meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Curiosity Weekly

Prince Rupert’s Drop, Why Earth’s Core Is Younger Than Its Surface, and Newborn Babies May Be Super Smart

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2018

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn why a Prince Rupert’s drop is both super-fragile and virtually unbreakable; why researchers think newborn babies are a lot smarter than they look; and why Earth’s core is younger than its surface.

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:

Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey

If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!

Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!

 

Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/prince-ruperts-drop-why-earths-core-is-younger-than-its-surface-and-newborn-babies-may-be-super-smart

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, we've got three stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

0:05.7

I'm Cody Gough.

0:06.7

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:07.7

Today you learn why a Prince Rupert's drop is both super fragile and virtually unbreakable,

0:13.0

why researchers think newborn babies are a lot smarter than they look,

0:17.0

and why Earth's core is younger than its surface.

0:20.0

Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily.

0:24.0

Would you believe that there's an object that's both nearly unbreakable and so fragile that it

0:28.8

shatters instantly?

0:30.1

Well, believe it.

0:31.6

This paradoxical object is a piece of glass known as a Prince Rupert's drop.

0:36.0

I just found out that Destin, the guy from Smarter Every Day, has named his cat Prince Rupert, and I think that's a perfect name for a cat because if you

0:46.8

touch one end you're fine if you touch the other end all hell breaks loose that's the most

0:51.8

cat person thing you've ever said on this show.

0:55.6

It's perfect. Cat people will understand. Enjoy that piece of Prince Rupert's trivia

1:01.2

cats people. Well Prince Rupert's trivia cat people. Well, Prince Rupert's drop is said to have been

1:05.6

named after the nephew of King Charles the first who was able to bring the drops

1:09.9

to England in 1660, but they'd been around for a really long time before then, possibly as far

1:15.6

back as Roman times. And Prince Rupert's drop is super simple to make. Literally, you just drip

1:21.5

molten glass into super cold water.

1:23.7

You end up with a tear drop shaped piece of glass that's nearly impossible to break at one end

1:28.8

and really fragile on the other end.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.