Ever Wonder? from the California Science Center

As we reach the end of the year, the fall migration of monarchs brings ecological and cultural significance to the people of California and Mexico.  Butterflies are a common symbol for life and death in many places and it is believed that monarchs guide the spirits of our ancestors back during the day of the dead, better known as Día de los Muertos. But monarch butterflies can tell us so much more. Ever wonder why it's important to study monarch butterflies?On today's episode I have the honor of chatting with Isis Howard, who works at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Isis is going to explain to us the difference between Western and Eastern populations of monarchs AND she's going to tell us how scientists tag butterflies! So, join me in my conversation with Isis Howard.  Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.Support the showSupport the show

Here at the California Science Center in our Ecosystems gallery lies our kelp forest, holding 188,000-gallon tank with over 800 species! This kelp forest represents the type of ecosystem that you will find off the California coast and who better to help bring this kelp forest to life than our divers! Do you ever wonder what divers do at the California Science Center? In this episode we chat with the Marine Operations Manager, Andrew Solomon, who gives us an insight on how the dive teams not only help in bringing to life the kelp forest but also how they work together with other departments to maintain them. Andrew also gives us an idea on what it takes to be a diver and the risks that come with diving.  Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

Last fall, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Fire! Science & Safety, which invites our guests to explore Casa Del Fuego, Apartment 911 as a fire danger detective, seeking out fire and burn hazards to make their families, pets, and homes safer—both inside the home, as well as outside threats like wildfires.It's been pretty rainy in California lately, so wildfires have largely faded from the headlines. But throughout 2020 and 2021, we heard about one giant catastrophic megafire after another. It seemed like our state was always burning.Ever wonder why California has so many wildfires?There are many factors at play here—climate change, drought, dead trees, longer fire seasons—but we can also learn a lot about what's happening today by looking at our past. We talked to Dr. Jared Dahl Aldern (@JaredDahlAldern), an environmental historian and a fire practitioner, who has a wealth of experience researching the history of fire in California, as well as learning from and working with Indigenous people who use fire to take care of the land. He walked us through some important events in our state's history—from the Gold Rush to the formation of the National Forest Service—that help explain why there's so much fire today.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

This summer, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Life! Beginnings in our World of Life gallery. Life! Beginnings invites our guests to discover how humans and all living creatures reproduce, develop, and pass on their genes in order to bring new life into the world.Through interactive and immersive experiences, guests can explore the human journey from conception to birth, see how a mother's body changes throughout pregnancy, and learn about reproductive health.Do you ever wonder how doctors help keep people healthy during pregnancy and childbirth?Dr. Kimberly Gregory is an OB-GYN and professor at Cedars-Sinai, as well as a scientific advisor for our exhibit Life! Beginnings. Dr. Gregory is on a mission to make childbirth a safer and more positive experience for everyone. She came on the show to tell us more about her work and share some useful advice for creating your own reproductive life plan.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.Support the Show.

Folks often say that dogs are a human's best friend. The Science Center doesn't have any dogs on display (well at least not since our temporary Dogs! exhibit closed), but we sure do have lots of other terrestrial animals to take care of. And our keepers--the folks who do that work--really care about our animals. Do you ever wonder how keepers develop a relationship with the animals they take care of?Josh Hestermann leads the team who takes care of everything that lives on land at the Science Center. He shares what it's like to gain the trust of a military macaw and what goes into taking care of all the terrestrial animals you might see when you visit.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.Support the Show.

When this episode airs, NASA will be just one day away from landing another rover on Mars. On February 18, the Perseverance rover will reach the surface of the Red Planet, capping off a journey that started with a rocket launch last July.In an earlier episode, we talked with Matthew Frost about Perseverance's robot arm, and how it works to collect samples from the Martian surface. But that robot arm becomes a lot more useful when you can drive it around Mars. And that takes a whole team of dedicated rover drivers back here on Earth.Do you ever wonder who drives a Mars rover?We were lucky to chat with Hallie Abarca, a former Mars rover driver and software engineer on the Perseverance rover at NASA JPL. She talks about what it was like to drive other Mars rovers, working on “Mars time,” and a new JPL website where you can virtually drive across the surface of Mars from your home.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.

