Boogers and sun sneezes: Know your nose

Brains On! Science podcast for kids

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 13.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2018

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this encore mash-up episode, we revisit some fascinating facts that will help you get to know your nose. Why does the sun make some people sneeze? And where do boogers come from anyway? Plus: A brand new moment of um answers the question: "Why do sloths move so slow?"

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious.
0:04.8	Brains On is supported on part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
0:16.3	Hello, hello, hello. I'm your host Molly Bloom, and today our producer Mark Sanchez is joining me.
0:21.2	Hello, hello, hello, Molly.
0:24.0	Today we're going to tackle a question about sneezing.
0:27.3	Why does the heat of the sun provokes sneezing and not the heat of the fire?
0:31.9	Interesting question, right?
0:33.6	Right, but that wasn't from one of our listeners.
0:35.8	Nope, this question was asked over 2300 years ago by Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle,
0:43.0	which leads us to Caitlin and Megan from Portland, Oregon.
0:45.6	Hi, I'm Caitlin and I'm nine years old.
0:48.0	Hi, I'm Megan and I'm seven years old.
0:51.0	Our question is, why does the sun make you sneeze?
0:56.7	Whenever I come up from the store, from school, and out to recess.
1:01.5	If it's a sunny day and I happen to glance up at the sky, I sneeze.
1:05.2	We don't know why we sneeze when we look up at the sun.
1:09.2	They ask pretty much the same question as Aristotle.
1:12.2	2300 years later. To find an answer, we turn to Dr. Louis Patachic.
1:17.1	He's a neurologist and human geneticist.
1:19.8	Yeah, he studies the brain and the genes that make up all humans.
1:23.4	So why do we sneeze when we look at the sun?
1:25.5	The bottom line is that nobody knows.
	...

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