You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious. Brains On is supported on part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Hey Molly! Oh hi Anna! What's wrong? I keep feeling like I'm about to sneeze but it just won't come out. I really shouldn't have skipped through that dandelion field earlier or stuck my head underneath my dusty bed or sniffed all that black pepper. Do you ever feel like you really have to sneeze but for some reason you just can't?
Oh yeah, I hate that. Here it comes! A nut! Hey there Anna! Hi Molly! Hi Mark! You're in a pretty chipper mood today Mark. What's going on? Well as I'm sure you know I've been getting into model making and this weekend I finally finished my masterpiece. It's a 174th scale replica of old iron sides. The ship also known as the USS Constitution. That's uh uh um amazing Mark. What's it made out of? It's kind of gray and fluffy.
That's the best part. I make all my models out of things I find around the house. This one's made of dust bunnies, pet hair, and dryer lint. Because I'm tight Molly you finally got your sneeze out. My model! You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom and my co-host today is Anna from Sharpsburg, Georgia. Hey Anna! Hi Molly! Today we're talking sneezes. Anna, have you ever felt like
you had to sneeze really bad but it just won't come out? Yes it's a horrible feeling. It really is! So what things do you find make you sneeze? Um stuff that I'm allergic to and when I have a cold yeah I'm allergic to a bunch of stuff. What are you allergic to? A pollen, grass, plants, mold. Oh my gosh we're allergic to the same stuff. Our sneezes are like twin sisters. That's very cute. So are you a person who sneezes in like multiples? Like you have a sneezing fit
or and every time you sneeze like it just happens a bunch of times? Sometimes when it's like allergy season yes but other times I just like sneeze and then I'm just done sneezing totally. My dad is a person who always sneezes. He cannot sneeze only once. He always sneezes more than once and one time my daughter and I counted how many sneezes he did. He had 27 sneezes. Oh it was so many. He just could not stop. So do you know anyone who sneezes really loud or has a fun sneeze?
Um I know two people that can sneeze really loud. My dad and my grandpa. They sneeze really loudly. Is it surprised you when it happens? Oh yes because I'm just doing something and it just like makes me jump because it's so loud. One of my good friends has the cutest little sneeze. She sneezes like this. She goes and that's her sneeze and my sneeze is not as cute at all. Someone was like wow you sound like a little bunny. It's so cute. Today's episode was inspired by a question that you
sent to us Anna. I wanted to know how fast we sneeze. Like how many miles per hour is my sneeze going? This is such a great question and I'm wondering what made you think of it? I was sneezing and it seemed super fast and you can't count it like a blink. So I wanted to know how fast it was. Very good thing game. Well before we answer your question let's talk about what a sneeze is. It starts unsurprisingly in your nostrils. Those are the two holes in your nose that you read through.
Inside your nostrils are tiny little hairs called silia. Yeah if you've never noticed these go look up your nose in a mirror. It's a hairy wonderland in there. These hairs are super sensitive to things that aren't supposed to be in your nose. Stuff like dust or dirt or things people are allergic to like pollen from flowers or fur from your pets. Right when this stuff gets in your nose it tickles
the little hairs which sends a message to your brain to sneeze it out. A sneeze is a reflex like when a doctor taps your knee in your leg moves by itself and once a sneeze starts there's usually no stopping it. When your brain tells your nose to sneeze it affects all different parts of your body. Your eyes shut, your tongue moves to the top of your mouth and muscles in your chest and stomach tighten causing you to breathe in really deeply. After your lungs fill up with
enough air they let it all out at once really fast. A sneeze. A few different things can come out when you sneeze. Big drops of snot and mucus in a cloud of smaller drops and even though you can't see it the sneeze cloud can hang out in the air for a long time. It's often full of germs that can make someone else sick so it's important to always cover your mouth when you sneeze to stop those germs from shooting out into the air. Hey, honey. Hi, Molly. Nice job covering your nose and mouth,
Mark. Gotta keep these pesky little jerby's from flying around. Mark, I am so sorry I sneezed all over your dust bunny, dryer-lint pet hair model. Oh, it's okay. I can always remake it but all the dust and pet hair and dryer-lint in the air has been making me sneeze. I just came in here to grab some tissues. Hey, gone. That gives me an idea. We're trying to figure out how fast sneeze is travel. And what if we look inside Mark's nose and get up close and personal
with the real sneeze? That's a great idea. Ooh, a sniff or safari, a nose spleration. We can use the zoom ray. It lets us zoom in on small things so we can watch them up close. So this is Mark's nose? It's not actually as hairy as I would have thought. Whoa, check out that big crowd of boogers. And they're cheering for something?