The deep sea is a mysterious place full of many different life forms! Some that may seem strange yet incredibly amazing to us. But how can we learn more about these creatures if the deep sea can be so hard to explore!?   Do you ever wonder what creatures live in the deep sea?   In today's episode the Science Center interns; Nathan Arriaza, Gerardo Martinez, Jose Cornejo, and Jason Mejia have a conversation with Senior Educator here at the California Science Center, Brittany Munson. She tells us all about her month-long deep-sea exploration on the ship Nautilus, studying deep sea ecosystems and some of the cool living things she encountered!   Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.  Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.   Support the Show.

For the first few episodes of this podcast, we'll take you behind the scenes of the California Science Center to meet some of the people who design and develop exhibits.Imagine for a minute that you're visiting a science center or a museum. You're looking at an exhibit and… you probably have questions. Good thing there's some text posted nearby to help explain what's going on.These bits of interpretive text are called exhibit labels, and you can find them all over museums. If you've been to a museum, you've read a label. Do you ever wonder who writes them?In this episode, we talk to Jennifer Lawrence, the senior exhibit developer at the California Science Center whose job it is to write pretty much everything you read while looking at and playing with our exhibits.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.

The field of robotics has advanced a LOT over the past couple of decades, and part of that has to do with advances in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence. Algorithms that help robots function and interact with the world are all around us, from the search engines we use to the facial recognition function in our phones.But these algorithms can have problems. This past September, for example, Twitter users discovered that photo previews, which use machine learning to crop photos to the most interesting part, appeared to favor white faces over Black faces.We know that humans aren't perfect, but… Do you ever wonder if robots can be biased?Ayanna Howard (@robotsmarts) is a roboticist, professor, director of the HumAnS Lab, and chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She is a leader in the field and has many accomplishments, but one area of her work that caught our eye is her research on how algorithms and robots can be biased.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.Support the Show.

Before we go on break for the holidays, we're releasing another bonus episode. We introduce Devin Waller, who will be joining the show as co-host for the next few episodes. As our first season wraps up, we answer a question from one of our listeners:Do you ever wonder why our galaxy is a spiral?And we also give a teaser of what's coming next season! Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.Support the Show.

Giant sea bass. Desert tortoise. Leopard shark. These are all examples of creatures you can see on display when you visit the California Science Center. And just like you or me or any of the pets you might have at home, these critters can get sick.Do you ever wonder who takes care of all these different animals when they need to go to the doctor?In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Brittany Stevens, a veterinarian here at the Science Center. She'll tell us all about her vet exam room, how she cares for so many different kinds of animals, and even what it's like to do surgery on fish.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the Show.Support the Show.

We are starting a new series on robots! We've seen some pretty amazing advances in robotics in just the past few years. Maybe you've seen videos of humanoid robots that do backflips or robot hummingbirds that can hover in midair. Now, a video of a single back-flipping robot is pretty amazing. But what if you could get a whole team of robots--hundreds or even thousands of robots--to cooperate with each other? Do you ever wonder what would happen if robots worked together?Kirstin Petersen is a roboticist and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. And in her lab, she builds cooperative teams of robots, called robot swarms, that are inspired by insects like ants, termites, and bees. We talked about the challenges of getting huge numbers of robots to communicate with each other and how studying nature can offer solutions.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

In an earlier episode, we chatted with Isis Howard, who works at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.  She told us about the multi-generational migration of Monarchs across 3 different countries. Here she further explains why some monarchs live a few weeks, while other monarchs live 6 to 9 months!  Ever Wonder... how some Monarchs live longer than others?   Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.  Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.  Support the show

It's been a year since NASA JPL's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, bringing us spectacular new images and videos of The Red Planet. And in honor of this milestone for Percy and Ginny, we're bringing you an unaired clip from our past interview with Hallie Abarca, a software engineer and former rover driver at JPL. She takes us behind the scenes of a special place at JPL called the “Mars Yard,” an outdoor field with red dirt made to look just like a mock Martian landscape.Ever wonder what goes on at the JPL Mars Yard?Hallie tells us how they use the yard to test Mars rovers right here in California.Learn more about the Mars Yard in this video tour and this virtual tour from JPL.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

