Table of contents for February/March 2026 in Brainspace

Pi (π) is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Think about it this way: if you wrap a piece of string around a circle and then unroll it, the string is 3 times the diameter of the circle plus a little more. That's Pi. It starts with 3.14159 and keeps going forever without repeating. Every circle in the universe, from the rings of Saturn to the disks of distant galaxies, from tree rings to the arc of a rainbow, all have the same Pi value. Pi is so important to physics that it appears in all sorts of equations, such as the ones that explain how the planets orbit the Sun. Pi is necessary to calculate electric fields and the shape of the entire universe.…

LAUNCH ZAPPAR TO WATCH YOU WILL NEED: Chalk Vinegar Clear glass container Safety First! Be careful not to rub your eyes when handling vinegar. Wash your hands immediately after finishing this experiment. Break chalk into small pieces. Fill half the glass container with vinegar. Add one piece of chalk to the container and observe the changes that take place. Record what you see happening. Add another piece of chalk to the container. Record what you see happening. Continue to add chalk until you do not see any more changes taking place. WHAT'S HAPPENING? When the chalk is added to an acid such as vinegar, a chemical reaction occurs. This is neutralization, which happens when an acid and a base combine. During the reaction, a gas and a neutral solution are…

JUST HOW OLD ARE YOU, ANYWAY? The answer might surprise you. Every single part of you is built from atoms that are older than Earth itself. Four kinds of atoms – elements called hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen – make up most of your body. One of them, carbon, makes up about 18% of you. If you weigh 50 kg (110.2 lbs), about 9 kg (19.8 lbs) of you is pure carbon. FROM STARDUST TO PLANET EARTH Carbon was forged inside stars billions of years ago! When those stars exploded as supernovae, they scattered clouds of carbon and other elements into space. These dust clouds eventually formed planets, plants, animals and you. You can literally say you are made of stardust! CARBON IS EVERYWHERE Carbon is one of the most…

When we drop a balloon or bang it against a hard object, it barely makes a sound. But did you know a balloon can become noisy when we insert an object in it and shake it in a circular motion? The object that we insert in the balloon makes all the difference in how noisy the balloon becomes. HEXAGONAL NUT VS. COIN – THE SOUND BATTLE BEGINS A hexagonal nut and a coin both have a circular shape. But when these items roll around inside a balloon, one produces a quiet hissing sound while the other causes a loud squealing sound. Guess which item creates the noisiest balloon – the hex nut or the coin? Gather your supplies and get ready to test your prediction! YOU WILL NEED: 2 balloons…

When you picture the world's largest waterfall, you probably imagine looking up at a roaring wall of water such as Niagara Falls in Canada or Angel Falls in Venezuela. Surprisingly, the waterfall that dwarfs all others on the planet is one you can't even see. It is under the ocean! The Denmark Strait is a body of water that separates Iceland and Greenland. Within it, icy waters from the Nordic Seas flow south and meet the warmer waters of the Irminger Sea. Because this cold water is heavier than the warm water, it sinks very fast, sliding over a giant underwater cliff that drops about 3.5 kilometres (11,500 feet). That makes it the tallest recorded waterfall on the planet. The Denmark Strait cataract is also incredibly powerful. About 3.5 million…

Launch Zappar to see Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand Karst features are shaped by water dissolving rock over a very long time. They form in places where the bedrock is made of carbonate rocks such as limestone, dolomite, or marble. These rocks slowly dissolve when they encounter slightly acidic water. The result is a landscape full of surprises – sinkholes, caves, underground rivers, disappearing streams and dramatic rock formations. The process begins with rain. As rain falls through the air, it absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2). When it reaches the ground and passes through soil, it picks up even more CO2, forming a weak acid called carbonic acid. This mildly acidic water seeps into tiny cracks in the rock. Over thousands of years, those cracks slowly widen as the rock…

THE WINNER IS … WHALES! Whales are the loudest animals, and the loudest species of all is the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Their clicking sounds can blast up to 230 decibels (dB), which is far louder than a jet engine at 150 dB. They use these clicks for echolocation, helping them navigate deep, dark ocean waters and hunt for squid. As well as being loud, blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are the largest animal on Earth. Their rumbling groans can reach 188 dB. In the ocean's deepest sound-carrying layers, these low notes can travel up to 1,600 km (about 1,000 mi), letting blue whales talk to each other across vast distances. Humpbacks, orcas and fin whales are also known to be extremely loud. Sound travels differently in water than in air.…

Space exploration reminds us how much more there is to learn beyond our own world. That's exactly what astronomers thought when they discovered a new exoplanet 578 light-years away from Earth called TOI-4507 b. TOI-4507 b is a bit of a maverick, as it breaks many rules scientists expect planets to follow. First off, it orbits a very young star, which is only about 700 million years old. That may sound old, but it is a baby compared to our sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. And TOI-4507 b's orbit is almost perfectly sideways, circling its star from top to bottom instead of around its middle. An exoplanet is any planet located outside our Solar System that orbits a star other than the Sun But what may stand out…

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are gases in Earth's atmosphere that have heat-trapping properties. The problem is that too many GHGs are being pumped into the atmosphere. This, in turn, causes the atmosphere to thicken, making the planet hotter and our weather more extreme. The United Nations (UN) has identified six main greenhouse gases. They are: Fuel combustion in motor vehicles is a major source of nitrous oxide (N2O). Burning fossil fuels is the main source of carbon dioxide (CO2); and one of the main sources of methane (CH4) is the production and transportation of natural gas, oil and coal. Most scientists believe that one of the major factors contributing to global warming is the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. It's clear…

Caroline Saxon, Communications Associate for the Whale Sanctuary Project, explains: “In a natural setting, these animals swim maybe a hundred miles a day, diving deep. They have social lives, social networks, very tightly knit family groups with their own culture. They are intelligent, social, emotional beings with rich and complex lives. None of that is available in a barren concrete tank. They simply do not thrive in captivity.” That is why, in 2019, Canada became the first country to pass a law to phase out captivity of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) for human entertainment. Similar laws are being enacted in other countries. But what's going to happen to all those captive whales? Whale sanctuary That's where the Whale Sanctuary Project steps in. This group of cetacean experts saw the…

Sight and sound exist beyond what humans can see and hear. Dogs, for example, can hear sounds at a much higher frequency than humans can. On Earth, we hear winds howl when air moves at high speeds. Space, however, is a near-vacuum without any air. So, is there sound in space? The absence of air in space suggests that the answer to our question is no. Which is partially correct. The human ear can't register any noise in space – at least, not without some technology and high-frequency equipment. But sounds do exist in space. Sound – on Earth and in space – is caused by vibrations or resonating frequencies. Essentially, sound is vibration, and we know that anything with an atomic composition vibrates. Therefore an asteroid collision in space…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and helpful chatbots have been around for decades, but the newest bots are more advanced than ever. They can seem almost human in the way they chat and remember a conversation! These chatbots are powered by AI systems called large language models (LLMs), which are inspired by networks in the human brain. They understand natural human language, but they do not truly “think” the way people do. They are trained on large collections of data from digital books, websites, articles and other sources. Using mathematics and a “transformer” – think of it as the super-charged engine of the LLM – they are extremely fast at finding patterns in text. Here's what happens when you ask an AI chatbot a question, called a prompt. Input: “What is a black…