Once things are gone, they're gone...or are they?

Question Your World: Can we bring back the past?

Do you remember the year 2004? Mean Girls was on the big screen, Usher’s "Burn" was heating up the Billboard charts, and the TV show Friends aired its final episode. Also, that was the last time 15 states in the US experienced the 17 year periodic Cicada emergence! Meaning 17 years later is...now(!!) and the process is happening again. This spring marks the return of the Brood X cicadas! So what's with this natural occurrence? Why will this spring be filled with cicadas?

Question Your World - What's the buzz about cicadas this spring?

Our various landscapes change a lot based on both the environment and the many things we do for human needs. Humans have caused some big changes on land, in the ocean, and even in the air. Some of those changes have impacted vast amounts of species including in here in the Southeastern part of the nation. Science and conservation are wonderful tools to help address some of those impacts. Many species have been wiped out, but with a little planning, work, and luck scientists are hoping to give some of these dwindling species a shot at a comeback. How are scientists helping the American Red Wolf population?

Question Your World - How are scientists helping the American Red Wolf population?

Researchers have just announced a discovery of the oldest known relative of the octopus, dating back to MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE THE DINOSAURS!!! When did the octopus first appear on Earth?

Question Your World - When did the octopus first appear on Earth?

Top Gun Maverick currently holds the title of highest grossing film of 2022. After all it’s got everything: Tom Cruise! Fast planes! Sorta witty one-liners, and an incredible use of Artificial Intelligence!! The original Top Gun movie came out in 1986, where Maverick and Ice Man became two iconic characters on the silver screen. Ice Man is played by Val Kilmer who unfortunately was diagnosed with throat cancer and in 2017 he finally went public with the news that he no longer had his voice. 
In 2018 and 2019 they filmed and completed the movie, but the pandemic delayed the release till this year. So finally movie goers got to see this huge blockbuster, including some new iconic one liners by Val Kilmer…but how? Artificial Intelligence, of course! How is AI used in movies?

Question Your World - How is AI used in movies?

Folks, we have small powered devices everywhere. Especially when you consider the many internet of things objects in our day to day lives. Things like your many home devices, various sensors for agriculture or construction, smart watches, small mountable cameras, and beyond. Many of these devices operate on batteries. There are billions of these devices actively used around the globe today. That’s a lot of batteries. 
As newer devices get developed faster and faster, more and more batteries will be needed to power their usage. A few problem though, Lithium extraction is pricey and most existing batteries have a relatively short shelf life and are incredibly dangerous to the environment when discarded as waste. So, how could we power the future? Today's piece digs into one particular option that has recently been making headlines, generating electrical power through algae!

Question Your World - How could we power the future?

We have standard means of getting energy, right?  We can eat foods to power up and sleep to re-charge, but what else?  Is there any way we could energy more directly?  Well, at the moment we can't, but a tiny little organism apparently can...

Question Your World: Can Living Things Eat Electricity?

Some things in life are simply counter intuitive. For example if you want to cool your mouth off from eating spicy food, water actually does not help, it just spreads the spicy compounds around more! Similarly, scientific research is suggesting another counterintuitive reality: adding more lanes to roads and highways actually increases traffic congestion! How does roadway expansion cause more traffic?

Question Your World - How does roadway expansion cause more traffic?

Scientists just confirmed that there is indeed at least one living person in the UK that was born with three sets of DNA! In 2015 the United Kingdom became the first to legalize a type of medical procedure called mitochondrial replacement therapy, or MRT. How does this process work? What are the results? there are many questions, but let's start with the big one, Can babies be born with three sets of DNA?

Question Your World: Can babies be born with three sets of DNA?

Octopuses have been studied a lot over the years, but we continue to learn more and more about this amazing animal. In recent years scientists have observed a species of octopus creating living environments that end up hosting 10 - 15 individuals. Our view of them as solitary creatures is now being questioned by these observations. Do octopuses make homes?

Question Your World - Do octopuses make homes?

Traditionally one of the ingredients needed to make concrete is sand. This means it has to be excavated from natural environments like dunes, beaches, riversides, and so on. 
The goal here was to see if science can help find a way to reduce the amount of organic products entering landfills and to find an alternative to sand that could be possible for concrete production. 
Well, a recent article published by a team of researchers is showing off the ever growing super powers of coffee! No, they don’t just splash some coffee on the sidewalk, there’s way more to it. 
Can coffee make concrete stronger?

Question. Your World: Can coffee make concrete stronger?

Music’s impact on the brain has been studied for years now. Simply listening to music increases blood flow to the regions of our brain that involve emotions. The limbic system, where our brain processes memory and emotions, becomes very active when our ears hear music. Now, we all know the right piece of music at the right time can make you feel like you’re falling in love or get you hyped for a night out on the town, but what about reducing pain? In a recent study researchers explored that exact question, but not just any music, Mozart's music! Does Mozart's music reduce pain?

Question Your World: Does Mozart's music reduce pain?

Have you ever had déjà vu? Our brain is a pretty impressive non stop processing machine. Occasionally there's a lag between when our brain receives information and when it processes information. Scientists still don't know what's going on, but there are some pretty interesting thoughts behind this phenomena!

Question Your World - Have you ever had déjà vu?

A recent tudy surveyed over 40,000 15-year-olds across nine English-speaking countries. Questionnaires were filled out by each participant. There were questions on how they rank their own math ability, their confidence, and a math-vocabulary-familiarity ranking! Participants in this study were then given sixteen math terms for them to rank in familiarity, but not all of them were real! So, 40,000-plus questionnaires later, what were the results?!? Which country's teenagers think they have good math skills?