For the last three episodes of this podcast, we've been taking you behind-the-scenes of the California Science Center to meet some of the people who design and develop exhibits. Many of you probably already love visiting science centers and museums. Odds are you have a favorite exhibit--something especially awe-inspiring or fun. Do you ever wonder how your favorite exhibit got made? In this episode, we talk to Kathy Marsailes, the senior exhibit designer at the California Science Center. She helps design and build all of the three-dimensional things--the exhibits themselves--that you actually touch or play with when you're visiting one of our galleries.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

If you ever visit the kelp tank at the Science Center, you might notice that we have a complete ecosystem on display, including both predators and prey. So, naturally, people often ask our staff if the fish eat each other.Ever wonder if our kelp tank fish eat… other fish?It is a rare event. But to answer this question, we're digging into our archives to bring you an unaired clip from our past interview with Erin Shusterman, the interim director of husbandry here at the Science Center. She leads the team of keepers and aquarists that takes care of all our animals. In this clip, Erin breaks down how her team carefully feeds the animals in the kelp tank to keep everything in balance.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

 On this first Ever Wonder? episode of the year, we would like to introduce you to California Science Center's Curator of Life Science and Paleobiologist Lucy Chang. In today's episode, Lucy takes us on an exploration into the fascinating world of paleobiology, explaining to use how the fossilized remnants of ancient life hold the keys to understanding the vibrant ecosystems today. Do you ever wonder how the fossilized past uncovers the dynamic present of Ecosystems? Join us as we unravel the mysteries of Earth's dynamic ecosystems, past and present, with Lucy! Have a question you've been wondering about? Email the Ever Wonder? team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcast. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.Support the show

Today—September 15th, 2021—is an exciting day in the history of space travel. Today is the day SpaceX's Inspiration4 is scheduled to launch. If successful, Inspiration4 will be the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth, taking us one step closer to making space flight accessible to everyone—and not just highly trained professional astronauts.Do you ever wonder if YOU could go to space one day?We are so excited that one of Inspiration4's crew members is Dr. Sian Proctor (@DrSianProctor), who came on our show earlier this year. In honor of her historic trip to space as a civilian astronaut, we're re-airing her original interview today—she talks about her experience as an analog astronaut and what it's like to live in a mock Mars habitat for months in Hawaii.We are also sharing a couple minutes of her interview that didn't make it into the original episode. It's fitting that Sian is part of the Inspiration4 mission because she herself is an inspiration. Through education and artwork, Sian is encouraging conversations about building a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive space for all of humanity.Thank you, Sian, for using your space to inspire us all. Congratulations on achieving your lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut, and all our best to you and the entire Inspiration4 mission team.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

The Science Center has proudly displayed Space Shuttle Endeavour to our guests for the past ten years. Seeing the shuttle is amazing, but…Do you ever wonder what it felt like to fly Endeavour?We talked to Chris Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg), a former Navy pilot and NASA astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions, including one as commander of Endeavour in 2008. He shares a vivid play-by-play of what he saw out the window while landing at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. By the way, my favorite part of his story is how the shuttle's double sonic boom was heard across LA County, surprising some sleepy residents on an early Sunday morning!It's always a treat to talk to astronauts, especially one who's flown on Endeavour. So, join us as we hear from one of the most experienced and accomplished space shuttle commanders, Chris Ferguson.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

As we reach the end of the year, the fall migration of monarchs brings ecological and cultural significance to the people of California and Mexico.  Butterflies are a common symbol for life and death in many places and it is believed that monarchs guide the spirits of our ancestors back during the day of the dead, better known as Día de los Muertos. But monarch butterflies can tell us so much more. Ever wonder why it's important to study monarch butterflies?On today's episode I have the honor of chatting with Isis Howard, who works at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Isis is going to explain to us the difference between Western and Eastern populations of monarchs AND she's going to tell us how scientists tag butterflies! So, join me in my conversation with Isis Howard.  Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.Support the show