Lugies and gentle flam, bugs and jams, gather round. Today we witness an event that likes of which have never been seen in these nostrils, an attempt to break the sneeze speed record. Looks like we came at the right time. You do attempt us daring feet of someone you all know and love. He's a mean green mucous machine that brave as a booger this out of the septum. You know him, you love him, make some noise for snot, rugged. Why do you know? A daredevil booger.
What up, my nose coblins? Who's ready to see some serious speed? Now remember, I'm a trained professional. Whatever you do, don't try this at home. I don't have to remind you all what happened to the last booger that tried this stunt. Sneezle, connevil. I will now initiate the sneeze. Ready? Set? We better get our stopwatches out. Release the dust bunnies! Whoa, that was super fast. By my stopwatch, he clocked in at over 40 miles an hour.
That's like the top speed of a race horse. Wow, that's a lot faster than I would have thought. Let's zoom out and get marks on tissues. That wasn't epic sneeze, Mark. Did you know you have a daredevil boogie in your nose and it shot out at 40 miles per hour when you sneezed? Wow, that is fast. I guess that's why you'd say my nose is running. Get it? Yeah, running. I crack myself up. There's a lot more to learn about sneezes, snott, and what's in them, but first it's time for the...
You ready for the mystery sound, Donna? Yes. Here it is. Hmm, what do you think? Sounds like glass bottles. Yes, it does. Excellent ears. Let's hear it one more time and see if anything else pops up. Okay, what do you think? Yeah, it sounds like something that's class like falling into like a plastic crash can or something. Oh, I love the specificity. Excellent guess. Well, we will hear it. Again, get another chance to guess and hear the answer after the credits. So stick around.
Here at Brainson, we love art. Drawings of noses, paintings of daredevil boogers. You name it. And we want to see what you make. Yes, send us your art. Share your work with us at brainson.org slash contact. While you're there, you can send us your mystery sounds and questions too. Like this one. How are computers programmed to understand ones and zeros? You can find answers to questions like these on the moment of um podcast. Again, that's
brainson.org. So keep listening. Brainson universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Brainson, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore. Here we are in Brainson universe. Until my favorite podcasts. Brainson. Smash boom best. Forever ago. I found one. Forever ago. The history show hosted by Joy Dolow. It was the early 1800s. Beethoven was busy composing new symphonies, steam powered trains were
brand new inventions. And a British naturalist named William Swanson was exploring the jungles of a great show. Need baller forever. Go. No. Listen to forever ago. Wherever you get your podcasts. Brainson. You're listening to Brainson. I'm Anna and I'm Molly. And today we're talking all about sneezes, snott and boogers. Sneezing helps our noses get rid of stuff that's not supposed to be in there like dust, dirt or pollen. We don't have any control over when we sneeze and a sneeze uses all
different muscles in your chest, stomach and head. Our sneezes can be full of germs that can make people sick. So it's important to cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze. And we just learned that sneezes can shoot droplets of snott and mucus at speeds of over 40 miles per hour. Each sneeze is like a snowflake. Unique. Beautiful. What? We asked you to send in your best sneeze recordings and your responses were not bad. Hi my name is Gabriel. I'm gonna do my
sneezing. I call the snore. My name is Lenin. My sneeze is named a tuna clon because it's like this. Hello my name is sore and I'm from Ryanback, New York. This would be my sneeze. And it would be called the big bang. Hi my name is Samuel. My sneeze is a supernova and this and it sounds like this. Hi I'm Madeline and my sneeze idea is I want to call it the bunny's week. My jeans and my sneeze idea is I don't know and I'm gonna call it the I don't know sneeze. Hi I'm Evelyn from Columbus, Ohio
and this is my sneeze. It's a grandpa sneeze. It's how my grandpa sneezes. Thanks to Gabriel, Lenin, Sawyer, Samuel, Madeline, James and Evelyn for sharing your sneezes with us. So Anna, if you had to create a sneeze and give it a name, what would it be? I think it would sound like a train and I probably call it a large train of snot. I love it. Can you give an example of what that sneeze might sound like? Chuchu, chuchu, chuchu. Brilliant. So good.
