Bamboo is a type of grass that grows into big clusters of long, straight stalks. Those stalks are super strong, and are useful for making lots of things, from instruments to gardening tools, to building materials. And when a breeze blows through a bunch of bamboo, it makes a really cool chattering, rattling sound. How does it do that? And why? We asked biologist Lynn Clark to help us find the answer.

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Tree rings are kind of like a tree’s personal diary – they record everything that happens to them - from the weather, to fires and insects. One of our listeners wanted to know how tree rings form, and if you can actually tell the age of a tree by counting the rings. We asked forest ecologist Diana Macias to help us with the answer. 

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It seems like water always falls down. Rain and snow fall down from the sky. Watering cans pour water down on plants. Waterfalls – well, the water falls down! But when water is steam, it rises up. Why is that? We asked aerospace engineer Nicole Sharp to help us find the answer.

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Here at Moment of Um, we love fishing for questions, and the one we’re answering now is a great catch. It comes from Marc, in Miami Florida: When lakes form, how do fish get in them? Associate Professor Megan McPhee from the University of Alaska Fairbanks helps us get to the bottom of this topic. If you have a Moment of Um question, send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact and you could hear the answer on a future episode!

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Sleep helps our brains and bodies rest. Lots of animals need sleep to survive, like birds, mice and even humpback whales! But what about insects, like butterflies? Do they doze off, too?  We asked insect expert Meredith Cenzer to help us find the answer.

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If you’ve ever been on a long car trip, you may have noticed that you start to feel sleepy as the car moves. Is it because the seats are so comfy? Is the radio hypnotizing you? Are the floor mats sprinkled with secret sleepy dust? We asked neuroscientist Aurore Perrault to help us find the answer.

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Black holes are one of the strangest things in space: gravity is so strong that nothing gets out, not even light, so learning about them is a big challenge for scientists. If black holes “eat” everything around them, could one black hole eat another black hole? We talked with astrophysicist Marcos Flores to shed some light on the subject. 

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Have you ever seen a Venus flytrap in action? An unsuspecting insect lands inside and BAM! The plant’s toothy leaves snap shut in a fraction of a second! But what happens to the insects that get stuck inside a Venus flytrap? We asked insect expert Meredith Cenzer to help us find the answer.

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Narwhals are sometimes called “the unicorns of the sea” because of their giant spiral tusks. It turns out that those tusks are actually a big tooth that grows right out of the narwhal’s mouth! One of our listeners wanted to know if narwhals were born with a hole in their head for the tusk, and if not, does it hurt the narwhal when the tusk comes through? We spoke with marine biologist Kristin Laidre to get the tooth – er, the truth. 

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Some teens’ personalities seem to change more frequently than the weather in April! Why is that? What’s going on in the brains and bodies of growing humans that changes how they interact with friends and family? We asked child development expert Dr. Ed Greene to tell us about the mighty forces that shape a young person’s personality. 

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