We are kicking off a new series on space exploration, which is particularly relevant this month because a new Mars rover named Perseverance is hurtling towards The Red Planet for its landing on February 18. And joining me along for the ride as co-host for this series is my Science Center colleague and planetary geologist Devin Waller. There is a lot of science to unpack here, so we'll be talking to people who explore all different corners of our solar system. While we have sent quite a few rovers and other robots to Mars, we haven't sent any humans there yet—it's just too far away and dangerous right now. In the 1960s and 70s, NASA's Apollo missions famously landed astronauts on the Moon. And last December, NASA announced a new class of astronauts for the Artemis Team, which plans to send the first woman and the next man to explore the Moon a few years from now. But if we've already been there before… Do you ever wonder why we keep going back to the Moon?Kelsey Young (@RockDocYoung) is a planetary space scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She explains that there is still quite a lot of science we can learn on the Moon to better understand our own planet. Kelsey also has the enviable job of training astronauts how to be geologists here on Earth, so they can do science when they get to the Moon.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

Earlier this year we spoke with Dr. Ryan Rampersaud, a professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco to figure out if your gut can really talk to your brain. He told us about the microorganisms that live in your gastrointestinal tract, collectively known as your gut microbiome, and how they're able to send messages all the way up to your brain. Now, during that interview, Ryan mentioned that the quickest way to understand what's in the gut microbiome is to collect a stool sample. Poop there it is! Not only did we have questions about how a poop sample is collected and studied, but... Ever wonder if your poop can tell doctors about your health?  So pull up a stool because in this short, Ryan will help us get to the bottom of this question. I know, I know poop puns may not be my favorite, but they're definitely number two. Here's more of our host, Perry Roth-Johnson, continuing his conversation with Ryan. Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.Support the showSupport the show

We're digging into our archives again to bring you more unaired vet stories from our past interview with Dr. Brittany Stevens, a veterinarian here at the Science Center. She takes care of all our animals when they get sick and need to go to the doctor. In her past episodes, Brittany told us about her vet exam room, how she cares for so many different animals, and even what it's like to do surgery on an eel.We're always surprised to learn about the wide variety of animals Brittany treats. And one especially amazing example came up in our interview: sharks!Do you ever wonder if our sharks go to the doctor?The Science Center's Kelp Forest exhibit is home to several leopard sharks and horn sharks. These sharks get an annual check-up to keep them healthy. In this clip, Brittany describes what a shark check-up is like and some of the health conditions these exams help treat and prevent.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

NASA is planning to launch a massive new rocket as part of the Artemis I mission to fly around the moon. Earlier this year, we talked to engineers Nate Perkins and Doug Bradley from Aerojet-Rocketdyne about the engines for that rocket. Although the rocket is new, NASA is reusing the same RS-25 engines that once powered the Space Shuttle. (In fact, two of the engines on Artemis I actually flew on Endeavour!) But since the rocket for Artemis won't be reusable like the Shuttle, its engines will have to be replaced for future missions. The engineers at Aerojet-Rocketdyne have gotten pretty creative coming up with efficient, cost-effective ways to build new engines…Ever wonder if you can 3D print a rocket engine?In this short, Nate tells us how he is using 3D printing to build the RS-25 engines more cheaply and quickly than during the past Shuttle Program. Here's more of our conversation with Nate.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

Last episode, we talked to environmental historian Jared Dahl Aldern about why California has so many wildfires. And with all the news of big, out-of-control wildfires—especially in the last two years—it's hard to think of fire as anything but a scary, destructive force.Do you ever wonder if fire can be good?Chairman Ron Goode, the Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, has been conducting cultural burns in California for decades. He's a fire expert and a scholar and has a ton of interesting insight into the ways fire can be used as a force for good, supporting both the land and Indigenous culture.Learn more about Ron's work:Fighting Fire with Fire: Using Cultural Burning PracticesTending the Wild: Cultural BurningSummary Report from Tribal and Indigenous Communities, part of California's 4th Climate Change Assessment ReportLast fall, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Fire! Science & Safety, which invites our guests to explore Casa del Fuego, Apartment 911 as a fire danger detective, seeking out fire and burn hazards to make their families, pets, and homes safer—both inside the home, as well as outside threats like wildfires.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

In an earlier episode, we spoke with Johanna Varner (@johannavarner), also known as Pika Jo, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Colorado Mesa University. She introduced us to the pika – an adorable little creature about the size of a russet potato that lives high up in the mountains without hibernating in the winter!  Ever wonder how pikas can survive extreme conditions?   In this short we get to know more about this new known favorite critter and what they do to survive extreme conditions. Here is more of our conversation with Pika Jo.   Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.  Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.  Support the show