So like we mentioned, there's all different stuff in our sneezes from big drops of snot to clouds of little drops that hang around in the air. But we haven't talked about my favorite thing, nasal mucus. Your favorite nasal mucus is very very very cool. But don't take my word for it. Just watch this commercial. Sometimes air is cold. Sometimes it's dry. No one wants to breathe that kind of air. Make the smart choice and shut your mouth. Say what?
Shut your mouth and breathe through your nose. nasal mucus will take care of it. nasal mucus. Take a deep breath in through your nose. By the time the air reaches the back of your nose, it's nice and wet. Thanks to your nasal mucus. This moist goo is made right in your nose. nasal mucus. But wait, there's more. Your nasal mucus keeps you healthy. It can trap bacteria, viruses and other stuff you don't want in your body.
And it has special germ fighting chemicals to help neutralize those nasty bugs. nasal mucus. Plus, the nasal mucus in your nose is part of a sophisticated self-cleaning system. Inside your nose are tiny microscopic hairs. These mini hairs are constantly sweeping your nasal mucus out of your nose. It cleans itself out every 20 minutes. Where does it go? You swallow it. Most people swallow somewhere between four and eight cups of nasal mucus every day. nasal mucus.
Don't worry, it's all part of your elegant schnauz system. Your nasal mucus is almost all water. So it's perfectly safe to swallow. Thanks nasal mucus. Okay, I agree. nasal mucus is pretty nifty. Yes, we are very lucky to have special cells in our noses that make nasal mucus which protects us and makes the air easier to breathe. Is nasal mucus the same as boogers? Oh, good question. To help us answer this question and more, we have
Dr. Andrew Redman here from the University of Minnesota. He's an otolaryngologist, aka a professional snotsucker. Welcome, Andrew. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. What exactly do you do? Well, I'm an otolaryngologist, or most people will call us ENT doctors or ear nose and throat doctors, but I take care of kids who have issues with their ears, their noses, and their throats. Isn't bad to pick your nose? Well, picking your nose, we know that it kind of feels good to get
those boogers out, but there's actually some downsides to it. The two in particular is that if you pick your nose, you can cause nose bleeds and those can be kind of uncomfortable. A lot of us have that nose bleeds before and it makes our parents really worried sometimes when we have nose bleeds. So picking your nose is actually one of the biggest things you can do to make your nose bleed. So we generally recommend that you don't do that. The other thing is that your fingers are in
all sorts of things all day, and they have a lot of bacteria on them often. So when doctors tell you to wash your hands, that's because your hands are touching everything and they get bacteria on them. And if you pick your nose, you can get that bacteria from everywhere else and end up putting it in your nose. And it turns out your nose doesn't like it very much when you put bacteria there. Hmm. Why do our noses produce more mucus when we're sick? Yeah, that's a great question.
There's a couple of reasons. The first is that mucus or boogers, depending on what you want to call it, it actually is a protective mechanism for us. So it actually filters out things that come in through your nose like dust, bacteria, and allergens. You know, with your allergic to cats, cat hair can cause you to get allergies. And so your mucus actually filters that out. But when you get sick, your body actually makes more mucus because it's trying to keep things out when your immune
system comes. And it helps to fight whatever you're sick with. And it'll actually kind of, I'm going to use the term poop out the bad stuff into your mucus so that your body can get rid of it by blowing their nose out. So that's why your body makes more mucus when you're sick. And I noticed when you're sick, your mucus tends to be like in a greener shade. So like, what does a car of mucus mean? Yeah. So when you're not sick, mucus is generally pretty clear.
