Space

Curiosity Daily Podcast: What Neanderthal Genes Are Doing in Your DNA, The Time Photosynthesis Killed Nearly All Life on Earth, and the Inventor of “Do, Re, Mi” Notation

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Learn about what Neanderthal genes might be doing in your DNA; Guido d’Arezzo, the 11th-century Benedictine monk who invented “Do, Re, Mi” notation, or solfège; and how photosynthesis killed off 99 percent of life on Earth during the  the Great Oxygenation Event.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Some People Can’t Recognize Faces, Weight-Lifting Strengthens Your Nerves Too, and Why Earth’s Core Doesn’t Melt

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Learn about why you might feel stronger after just one workout; why the Earth’s core doesn’t melt, even though it’s so hot; and prosopagnosia, the surprising neurological condition of face blindness.

Finalists for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize showcased in this new must-watch series

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The five-part series THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: REPAIRING OUR PLANET focuses on five major challenges facing the planet; Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. If these ambitious goals for our planet were achieved by 2030, it would improve life for everyone.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Keeping Secrets Makes Life Harder, Emotions Change Your Perception of Time, and How We Proved the Earth Rotates

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Learn how keeping secrets can literally weigh you down; how we knew the Earth rotates before we had space travel thanks to the Foucault pendulum; and how your emotions can alter your perception of time.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Massive Ocean Beneath Earth’s Surface, Road Trip Game History, and Memory-Boosting Reading Technique

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In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Stanford Technique for Picking Creative Ideas, Why Whales Are So Big (But Not Bigger), and the First Medical Diagnosis and Treatment in Space from Earth

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Learn about how doctors on Earth diagnosed and treated an astronaut’s medical problem in space for the first time; a new study that explains why whales are so big, but not bigger; and a Stanford technique for getting better at picking creative ideas.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Big Brain Bestfriends, Mars Exploration Fleet, Brain Unpain

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Discover how our brains physically reflect how social we are, a new proposal for Mars exploration vehicles, and patterns in our brain that reveal how we process pain!

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Pablo Escobar's Hippos Overtaking Colombia, More Phytoplankton Is Good for the Planet, and Seeing Climate Change in Daily Weather

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Learn about why a predicted increase in phytoplankton is good news for our environment; how researchers can detect evidence of climate change from just one day of global weather conditions; and how Pablo Escobar's hippos became an invasive species in Colombia.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Habitable Epoch, Mars 2020’s Search for Life, and 4 Research-Based Personality Types

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Learn about why the universe may have been teeming with life billions of years ago; why NASA’s Mars 2020 Martian rover mission is going to be a huge milestone; and four personality types people fit into, according to new research.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Measure Your Beliefs About the World, the Overview Effect, and a Mercury-Spewing Fountain

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Learn about how the overview effect changes your perspective when you leave Earth; why the Calder Mercury Fountain in Barcelona pumps out pure liquid mercury; and, how researchers came up with a set of core beliefs that measure how you feel about the world.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Apes Say Hello, Life on Snowball Earth, Learn Twice as Fast

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Learn about non-human animals that say hello and goodbye; life on Snowball Earth; and how to learn skills twice as fast.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Moviegoers Blink in Sync, Rain on the Sun, and Why Flamingos Stand on One Leg

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Learn about a new discovery about rain on the sun; why flamingos stand on one leg; and why you blink the way you do when you’re watching a movie.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Internet Addiction, Dust in Space (w/ Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell), and Vacation Science

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Learn about whether there’s actually such a thing as internet addiction; and, research-based tips for getting the most out of your next vacation. We’ll also answer a listener question about dust in space, with some help from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Pretzel History, How Earth Got Its Water, Runner’s High Origins, and Words Named After People

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Learn about where the water on Earth might have come from; the surprising history of the pretzel, including the monk who invented it; words you probably didn’t know are named after people; and where “runner’s high” comes from, and whether it’s genetic.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Pockets Are Rare in Women’s Clothes, Why Earth Twinkles, and Where Life Originated

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Learn about why Earth twinkles from space; why pockets are so rare in women’s clothes; and whether the first life emerged on land or water.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: International Internet Languages (w/ Gretchen McCulloch), Chances of Rain, and Mars in Spain

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Learn about how you can go on a simulated mission to Mars (in Spain); and, what the weather forecast really means when it says there’s a chance of rain. You’ll also learn about how people around the world talk differently online, with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Women Feel More Pain than Men, Why Toothpaste Makes Food Taste Bad, and Earth Formed Way Faster Than We Thought

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Learn about why things taste bad after you brush your teeth; a new discovery about how fast the Earth formed that may mean good things about life in the universe; and why women may experience more pain than men.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Smells That Existed Before Earth (w/ Harold McGee)

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Learn about why your dog might be lying about its size and how physicists just achieved room-temperature superconductivity for the first time. But first, food science expert Harold McGee is back to talk about the smells that existed before Earth did.