For this episode, we're taking a look back at Perry's interview with roboticist and Professor Ayanna Howard. He spoke with Ayanna about how the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence have advanced, and considered the ways robots can be biased. Considering all of the ethical and social aspects of the new technology engineers create….Ever wonder if engineers should study ethics?In this short, Perry and Ayanna discuss the importance of teaching ethics to technologists and engineers. We are after all the ones creating new technologies and shaping how the field of artificial intelligence will look 10, 50, or even 100 years from now. Ayanna shares her perspective on considering the human aspects in the new technology we create. Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

Support the show

We humans might think we run the world… but we're vastly outnumbered by microscopic creatures we can't see with our own eyes. Soil, air, water… everything around us is full of these tiny microbes. Even a simple puddle can be teeming with life… Ever wonder what lives in a drop of water? On today's episode we chat with Chloé Savard, a microbiology student in Montreal who explores the microscopic world, or microverse, in her free time. She shares her findings through super cool and colorful videos on her Tardibabe social media accounts. We talked to Chloe all about her adventures hunting for microbes and what it's like to share science on social media. She also shared some pretty amazing facts about microbes along the way—check it out!Have a question you've been wondering about? Send us an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasceincecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

There are a lot of references to speed and going fast in our culture, especially in video games, cartoons, and movies. Sonic the Hedgehog can run at supersonic speeds. Speed Racer is busy revvin' up the powerful Mach 5. And in this summer's hit movie Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise flies the Darkstar hypersonic plane to “Mach 10”.Ever wonder just how fast Mach 10 is?To find out, we talked to Aaron Cassebeer, the senior director of engineering at Stratolaunch. His team is building a real-life hypersonic aircraft called Talon-A, designed to fly through the sky at Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound! That's more than 3,000 miles per hour. It's a cool piece of technology with some really challenging problems that pop up when you try flying that fast.Learn more about Stratolaunch's vehicles by watching these videos of Talon-A and the Roc Carrier Aircraft.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

When the new Jurassic World movie came out last month, we invited Dr. Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum, onto the show to help us think about whether or not humans could ever coexist with dinosaurs. She blew our minds a little bit when she told us that we already have dinosaurs living among us today—birds!If birds are examples of living dinosaurs….Ever wonder if prehistoric dinosaurs had feathers like their modern counterparts?In this short, Jingmai explores our relationship with birds, how birds evolved from prehistoric dinosaurs, and how we know that some dinosaurs had early versions of feathers.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

Have you ever wandered the yogurt aisle in the grocery store and stumbled upon yogurt or other foods with the label 'probiotic'? These foods claim to support your gut health or your 'gut microbiome' – and some even go so far as to say they can help your mental health!Although that last claim is mostly just marketing hype, some scientific experiments have connected what's going on with bacteria in the gut to the brain. Scientists have even started to show that people with depression have different gut microbiomes than people without depression. Now, scientists still have a ton of questions, but... Ever wonder if your gut can really talk to your brain?Dr. Ryan Rampersaud is a professor of psychiatry at UCSF. He's also an MD/PhD, meaning he is both a medical doctor and a scientific researcher. He and his colleagues are trying to better understand the link between the gut microbiome and depression. He broke down how your gut might be able to affect what goes on in your brain—and how much more there still is to learn.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

On today's episode we chat with Johanna Varner (@johannavarner), aka Pika Jo! An ecologist and Assistant Professor of Biology at Colorado Mesa University. Do you ever wonder what it is like to study the world's cutest mammal?Johanna has spent her career studying the ecology and conservation of alpine and arctic ecosystems, with a particular interest in a small, adorable animal: the Pika. For those of you familiar with the beloved Pokémon character Pikachu, you may be surprised to learn that pikas were the inspiration behind such a cute little fella! In this episode, Johanna shares with us her insights into the challenges that pikas face, including the impacts of climate change on their habitats, and how we can all play a role in preserving these important species. So, whether you are a fan of Pikachu, an aspiring scientist, or just someone who loves learning about the world around us, join us in our conversation with Jo.  Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

