Table of contents for June/July 2025 in Brainspace

MATERIALS 1 Banana 1/4 tsp Salt 3/4 cups Water 1 tsp Liquid dish soap 15 ml Rubbing alcohol Toothpick or skewer Clear glass jar Coffee or tea filter Blender LAUNCH ZAPPAR TO WATCH METHOD 1. Chill the rubbing alcohol in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before beginning the experiment. Cold alcohol helps the DNA separate more effectively. 2. Peel the banana and place it into a blender. 3. Add salt and warm water, just enough to cover the banana. The salt helps break down cell structures, and warm water assists in dissolving the components. 4. Blend the mixture by pulsing the blender twice, or for about 5 seconds. You want it mixed but not too runny or frothy. 5. Strain the mixture through a coffee filter or tea strainer into a clear…

Imagine you hop on an airplane in Toronto, travel east for over 18 hours, land in the Central Asian city of Tashkent in the country of Uzbekistan, and then drive about 4 ½ hours south. You’ll end up in beautiful rolling mountains, with trees dotting the grasslands. It will look so peaceful, but you’ll actually be standing where a large community once bustled in medieval times. The Silk Road 130 B.C.E. until 1453 C.E. LAUNCH ZAPPAR TO WATCH WHAT IS LIDAR? Lidar technology can map areas that humans can’t easily see. Mounted on something airborne such as a drone, the equipment pulses lasers down to Earth’s surface and records how long it takes for the light to bounce back. This information enables it to measure the height of items on…

If there ever was a creature most likely to hide Easter eggs on the ocean floor, it would be Jorunna parva. With its fuzzy, chubby body and rabbit-like ears, this adorable organism is better known by its nickname, the sea bunny. The sea bunny is not a bunny at all but rather a slug, or gastropod, belonging to the nudibranch (pronounced NOO-di-brank) group of animals. Nudibranch means “naked gills,” referring to the way their gills are exposed on their backs. In a sense, the sea bunny breathes through its tail. The feather-like plumes on its backside are actually a cluster of gills. There are about 3,000 species of nudibranch, a mollusc that sheds its shell while still in the larval stage. Nudibranchs often come in amazingly vibrant colours such as…

PICTURE THIS: you are an animal researcher and have been assigned the task of identifying all the species that live in a particular lake. What steps would you take to complete your assignment successfully and ensure that you don’t miss or overlook any species? TRADITIONAL APPROACHES Perhaps you could take a boat to the middle of the lake and document all the marine life that swims by. Maybe you could set up a waterproof video camera to capture all the action underwater. Unfortunately, despite the many hours you spent on the boat, you couldn’t possibly spot all the species beyond your field of view. And even though the video camera had high-quality resolution, it might fail to capture clear images because some debris was stuck to the lens. If only…

MATERIALS 2 Small bowls 1 tsp Salt  1 cup Water, (divided into two 1/2 cups) 3 Gummy bears LAUNCH ZAPPAR TO WATCH METHOD 1. Pour ½ cup of water into each of two bowls, making sure the gummy bears will be fully submerged. Add the salt to one of the bowls and stir until it completely dissolves. 2. Gently place one gummy bear into each bowl. Leave them to soak for at least one hour. The longer they sit, the more noticeable the results will be. Set aside a third gummy bear as your comparison for later. As they soak, both gummy bears will begin to swell, but the one in salt water will absorb moisture differently than the one in plain water. 3. After soaking, compare the two swollen gummy bears to the…

By the thirteenth century (the 1200s), all the continents on Earth were populated with many different groups of people. There were kingdoms and empires, and their kings and emperors were always looking to make their realms bigger – or at least stop attacks from others who wanted more land. In Asia, there was a young Mongol boy named Temüjin. He was cast out, and sent away from his clan with his mother and siblings. Temüjin’s father, leader of a small clan, was poisoned when Temüjin was 9 years old. As was the custom at the time, his family was left to wander the land and survive on their own. They foraged for food, eating whatever they could find, even mice. During those difficult times, young Temüjin decided to become a…

The comb jelly is one of very few animals known to pull off this biological “time travel,” joining the ranks of the famous “immortal jellyfish.” This remarkable discovery happened quite by accident when a startled scientist realized that an adult comb jelly was missing from its tank and a larva was in its place! Observations have verified that under stress, the creature will shrink and take on the physical characteristics and feeding behaviours it had at a much earlier stage in its life. The comb jelly or “sea walnut” is a fascinating creature that can reverse its aging process. This unique ability is a survival technique that allows it to transform from its adult stage back to its larval stage when it experiences stress, such as an injury or starvation.…

