From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from

APM Studios. I'm Shayla Farsan.

Um. Have you ever experienced awe? You know, that feeling when something stops you dead in your tracks and you suddenly realize just how amazing the world is, there are all different things that can make you feel awe.

Like seeing beautiful art, hearing a song that moves you, or spending time with people you love.

I usually feel awe when I'm in nature.

Like one time I was hiking in California and I turned a corner and boom, there was the biggest

tree I had ever seen.

It was a redwood with thick reddish bark and soft, mealy branches. This tree was hundreds and hundreds of

years old, which means it was probably a little sapling back when George Washington was alive. Wild,

right? And it wasn't just old. It was huge. At least 300 feet tall.

That's taller than the Statue of Liberty.

But not all trees are hundreds of feet tall.

And it kind of makes you wonder, why are some trees so big and others so small?

Badger sent in a question about this too.

Badger from Houston, Texas. And my question is, why do some trees grow taller than others?

One of the main reasons certain trees grow taller than others is that they're different species. My name is Jake Mizbauer.

I'm an Arboriculture scientist at the Martin Arboretum in Lyle, Illinois.

I study how we can help people take care of trees that are growing in your backyard or in parks or in the city.

I've always loved trees ever since I was a little kid.

Before I became a scientist, I was a practicing arborist.

So what that means is I climbed trees for a living.

I had a harness that I wore

...