This summer, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Life! Beginnings in our World of Life gallery. Life! Beginnings invites our guests to discover how humans and all living creatures reproduce, develop, and pass on their genes in order to bring new life into the world.At its core, reproduction is all about passing on genes to the next generation. Do you ever wonder what genes are?And how much do our genes actually tell us about who we are, where we come from, and what we might become in the future?To try to answer some of these big questions, we spoke to Dr. Carla Easter at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She served as a scientific advisor for Life! Beginnings, and has spent much of her career helping the public learn about genetics. We had a fascinating conversation about our complicated and often misunderstood relationship with our genes. Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

One of my all-time favorite movies is Inception. No joke, I recently rewatched it, and even though it came out over a decade ago, it still holds up. Between the character's adventures in different dream levels and the manipulation of time in the story, I still find myself picking up on new details when I watch it again for the umpteenth time. It's all great movie magic, but…Ever wonder if there's any truth to the movie Inception?Karen Konkoly is a graduate student researcher in psychology at Northwestern University. We recently talked to her about her work studying lucid dreaming. And in this short episode, we ask Karen to help us sort out the sci-fi movie magic from real dream science.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

Our immune systems are always hard at work protecting us from viruses, bacteria, and other critters that can infect our bodies and make us sick.But on an earlier episode, we learned that the human body is teeming with microscopic creatures. These microbes—collectively known as the human microbiome—are always with us, coexisting with us and even benefiting our health.Ever wonder how your immune system knows good microbes from bad?To find out, we talked to Dr. Joël Babdor (@JoelBabdor), an immunologist at UCSF who studies how the immune system and microbiome interact with each other. Joël walks us through how our immune system works, and how studying the microbiome in health can help us understand and treat a wide variety of diseases. Joël is also the co-founder of BlackInImmuno, an organization that aims to amplify, celebrate, and support Black people in immunology.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

We're bringing you an unaired clip from our past interview with Kirstin Petersen, a roboticist and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. In her lab, she builds cooperative teams of robots, called robot swarms, that are inspired by insects like ants, termites, and bees.Now, when you think of a robot, what do you usually picture in your mind? Probably something with a rigid metal body or arm, right? Or maybe it has some wheels or legs to move around?Do you ever wonder if robots can be… squishy?In addition to robot swarms, Kirsten works on ‘soft' robots. She told us all about why you might want to use a soft robot instead of a traditional rigid one, as well as some of her biological inspiration for building these kinds of robots. We even talked about a popcorn-inspired robot that could have future uses in construction.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

The Science Center has proudly displayed Space Shuttle Endeavour to our guests for the past ten years. Seeing the shuttle is amazing, but…Do you ever wonder what it felt like to fly Endeavour?We talked to Chris Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg), a former Navy pilot and NASA astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions, including one as commander of Endeavour in 2008. He shares a vivid play-by-play of what he saw out the window while landing at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. By the way, my favorite part of his story is how the shuttle's double sonic boom was heard across LA County, surprising some sleepy residents on an early Sunday morning!It's always a treat to talk to astronauts, especially one who's flown on Endeavour. So, join us as we hear from one of the most experienced and accomplished space shuttle commanders, Chris Ferguson.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

We're digging into our archives again to bring you more unaired vet stories from our past interview with Dr. Brittany Stevens, a veterinarian here at the Science Center. She takes care of all our animals when they get sick and need to go to the doctor. Last time, Brittany told us all about her vet exam room, how she cares for so many different animals, and even what it's like to do surgery on fish. That last point—doing surgery on fish—is pretty remarkable. And the fish surgery is just the tip of the iceberg—Brittany has some amazing stories of doing surgery on all kinds of animals. Even an eel! Do you ever wonder what it's like to do surgery on an eel?You'll hear Brittany tell us about an eel with a tumor on its head, and what she did next to help it recover. As far as we know, Brittany is the only person in the world who's successfully done this surgical procedure on an eel! It's pretty groundbreaking stuff in her field. We recorded Brittany's story in June 2020, about 6 months after the eel's surgery… and we're happy to report that the eel has now made a full recovery. Big shout out to Brittany and the rest of the aquatics staff and veterinary technicians at the Science Center for their dedicated care of this patient.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

