Okay, here's a science history quiz for you. Have you ever heard of Alexander

von Humboldt? Every school tall in the mid-19th century had heard his name. Every scientist who went to Europe where he lived

to see him, it was like a right of passage basically. It's Friday, July 25th, and

today is my favorite day of the week. It's

science Friday. Science Friday.

I'm John Dankowski.

Coming up later, we'll revisit the long legacy of Polymath and naturalist Alexander

Von Humboldt.

But first, this week, there was an unexpected hydrothermal

explosion at Yellowstone National Park.

Just a few miles northwest of Old Faithful Geiser,

it's in the Biscuit Basin thermal area. Here's Ira Plato with

Alex Hagar, the Water and the West reporter for K-U-N-C, with the latest on that explosion,

plus some other top science stories of the week.

Welcome back to Science Friday.

Thanks for having me again, Ira.

So what's going on here with that explosion?

Oh man, I was really dramatic.

If you watch a video of it, it's this giant plume of steam and rock shooting into the sky and people running away on the boardwalk there.

And fortunately nobody was injured, but it is this really spectacular reminder of just how much heat and force sits under the

surface at Yellowstone.

And do we have any idea what caused it?

...