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Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.
Today we're talking about birds with Wes Dowd, a marine biologist and environmental physiologist at Washington State University.

• Learn about tiny crustaceans called copepods, which are a type of plankton— and rock out to this song about zooplankton
• Check out ocean mussels and their freshwater cousins
• Discover how to explore tide pools gently

Resources You Can Use

• Spend some time on the American Museum of Natural History's marine biology page
• Learn more about ocean plankton with Black in Marine Science

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

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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.

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Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.
Today, the 4th graders at Palouse Prairie Charter School take Dr. Universe and her cougar cub friend Cosmo back in time to the formation of the universe.

• Join our intrepid science team as they explore the Big Bang
• Hear about how the sun works
• Learn about the Chicxulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs

All sound effects courtesy of Freesound.

• Explosion Outdoors Evan Boyerman
• F16 Takeoff Sandermotions
• Big boom SamsterBirdies
• Dramatic evil music Humanoid9000
• Snr_whoosh aishabag23
• Bing bong Timbre
• Asteroid toxicnun
• Radio static: eddy15
• Whoosh.spaceship newlocknew
• Dynamite explosion in the mountain felix.blume
• Dramatic acoustic guitar music LolaMoore

Want to make a podcast episode with your class or group? Ping me at [email protected]

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Send us a text

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.
Today we're talking about birds with Jennifer Phillips, an ecologist at Washington State University.

• Learn about sensory pollution and the difference between a phenotype and a genotype
• Find out how birds get tagged and measured—and how it's a little bit like an alien abduction
• Hear Dr. Phillips' journey to be a scientist, her favorite bird fact and how being a scientist is like being a spy

Resources You Can Use

• Check out this video that shows how a cardinal's syrinx makes two sounds at once
• Did you know there's a poisonous bird? Meet the Pitohui
• Learn all about birds with Audubon for Kids
• Enjoy these spy activities from the Spy Museum

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Send us a text

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.