A while back we chatted with Sian Proctor (@DrSianProctor), an analog astronaut and geoscience professor at  South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, AZ. We got some insight on what analog astronauts do and what it's like to live in a mock Mars habitat for months in Hawaii but today we ask Do you ever wonder how going to space can help us on Earth?Sian Proctor's specialty is geologic disasters, she looks into how these disasters impact humans' ability to survive. Now the real question is how does studying geologic disasters prepare us for space exploration or better yet how does space exploration help us get through the natural disasters here on earth!? Could it be that if “we solve for space we solve for earth”  Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.  Support the show

Think about the last time you had a dream… Was the dream fun? Scary? Maybe you barely remember anything at all. Or maybe the dream was so vivid that you knew you were dreaming even while the dream was happening, a phenomenon known as ‘lucid dreaming.' Some people are so good at it that they can even control their dreams.Ever wonder if you can learn to control your dreams?Karen Konkoly is a graduate student researcher in psychology at Northwestern University. She works in a sleep lab where she studies how to induce lucid dreaming and how to communicate with lucid dreamers while they were still sleeping!Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

Earlier this year we spoke with Dr. Ryan Rampersaud, a professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco to figure out if your gut can really talk to your brain. He told us about the microorganisms that live in your gastrointestinal tract, collectively known as your gut microbiome, and how they're able to send messages all the way up to your brain. Now, during that interview, Ryan mentioned that the quickest way to understand what's in the gut microbiome is to collect a stool sample. Poop there it is! Not only did we have questions about how a poop sample is collected and studied, but... Ever wonder if your poop can tell doctors about your health?  So pull up a stool because in this short, Ryan will help us get to the bottom of this question. I know, I know poop puns may not be my favorite, but they're definitely number two. Here's more of our host, Perry Roth-Johnson, continuing his conversation with Ryan. Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to the podcast team to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. To see a full list of episodes, visit our show's webpage.Support the show

For this episode, we're taking a look back at Perry's interview with roboticist and Professor Ayanna Howard. He spoke with Ayanna about how the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence have advanced, and considered the ways robots can be biased. Considering all of the ethical and social aspects of the new technology engineers create….Ever wonder if engineers should study ethics?In this short, Perry and Ayanna discuss the importance of teaching ethics to technologists and engineers. We are after all the ones creating new technologies and shaping how the field of artificial intelligence will look 10, 50, or even 100 years from now. Ayanna shares her perspective on considering the human aspects in the new technology we create. Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

We're digging into our archives again to bring you more unaired vet stories from our past interview with Dr. Brittany Stevens, a veterinarian here at the Science Center. She takes care of all our animals when they get sick and need to go to the doctor. In her past episodes, Brittany told us about her vet exam room, how she cares for so many different animals, and even what it's like to do surgery on an eel.We're always surprised to learn about the wide variety of animals Brittany treats. And one especially amazing example came up in our interview: sharks!Do you ever wonder if our sharks go to the doctor?The Science Center's Kelp Forest exhibit is home to several leopard sharks and horn sharks. These sharks get an annual check-up to keep them healthy. In this clip, Brittany describes what a shark check-up is like and some of the health conditions these exams help treat and prevent.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

The movie Robot and Frank tells the story of Frank, a grumpy older man who lives alone, until his son shows up at his house with a robot that has been programmed to take care of him. Initially, Frank wants nothing to do with the robot. But over time they start to get along and even become friends. And the robot turns out to be one of the funniest characters in the movie. Do you ever wonder if robots can have personalities?To find out more, we talk to Maja Matarić, a roboticist and a distinguished professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at USC. Her lab makes “socially assistive robots,” which help people do things that are emotionally difficult. And robot personalities are a key part of her work.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the showSupport the show

Hello! This is Ever Wonder? from the California Science Center. I'm Jennifer Aguirre.We humans might think we run the world… but we're vastly outnumbered by microscopic creatures we can't see with our own eyes. Soil, air, water… everything around us is full of these tiny microbes. Even a simple puddle can be teeming with life… Ever wonder what lives in a drop of water? On today's episode we chat with Chloé Savard, a microbiology student in Montreal who explores the microscopic world, or microverse, in her free time. She shares her findings through super cool and colorful videos on her Tardibabe social media accounts. We talked to Chloe all about her adventures hunting for microbes and what it's like to share science on social media. She also shared some pretty amazing facts about microbes along the way—check it out!Have a question you've been wondering about? Send us an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasceincecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

