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Question Your World: Why Can’t We Stop Thinking?

Try to stop thinking for five seconds. Ready?…steady…GO! Okay, now you’re just reading this and not-stopping-your-thinking! So why can’t we stop thinking? Well, this is the handiwork of our old friend, evolution. A long time ago moment-to-moment readiness was necessary for survival. In those days people had to worry about things like lion attacks, leopard attacks, monkeys stealing berries, scorpions, falling rocks, drowning, giant snakes, and so on. This required a brain that was constantly working. To learn more, listen to the Question Your World Radio Report below from the Science Museum of Virginia .

Virginia State University Extension Exploring Aquaponics

Virginia State University is ready to begin construction on a unique Aquaponics research lab in a downtown Petersburg warehouse. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture, or fish-farming, and hydroponics, growing plants without dirt in nutrient rich water. It’s an ancient concept but a comparatively new scientific field and Virginia State University is on the cutting edge. WCVE Public Radio’s John Ogle has this Science Matters video report.

NASA Langley Wraps Up Out-of-This-World Year

NASA Langley had an extraordinary year. An employer of 3,600, the 800-acre campus in Hampton, Virginia is celebrating 95 years as the nation’s first civil aeronautics laboratory. Among the many highlights and achievments from over the past year, NASA Langley had a key role in the landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover.

Your Brain On Music

Music is a form of communication which, like language, is inherent to human behavior and brain function. The Richmond Academy of Medicine recently learned about Your Brain on Music in an evening presentation held at the Country Club of Virginia with a Penn State Professor and a rag time piano player–a classically-trained piano player with his own exceptional “brain on music” story to tell.

Guitars and Science Rock

If you love guitars - either as a musician or a listener - you have to go to the Science Museum of Virginia between October 13 and January 6th to see the new exhibition opening this weekend, “Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World.” This exhibition is your opportunity to learn all about the history and evolution of the instrument and explore science - that of the acoustic and electric guitars and delve into the science of sound.

WCVE Public Radio’s John Ogle interviews Harvey P. Newquist, Executive Director and Founder of the National Guitar Museum in the Science Matters report below.

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Six Virginia Teams Score in Regional Robotics Final

John Ogle in Science Matters

Six Virginia high school teams will compete at the FIRST World Robotics Championship in St. Louis. They won that right after a two day competition over the weekend at the VirginiaFIRST Robotics Regional Championship at the Siegel Center.

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Education In The Rough; Teaching Children How To Connect With Nature

Charles Fishburne in Science Matters

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, St. Joseph’s Villa and the Virginia Association of Science Teachers are offering a conference this weekend for pre-K to 5th grade teachers about how to promote a nature-based education. Charles Fishburne talks with keynote speaker David Sobel, a senior faculty member at Antioch University, who has written seven books and 60 articles on children and nature, in this WCVE Science Matters report.

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Question Your World: What Makes Pi So Special?

Science and math fans around the world have been celebrating Pi day for a while now. Pi is the 3.14 number that helps us understand circles, so what better day to celebrate than March 14? So the question is, what makes Pi so special? Listen to this week’s Question Your World Radio Report from the Science Museum of Virginia to learn more about Pi.

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Question Your World: How Does Sugar Impact Our Brain?

How does sugar impact our brain? Well, this is a tale of two sugars - glucose and fructose. Both occur naturally, but one of them has a vastly different way of communicating with your brain. In one corner we have glucose, commonly found in pineapples and oranges among others. The consumption of this sugar registers a “full” feeling in the brain. So basically you eat enough of the foods with this in it and your brain thinks “Oh boy, I’m stuffed.” Now, in the other corner you have fructose, commonly found in sodas and canned foods.

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