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of exoplanet K2-22b. Over the last decade, this exoplanet has been spewing dust into space as it orbits its host star called K2-22. Let’s learn more about exoplanets and why the contents of K2-22b’s dust trails are so fascinating and mysterious. eXoPLaneTS eXPLaineD An exoplanet (short for extrasolar planet) exists outside of our solar system. Most exoplanets, including K2-22b, orbit a star, while others, called rogue exoplanets, float freely in space. There are over 5,800 confirmed exoplanets, and NASA estimates billions more have yet to be found. (Most of the exoplanets we know about are in the Milky Way galaxy, which is the farthest region our most sophisticated telescopes can currently explore.) K2-22B TIMELINE 2015 NASA announces the discovery of a “disintegrating…

Velvet ants look tiny, fuzzy and cute. Don’t let that fool you though! Under their fluffy exterior, velvet ants are some of the toughest insects around. Velvet ants are not actually ants but, in fact, wasps. They are sometimes mistaken for ants because the females don’t have wings. Velvet ants are parasitic. Rather than build their own nests, they sneakily lay their eggs in the nests of other insects, such as other wasps or bees. Velvet ants live most of their lives alone. This is a dangerous way to live: solitary critters are an easy target for predators. Plus, female velvet ants may have nasty encounters with other insects when trying to steal their nests. However, velvet ants are rarely attacked and killed, because they have a whole arsenal of…

Music moves us as we sway to a beat. However, sound itself produces vibrations that can physically move our eardrums and, at high intensity, will even shake our bones! Sound creates vibrations that can shatter glass and move everything from grains of sand on a speaker to pipe cleaners on a surface. Test sound and motion by conducting these 2 simple and effective experiments. LAUNCH ZAPPAR TO WATCH MATERIALS Metal bowl Plastic wrap Pipe cleaners (1-3) METHOD 1. Tightly cover the top of the metal bowl with plastic wrap, making sure it's sealed securely and stretched smooth across the surface. 2. Cut each pipe cleaner in half, then twist the pieces into fun spiral shapes. Gently place them on top of the plastic wrap. 3. Now for the fun part! Stand to the side…

FACT Living things share common DNA. Did we all evolve from the same thing? Physicists, astronauts, doctors and most scientists continue to research and explore the origin of DNA – the code for our genetics. Scientific research indicates that humans share common DNA with all species from the Five Kingdoms of Life. So does this mean you share the same DNA as a banana? 60% of your genes are like a banana's! Yes. Our human genetic sequence is similar to that of other organisms, including plants. We know this because our human genes are identified in many other species. For instance, approximately 99.9% of your DNA is similar to other humans. We share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. THE SECRET FAMILY RECIPE Your bones, eyes, ears, hair, teeth, muscles…

Saharan dust makes sea life robust Every year, more than 240 million metric tonnes (264.55 million US tons) of dust is scooped off the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert by trade winds. This dust is swept up into the atmosphere and then blown across the Atlantic Ocean, where it settles thousands of kilometers away from where it started in Northern Africa. But unlike the dust in your home, these fine particles are welcome where they land! A key component of this Saharan dust is iron, which is essential to the growth of marine plants. Tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton need iron to perform photosynthesis, a process in which they turn carbon dioxide into energy. In turn, photosynthesis not only supports the phytoplankton but also the small fish and other…

All around the world, there are tstrange accounts of animals falling from the sky. Ancient Greek texts describe rains of frozen frogs. As recently as 2021, a city in Texas reported a rain of fish! Though they sound like myths, these strange rains are scientifically possible. Rains of animals may occur naturally. Scientists think that strong winds during storms may be to blame. In specific kinds of stormy weather, spinning winds can create a phenomenon called waterspouts. These cones of wind look like tornadoes and act like vacuums. They can suck up air, water and maybe even small animals! A waterspout can travel over water and onto coastal land, sometimes ending up far from where it formed. As the waterspout loses energy over time, it will drop whatever it sucked…

Get ready to meet a few of the most amazing animals on the planet! With their tough scales, solar-powered bodies, 3D vision and ironclad exoskeletons, these creatures are some of the most fascinating and unusual animals on Earth. UNIQUE in their class The Only Solar-Powered Vertebrate Yellow-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) are shy creatures found in North America’s forests. They can grow to be about 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 inches) long. They're black with bright yellow spots and like to stay hidden under logs and leaves. But here’s something amazing – this species of salamander has a special trick: they can get their food from sunlight, like a plant! This is called photosynthesis. The photosynthesis happens while they are still in their egg and larvae form, living in…

Seeing may seem like a simple thing to do, but behind the scenes, sight is a really complex process. First, your eyes use multiple different types of cells to take in light. Nerves translate this light into signals that they pass on to the brain. Finally, your brain absorbs this information and turns it into a picture that makes sense. Our visual system is usually great at this job. But every now and then, the messages passed between eyes and brain get muddled up. This can cause optical illusions. Here are a few common illusions and the science behind them. Fading stars When you look at a starry sky, you may see lots of stars in the corner of your eyes. But when you look directly at them, they disappear!…