Episodes

  • Egg at Altitude

    Egg at Altitude
    Dec 17 2025
    To cook an egg at altitude, does it have to be boiled longer than at sea level?
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    4 mins
  • Standards

    Standards
    Dec 3 2025
    The world is full of standards. Why do we have the ones that we have, and do we deserve them?
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    5 mins
  • Aqueducts

    Aqueducts
    Nov 19 2025
    The ancient Romans constructed aqueducts to overcome valleys. Why didn’t they just use pipes instead?
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    4 mins
  • Power Lines

    Power Lines
    Nov 5 2025
    The electrical grid is made up of masts of different shapes that carry a variable number of power lines. What is the logic behind this variety?
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    5 mins
  • Mountains & Hills

    Mountains & Hills
    Aug 23 2025
    Mountains are generally considered terrain elevations. But what distinguishes a mountain from a hill? And if an elevation is very close to the one next to it, when do they still belong to the same mountain, and when do they become mountains in their own right?
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    5 mins
  • Cheese Eyes

    Cheese Eyes
    Jun 15 2025
    Some hard cheeses are full of holes, commonly known as eyes. Where do these eyes come from, and why did they start to disappear in what has come to be known as the Great Eye Crisis?
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    6 mins
  • Horizontal Fish

    Horizontal Fish
    Jun 4 2025
    Most fish are vertical, but some are horizontal. How come?
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    5 mins
  • Italian Time

    Italian Time
    May 30 2025
    On most sundials, the meridian — the mark indicating the sun’s highest point in the sky — points to 12 o’clock. But sometimes, it points to a much later hour, between 4 and 8 p.m. How come?
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    6 mins