Welcome back, friends. I’m Dr. Universe. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.    In this episode, we meet Emily Erickson. She’s part of the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge team. That’s a community science project that asks people to look for monarch butterflies in early spring and send in pictures to help scientists learn more about these important pollinators.If you’re interested in helping monarch butterflies near you, check out these nectar plant guides from the Xerces Society. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.  It's not enough to just do science—you've got to get the science out so people can read all about it. That's where science writers come in. In this episode, we meet Sara Zaske, a science writer at Washington State University. She also edits the Ask Dr. Universe column!  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.  What's a postdoctoral fellow? How do rattlesnakes rattle? What's it like searching for snakes in the field or taking blood samples from a grizzly bear? In this episode, we meet Blair Perry, a postdoctoral fellow at Washington State University. He uses the same methods to study the genes of snakes and bears!  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.   Do you love our solar system? Today, 4th graders from Palouse Prairie Charter School take me on a space tour in their Boomcrusher space shuttle. Come along!Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University geared toward an 8- to 13-year-old audience. If your class or group is interested in working on a podcast episode with Dr. Universe, reach out. It takes about 6 months for young scientists to research and write a script and then work through editing, factchecking, and recording. Sound effects courtesy Zapsplat.com. Thank you to Dr. Michael Allen (WSU Physics & Astronomy) for factchecking and to Northwest Public Broadcasting for recording. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.   How do you become a scientist? What does a scientist's day look like? Is being a scientist fun?  In this episode, we meet Nora Hickey, a fish veterinarian at Washington State University. We learn about fish medicine and why it’s important to follow your interests as you grow up. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next. Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University geared toward an 8- to 13-year-old audience. Check out WSU Veterinary Medicine’s Outreach Events—like the Teddy Bear Clinic—to find university experiences like Dr. Hickey had when she was a kid. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. What was early Earth like? How did life start on Earth? And what’s up with plate tectonics?In part two of this two-part episode, we meet geologist Johannes Haemmerli of Washington State University. We learn about early Earth, some brand-new research on plate tectonics and the idea that this process helped make Earth habitable.As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next.Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University geared toward an 8- to 13-year-old audience. Listeners working on the Middle School History of Earth Next Generation Science Standards may particularly enjoy this episode: | MS-ESS1-4. | Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history. | MS-ESS2-2. | Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales. | MS-ESS2-3. | Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

What was early Earth like? How did life start on Earth? And what’s up with plate tectonics?In part one of this two-part episode, we meet NASA scientist and Blue Marble Space Institute of Science founder Dr. Sanjoy Som. We learn about early Earth, stromatolites and how we can care for the planet that gave us life.As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University curated for an 8- to 13-year-old audience. Listeners working on the Middle School History of Earth Next Generation Science Standards may particularly enjoy this episode:| MS-ESS1-4. | Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.| MS-ESS2-2. | Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.| MS-ESS2-3. | Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.How do you become a scientist? What does a scientist's day look like? Is being a scientist fun?In this episode, we meet Kalli Stephens, a student scientist at Washington State University. We learn about what she does in the lab and how to find your place in science as a young person.  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next! As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. How do you become a scientist? What does a scientist's day look like? Is being a scientist fun?In this episode, we meet Dr. Marcos Frank, a brain scientist at Washington State University. We learn about his path to becoming a scientist and how science works in real life. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next! As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

I'm Dr. Universe, and if you're anything like me, you've got big questions about our world. I get lots of questions from kids wondering about aliens.In this episode, we meet Afshin Khan, an astrobiologist who studied signs of life when she was a Ph.D. student at Washington State University. She shares her adventures to uncover the teeny, tiny life that forms framboidal pyrite on Earth -- and what it would mean if we found those structures outside Earth.As always, submit your burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next!Learn more about astrobiology from scientists like Dr. Khan at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. Thanks to the amazing student actors at Regional Theatre of the Palouse. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Dr. Universe and a group of junior scientists from Palouse Prairie Charter School learn about underwater volcanoes and crystals. Students from the fourth-grade class in Moscow, Idaho help Dr. Universe answer earth science questions. Another big thank you to Northwest Public Broadcasting for help with recording! You can find sources for information about underwater volcanoes and crystals in the transcript. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Dr. Universe is back with a group of junior scientists from Palouse Prairie Charter School to learn about space. Students from the fourth-grade class in Moscow, Idaho help Dr. Universe answer how we know there are planets outside our solar system and what the universe actually is. If you like thinking about multiverses, black holes and the potential for life outside Earth, this is the episode for you!A big thank you to Northwest Public Broadcasting for help with recording!You can find sources for space information in the transcript. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Dr. Universe joins a group of junior scientists from Palouse Prairie Charter School to learn about volcanoes. Students from the fourth-grade class in Moscow, Idaho, help Dr. Universe answer how volcanoes work, how they form, what happens when they erupt, whether volcanoes are on other planets, and a lot of other cool (or hot) information about these amazing mountains. A big thank you to Northwest Public Broadcasting for help with recording!You can find sources for volcano information in the transcript. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Hello young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe and if you are anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. Today’s special guest is someone who is really curious about plants and why they get sick—yes, you heard that right, plants can get sick, too.  We'll also investigate some questions about pumpkins along the way. As always, kids can submit a question for a chance to be featured on a future episode at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu/ask As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe and if you’re anything like me you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. This special edition episode features an interview with a scientist from our video series, Ask Dr. Universe, Meet the Scientists. If you like what you hear, you can watch the whole video interview with Dr. Ryan Driskell under the videos tab at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu. Let’s get started.  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. On this episode, we meet Dr. Kim Chiok, a veterinarian at Washington State University who enjoys writing, doing experiments, and who is curious about viruses, especially those that affect the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system. Plus, we explore a question about how our lungs work. The adventures continue at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu. As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

On this podcast, we'll talk to some curious people, hear their stories, and investigate some fun science questions along the way. Today's guest is someone who is really curious about sleep. Let's give a warm welcome to Ashley Ingiosi. She'll help us explore a science question about why sleep sometimes feels so short. Keep exploring at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu.  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

On this episode, we meet with Julie Menard, a planetary scientist and geoscience education professional from Washington State University. Plus, we investigate a big kid question about how mountains form. Featured Music: "Geology Rocks" by Mikey the Rad Scientist  As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe and if you’re anything like me you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. On this episode, we’ll investigate great questions from young scientists like, Why does ice cream melt? Why are some berries poisonous? And how do we learn things that are really, really hard?   A big thanks to the scientists at Washington State University and our kid narrator from Regional Theatre of the Palouse. Ask a question at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu/ask As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Welcome back, young scientists. Have you ever wondered why most people are right-handed? How we learned to weigh a whole planet? How worms help the soil?  Join Dr. Universe and Washington State University researchers as we investigate these great kid questions. Submit a question of your own at askDrUniverse.wsu.edu As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.