Archives: Posts

• 162: Penguin Guano & Giggle Gas

  There’s a strange connection between King penguins, one of their favorite islands, and Nitrous Oxide gas.

• 161: Wild Hamsters

  Our best topics come from late night dinner table conversations with our kids. Amy attempts to answer the question: Are there herds of hamsters roaming the wilds? The answer might […]

• 160: Fab Female Frog Lungs

  Imagine if you could block out loud noises at a party by taking a really deep breath. That’s how the female American Green Tree Frog manages to filter out interesting […]

• 159: Wanna Cuttle?

  Can a cuttlefish master a test that very young children often struggle to pass? Instead of using marshmallows like we do with people, scientists used tasty shrimp to test if […]

• 158: Spider Pulley

  Arachnophobes BEWARE! Imagine a spider that uses special silk to lift something that’s 50 times bigger than itself. There is a video! You must watch after you listen to the […]

• 157: The Shady Game of Pinball

  Our longest Brainstorm YET! Who knew there was so much to know about pinball?! Amy dives into the origins, history, and shady past of this quintessential arcade game.

• 156: Smell This

  What is that weird smell? It’s called trimethylamine (TMA) and for most of us it stinks like rotten fish. For a small percentage of people it smells very different. The […]

• 155: Gallon of PB&J

  What if we burned calories the same way cars use gas for fuel? Amy fell down the comparison hole trying to figure out the “car calories” for humans in motion. […]

• 154: Blast from the Past!

  It’s Spring Break over at Brain Junk! We’re taking the week off and bringing you one of our oldie but goodies: #21 Grab Bag. This super long episode (29 minutes!!!) […]

• 153: Roman Drive-Throughs

  Here we all thought the drive-thru window was something new and innovative. And it was…in Pompeii in 79AD. Back in the day the Romans and Greeks and probably other large […]