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

brain

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

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

Bob Milne

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

Kids and Interactive Guitar Display

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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Question Your World: What Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg?

Science is the process by which we can ask and answer questions about our natural world. Everything from our most routine activities all the way to the quest for our universe’s origins are fair game for the field of science! So, lets put science to the test and answer an age-old question: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Listen to the latest Question Your World Radio Report from the Science Museum of Virginia.

Chicken Or The Egg

Question Your World: Could We Ever Control Our Biological Clocks?

Every living creature on Earth is designed, more or less, by four basic nucleic acids. These acids combined in various sequences and strands form our DNA, which dictates everything about us from our daily physiology to our biological rhythms, commonly referred to as our biological clocks. This clock controls when we’re active, when we eat, how we age, and so on. So here’s the big question, could we someday alter our biological clocks?

Biological Clock

Ecology School on the James Planning Opening

John Ogle in Science Matters

The new James River Ecology School, for students in grades 5 through 12, will have a grand opening event on the 13th of April.

Question Your World: What's a Cloaked Nanoparticle?

Everyone’s familiar with the old fable about the wolf in sheep’s clothing. In this story a wolf dresses up like a sheep and sneaks past the farmer to go straight to his fluffy targets. Well, a similar story is currently unfolding in the medical field and it could have a huge impact on cancer patients. Check out the latest Question Your World Radio Report from the Science Museum of Virginia.

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.

Discover more on this topic here.