Question Your World - Which country's teenagers think they have good math skills?

Science has asked a lot of questions over the years, but this one perhaps is one of the strangest and coolest at the same time! In a recent published article scientists shared their results from some research involving decoding brain signals and translating them into an audio recreation using AI. There are many levels to this breakthrough and tons of new questions to now ask, but let's start with the big question at hand: Why use AI to decode Pink Floyd songs from human brains?

Question You World - Why use AI to decode Pink Floyd songs from human brains?

They're delicious, they're cute, they're fuzzy, but can they help us sleep? A team of researchers recently shared some information regarding an experiment they did. These scientists set out to explore the impacts of kiwi fruit on our sleep. The results? Pretty interesting stuff! Can kiwi fruits help us sleep?

Question Your World - Can kiwi fruits help us sleep?

We've all had some itchy skin before. Sometimes it's a momentary occurrence and other times it can be so bad that it actually damages our skin. A team of researchers recently set out to explore that particular style of itching, associated with a common skin condition called eczema, and why it happens. Why do itch?

Question Your World - Why do we itch?

Everyone is familiar with the old saying that lions are the king of the jungle. For a long time now lions have been considered the top of the ecosystem in their natural habitats. However, recently something has been posing a real big threat to the king of the jungle and it’s something very unexpected!

Question Your World: Which animal is causing trouble for lions?

Getting to the airport gate on time and dealing with your travel companions is still on you, but scientists are working towards reducing the stresses of CO2 emissions from the use of jet fuel! You may have heard the news about a plane recently making a trip from London to New York using oils used for cooking and animal fats, but there’s yet another fuel option that researchers are working on and it’s made of human poo! 

Question Your World: Can human waste be turned into jet fuel?

Currently the human population clocks in at about 8.1 billion people and growing. One of the best sources of providing nutrition to humans has been meat, but meat-production has become a more and more environmentally costly process over the years. How will we provide meat for a growing population without stressing the environment along the way? According to some researchers, the answer may involve meat-rice! Why did scientists make meat-rice?

Question Your World - Why did scientists make meat-rice?

Election debates, the olympics, the lunar landing and many other big events have been shared through live broadcasts. Scientists recently started another broadcast and its from the deepest spot of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. 

Question Your World - How Can We See The Bottom Of The Ocean?

In just 5 days this new Pokemon game had 7.5 million downloads. While video games and augmented reality are considered a thing of the future, what is the impact that they are causing right now? 

Question Your World - How is Pokemon impacting the world?

Sure, they are considered some of the grossest animals on Earth, but cockroaches could be the key to providing some much needed nutrition to a lot of the malnourished masses. Can cockroaches feed the hungry? Let's explore this interesting and totally gross topic! 

Question Your World - Can Cockroaches Feed The Hungry?

Are we alone in the universe? Are there other places where life could arise? These are some of the biggest questions humanity has ever asked. For decades we've been looking for other places that could help us answer those questions. Well, the ESA just may have a big announcement for us and we're all excited to hear what they have to say. Hopefully they'll answer today's big question: Is there another Earth somewhere?

Question Your World - Is There Another Earth?

As large, soaking storms are projected to become more common in the future so is the risk of substantial flooding in this region. Our coastal communities will need to become more resilient to safely handle these future events. So, how do we make Virginia more resilient? 

Question Your World - How Can We Make Virginia More Resilient?

Ah yes, Valentine's Day...when love is in the air. Well, love is not the only thing in the air though. Scientists have been studying the amount of heat trapping gases in the air and asking how this will impact the production of a very special Valentine's Day item, chocolate! Let's dig into this sweet topic for today's big question: How does climate change impact chocolate?

Question Your World - How does climate change impact chocolate?

Let’s talk about the animal kingdom. As of last year nearly 80% of American house holds have domesticated dogs or cats. These familiar pets are just some examples of the 1.2 million species of living things knows by science. This big number accounts for your pets, plants, wild animals, fungi, single celled organisms, and algae like life-forms, but more impressive is the number of species that have yet to be discovered by science. How many species are left to discover?

Question Your World - How many species are left to discover?

How’d you sleep last night?  We often talk about how important sleep is because there’s always more and more new research to back up that claim! 

For example, recently sleep scientists made a huge discovery about how insufficient sleep allows the brain to go zombie on it self…yeah it starts to kind of eat itself in the braaaains! This of course led scientists to ask today's big question: Why does the brain eat itself?!?

Question Your World - When does the brain eat itself?!?

Was Black Panther the best picture of the year? That depends on who you ask. If you’re talking about the Oscars and all things Hollywood, then no, it did not win the prestigious award, but last year, a team of biologists and environmental photographers in Kenya published a photo that very well could be the best picture of the year and it’s of a real, rare, and ridiculously beautiful Black Panther! 

If you have not seen it yet, the photo is amazing and shows that this natural phenomenon still happens occasionally. Have you seen the Black Panther?

Question Your World - Have you seen the Black Panther?

Science involves a lot of work. It’s not just sitting around studying stuff, but sometimes science does involve studying how much people are sitting around. Recently some researchers published their work on how the nation is spending more time than ever sitting. How often do we sit?

Question Your World - How often do we sit?

Some pretty exceptional minds have made profound impacts on the world through science. Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician and long time Virginian, was one of those minds. How did Katherine Johnson impact science?

Question Your World - How did Katherine Johnson impact science?

Diabetes is in the top 10 causes of death globally. One of the key objectives of the science industry is to raise the quality of life for our human family, including diabetic individuals. We’ve seen a lot of work on glucose management over the years, but a brand new invention is now making headlines. How can an artificial pancreas help fight diabetes?

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