelsey Woody to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s weighing heavily on you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help lighten the load by finding the answer!

Have you ever looked at the keyboard on a phone or computer and wondered why the letters are arranged the way they are? The English alphabet starts with A-B-C-D-E, so why do keyboards start with Q-W-E-R-T-Y? We asked historian and museum curator Kristen Gallerneaux to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s just the right type? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help spell out the answer.

You don’t see most horses wearing pants, jackets or hats but one thing is for sure - they’re almost always wearing shoes! You know, those u-shaped things attached to their hooves. Why is that? Large animal surgeon Whitney Cutrone helps us find the answer. 

Are you saddled with a big equestrian? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll get to the mane issue.