NASA is planning to launch a massive new rocket as part of the Artemis I mission to fly around the moon. Earlier this year, we talked to engineers Nate Perkins and Doug Bradley from Aerojet-Rocketdyne about the engines for that rocket. Although the rocket is new, NASA is reusing the same RS-25 engines that once powered the Space Shuttle. (In fact, two of the engines on Artemis I actually flew on Endeavour!) But since the rocket for Artemis won't be reusable like the Shuttle, its engines will have to be replaced for future missions. The engineers at Aerojet-Rocketdyne have gotten pretty creative coming up with efficient, cost-effective ways to build new engines…Ever wonder if you can 3D print a rocket engine?In this short, Nate tells us how he is using 3D printing to build the RS-25 engines more cheaply and quickly than during the past Shuttle Program. Here's more of our conversation with Nate.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

Last fall, we opened a brand-new exhibit called Fire! Science & Safety, which invites our guests to explore Casa Del Fuego, Apartment 911 as a fire danger detective, seeking out fire and burn hazards to make their families, pets, and homes safer—both inside the home, as well as outside threats like wildfires.It's been pretty rainy in California lately, so wildfires have largely faded from the headlines. But throughout 2020 and 2021, we heard about one giant catastrophic megafire after another. It seemed like our state was always burning.Ever wonder why California has so many wildfires?There are many factors at play here—climate change, drought, dead trees, longer fire seasons—but we can also learn a lot about what's happening today by looking at our past. We talked to Dr. Jared Dahl Aldern (@JaredDahlAldern), an environmental historian and a fire practitioner, who has a wealth of experience researching the history of fire in California, as well as learning from and working with Indigenous people who use fire to take care of the land. He walked us through some important events in our state's history—from the Gold Rush to the formation of the National Forest Service—that help explain why there's so much fire today.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

There are a lot of references to speed and going fast in our culture, especially in video games, cartoons, and movies. Sonic the Hedgehog can run at supersonic speeds. Speed Racer is busy revvin' up the powerful Mach 5. And in this summer's hit movie Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise flies the Darkstar hypersonic plane to “Mach 10”.Ever wonder just how fast Mach 10 is?To find out, we talked to Aaron Cassebeer, the senior director of engineering at Stratolaunch. His team is building a real-life hypersonic aircraft called Talon-A, designed to fly through the sky at Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound! That's more than 3,000 miles per hour. It's a cool piece of technology with some really challenging problems that pop up when you try flying that fast.Learn more about Stratolaunch's vehicles by watching these videos of Talon-A and the Roc Carrier Aircraft.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

One of the first things you might notice when you wake up is a weird taste in your mouth, followed by the realization that your breath smells… bad. So, you grab your mouthwash and get on with your day, hoping no one feels the need to offer you a breath mint.Ever wonder why your breath stinks?To find out, we asked Dr. Batbileg Bor (@BatbilegBor), a scientist who studies the bacteria that live in our mouths with his lab at the Forsyth Institute.It turns out that there are a bunch of microbes, including bacteria and other microscopic critters, that live in our mouth. Collectively, scientists call this the “oral microbiome”. And going beyond our breath, they can affect our health in ways that we are just beginning to understand. Bat takes us on a tour of this crazy small world and the one corner of it that he studies, a super tiny bacteria called TM7.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show

When the new Jurassic World movie came out last month, we invited Dr. Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum, onto the show to help us think about whether or not humans could ever coexist with dinosaurs. She blew our minds a little bit when she told us that we already have dinosaurs living among us today—birds!If birds are examples of living dinosaurs….Ever wonder if prehistoric dinosaurs had feathers like their modern counterparts?In this short, Jingmai explores our relationship with birds, how birds evolved from prehistoric dinosaurs, and how we know that some dinosaurs had early versions of feathers.Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.Follow us on Twitter (@casciencecenter), Instagram (@californiasciencecenter), and Facebook (@californiasciencecenter).Support the show