A hole in your heart means there’s an opening in the wall between the right side and left side of the heart. That opening allows blood to leak between the chambers instead of following the normal rout...

Cosmo and I find out why bears never became pets, with expert input from Alaska wildlife biologist Sean Farley.Check out the WSU Bear CenterLearn more about canine genes with the SmithsonianFind out a...

The urine a dog leaves behind is like a smell fingerprint. It’s full of chemical messages like hormones. One whiff of another dog’s urine tells my dog roommate important stuff—like the other dog’s age...

Keeping your goldfish on a regular light/dark schedule will make it happy and healthy. But feeding it at the same time every day may help even more.

The QWERTY keyboard hit the market as early as 1872. It was part of a new device called a typewriter. But nobody is sure why inventor Christopher Sholes organized the keyboard that way.

Watching TV up close won't hurt your eyes. But your eyes need to focus on close things and far away things. That variety keeps yours eyes working.

Air moves because the sun heats Earth unevenly. Warmer air rises and cooler air sinks. Air molecules flow from places with lots of air molecules to places with fewer—as wind.

I learned all about black holes from WSU observational astrophysicist Vivienne Baldassare. Check out Dr. Baldassare's favorite black holeLearn more about galaxies, black holes, and exoplanets fro...

Peng told me that self-driving cars are getting safer. Some studies show that certain driverless cars have fewer crashes than cars driven by people in similar places.

WSU’s resident science cat, Dr. Universe, celebrates 30 years of answering children’s questions and connecting young people with science.

Tastes are chemical signals. They’re picked up by gustatory (taste) receptors in some of the butterfly’s cells.

We see a planet’s color because of the way our eyes and brains process the sun’s light as it reflects off that planet. How it looks depends on the planet’s state and composition.

Wolf biology made them good candidates to live with humans. That includes their social structure and physical needs. Bear biology doesn't work the same way.

Mapping shared traits helps scientists build insect family trees. That’s how they figured out that mantises and roaches form a group called Dictyoptera.

Different kinds of birds drink in different ways—from scooping to suctioning, from drinking seawater to getting their water from prey. Birds adapted their drinking techniques to match their environmen...

There are about 4,000 species of mosquitoes. They've all adapted their strategies to specific host animals. But most mosquitoes bite non-human animals.

Smoke makes it hard for alarm pheromone to travel in the air. It interferes with how the bees pick it up and pump it out.

The electric current moves from the solar panel to copper wire. Then it travels off the roof and eventually to the outlets in your home.

It turns out ounces—and later oz—evolved as words traveled from Ancient Rome through Medieval Europe and into England.

That’s a big deal because graduates are more likely to be healthier, earn more money, and have more choices. Schools want to help.

Cosmo and I found out why our tallest animal friends have long, dark tongues—and what melanin does for humans, too. Thanks to Cynthia Cooper, who studies animal pigments at WSU Vancouver.Find out more...

Sometimes robins see what they’re hunting. They may notice tiny movements in the soil. Or they might spot small holes in the ground—or even a bit of a worm poking out of a hole. Usually robins see or ...

Today I'm talking with Julie Ménard, a planetary scientist at Washington State University. She told me about the terrestrial planets in our solar system, how we're about to visit Mars—and could even s...

The sun melts the top layer of snow. Liquid water oozes into the air pockets. If the snow refreezes, the liquid water between snowflakes freezes, too.

Cosmo and I learn about all kinds of life cycles: holometabolous (big change), hemimetabolous (small change), and ametabolous (no change). Check out how a caterpillar makes the big change with De...

Productive apple trees need another compatible apple tree nearby. Apple production also depends on weather and how many apples it made the previous year.

Dear Darwin and Rubal, Before I read your question, I had never heard of a white hole. So, I scampered over to my friend Vivienne Baldassare to find out more. She’s an astrophysicist at Washington Sta...

Today I'm talking with Julie Ménard, a planetary scientist at Washington State University. She told me about the terrestrial planets in our solar system, how we're about to visit Mars—and could even s...

Dear Tim, I love to bake and eat depression cake. It was invented during the Great Depression in the 1930s, when some cake ingredients—like eggs, milk and butter—were hard to get. The recipe makes flu...

Dear Kenton, When I think about the Arctic, I picture frigid waters filled with narwhals, polar bears and icebergs. I asked my friend Von Walden how those icebergs got there. He’s a polar scientist at...

Cosmo and I learn about shots—and new technology our friend WSU's Roland Chen is working on to make painless vaccines.Learn more about microarray patches Find out how vaccines work with the Amoeb...

Dear Nora, I live near a few volcanoes. One of them—Mount St. Helens—is bubbling with molten material that will probably gush out as lava someday. I asked my friend Johannes Hämmerli about lava. He’s ...

Dear Penny, Blue oceans, green forests, a cozy blanket of oxygen. Our planet is a super comfy home. It’s hard to imagine there was ever a time it didn’t exist. I asked my friend Julie Ménard how Earth...

Dear Winona, When I was a kitten, I visited a drive through zoo. A giraffe slithered its long, purple tongue through the open car window and licked my face. It was awesome. It turns out dark colors co...

Dear Kristen, This answer is fueled by coffee with a splash of milk from a dairy cow. I asked my friend Kimberly Davenport why my morning milk doesn’t come from a beef cow. She’s an expert in cow gene...

Cosmo and I learn how cell phones send texts, images and calls from phone to phone—thanks to our friend, electrical engineer Ben Belzer. Resources you can use:Learn more about binary code with Cr...

Dear Morgan, Like me, lions and tigers have sharp teeth and retractable claws. They sometimes use those fierce claws to knead or make biscuits. They enjoy a nap and good grooming sesh. That’s not surp...

Dear Lucy, When I go to the veterinarian, they measure how big I am. They use a scale to check my weight. They find my length and height with a measuring tape. But nobody can put a planet on a scale. ...

Dear Garrett, On very clear days, I can see five volcanoes from my campus. They’re Rainier, Hood, Adams, St. Helens and Baker. That’s…a lot. I asked my friend Katie Cooper about it. She’s a geophysici...

Love veggies? Me, too. And so does my friend Tim Waters, regional vegetable specialist at WSU Extension.In this episode, you'll hear:What Extension isWhat it was like for Extension agents back in 1918...

Dear Maya, I mostly keep all four paws on the ground. It’s hard to imagine living out in space. I asked my friend Erica Crespi about it. She’s a biologist at Washington State University. She  studies ...

Dear James, There weren’t calculators or computers in medieval Europe. But there were math duels. Mathematicians would gather in public squares and pose tricky math problems to each other. Then they r...

Dear Sofia, Every week my column gets printed on paper. Sometimes I use paper to dry my paws. Or clean up after I use the litterbox. I asked my friend Xiuyu Wang who invented paper—and why. He studies...

Dear Leonel, I’ve met some naughty cats. I’ve also known some misunderstood ones. I asked my friend Chris Barry why humans are sometimes like that, too. He’s a psychologist at Washington State Univers...

Dear Jake, Sometimes, when I’m working on a tricky question, I scale the tree outside my office. It helps me focus. I asked my friend Steve Lampa how cats like me do that. He teaches small animal anat...

Dear George and Samuel, Roasted and soft. Raw and crunchy. Baked into a cake. I love eating all kinds of carrots. I asked my friend Tim Waters why those orange veggies are so tasty. He studies vegetab...

Dooooo-doo, Dooooo-doo. 🦈 Today Cosmo and I learn about sharks and their rad digestive systems—all thanks to my friend, Dr. Nora Hickey, fish veterinarian at Washington State University. Want to ...