But when you have a cold or a sinus infection or something like that, what happens is your body, the cells that come and help fight that infection will actually release these different proteins that turn your mucus different colors. And actually, if you have kind of chronic sinus infections that can turn your mucus different colors longer term, the reason why your mucus turns colors, it's actually your your body's fighting it and getting rid of bacteria and waste products into your
mucus so that you can blow it out and get those boogers out. Is nasal mucus the same as boogers? Yeah, basically it is. Boogers is just what kids call it and mucus is what boring adults call it. How do people have nasal inflammation and nasal infections? Yeah, that's a great question. So your nose is actually designed for a couple things. It's designed for smell. So if you plug your nose, you can't smell very well. And it's also
designed as a protective mechanism. So almost everything you breathe in will get filtered through your nose. Your nose just experiences all of these things from the outside world. And when there's especially in the winter or if you're around a lot of people, there's just lots of viruses and bacteria going around. And your nose is usually the first part of your body that experiences what's going on. And so that's what your nose tends to get stuffed up and you tend to get sick a lot
with your nose. Boogers are great, but not too many of them. So when you do have those too many boogers in your nose, we shouldn't be picking them. What should we do instead? Yeah, that's a great question. So you can blow them out. So using a tissue, blow those boogers out. That's perfectly fine to do. The other thing that can be really helpful is actually using, if you're having a lot of
trouble sleeping at night, using a humidifier to help thin that out. If you can, if the mucus gets really thick or the boogers get really thick, having a humidifier or using a saltwater nose spray can thin them out and actually allow them to come out a lot easier. The other thing is that our bodies produce a lot of mucus and most of the mucus you produce, you actually swallow without even knowing about it. So everybody swallows a lot of boogers every day without even knowing about
it. You can tell your mom that and say, mom, you know what, you're swallowing boogers too. It's just normal. Perfect. Thanks for answering our questions, Dr. Redmond. You're very welcome. I hope you guys have a great rest of the day. You too. Thanks so much. Bye. A sneeze happens when something gets in your nose that the body doesn't want there, like pollen, dust or pepper. It's a reflex. So once a sneeze is triggered, you can't really stop it. A sneeze
can shoot out of your schnauz at a speed of up to 40 miles per hour. And it can leave a cloud of germs in the air, so always cover your mouth. Azeal mucus helps protect your nose and your body from germs and makes the air you breathe less dry. It's magical stuff and leave it up there. Don't pick it out. Okay, don't do it. That's it for this episode of Brains on. This episode was written by Jess Miller and Molly Bloom. It was edited by Shayla Farzon and Sandin Totten. Fact checking by
Rosie DuPont. We had engineering help from Josh Savageau and Dave Wilson with sound design by Rachel Breeze, original theme music by Mark Sanchez. We had production help from the rest of the Brains on universe team and a gold field. Mikko Kanzawa Swisler. Ruby Guthrie. Lauren Humbert. Joshua Ray. Mark Sanchez. Charlotte Traver. Anna Weigel. And Aran Woldesalassi. Beth Perlman is our executive producer and the executive in charge of APM Studios are Chandra
Gavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Joy Dolor, Monique Nussmento, Ezra Jean, Tim Pierce, and Max. Brains on is a nonprofit public radio program. There are lots of ways to support the show. Subscribe to Brains on universe on YouTube where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes or head to Brains on dot org. While you're there you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions. Okay, Anna, are you ready to hear that mystery sound again?
Yes. Alright, here it is. Okay, new thoughts. Stick with the same guess. What are you thinking? I think I'm gonna stick with the same thing. I can think of something but I can't really put it into words. It still sounds like glass bottles falling into something plastic. I love it. You have excellent ears. Would you like to hear the answer? Yes. Here it is. I'm Maga from Braille Village, Kansas. And that was the sound of glass bottles being recycled
into a recycling bin. Oh, Anna, incredible. The specificity with which you got that right, I've never experienced before. You heard the plastic bin even. Yes. Incredible. Do you always get the mystery sound right? Are you really good at this? No, I, of all the years I've been listening to Brains on. I only got it a couple of times. Oh my gosh. Well, today is the day. Yes. So great.
Now it's time for the Brains honor role. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives. Cast from Nevada City, California, Ion from Mississauga, Ontario, Chloe from Amherst, Massachusetts, Rianne from Kirkland, Washington, Ellis from Pasadena, California, Ila from Toronto, Henry from San Francisco, Emmett from Brooklyn, New York,
Millie from Pensacola, Florida, Sophia from Cairo, Egypt, Max from Boston, Mason from Richmond, Virginia, Jack from Madison, Wisconsin, Indiana from Winnipeg, Malaya from Albany, California, Leah from Abbott's Ferd British Columbia, Francis from Wellington, New Zealand,
Grant and Pierce from Palm Beach, Gardens, Florida, Isaiah from Sacramento, Vincent from Columbus, Ohio, Mala from Nevada City, California, Ronan from Rimrock, Arizona, Gealer from Texas, Evie from Bentonville, Arkansas, Hugo and Esanna from Philadelphia, Annie
Bay from Redondo Beach, California, Fay from Downeyton, Pennsylvania, Jackson from Braid in Florida, Ada from Atlanta, Nora from St. Peter, Minnesota, Quinn from Fort Worth, Texas, Ari from Minnesota, Simon and Miles from Naperville, Illinois, Lucas from St. Louis,
Bennett from San Marcos, Texas, Roxy and June from Nashville, Laila from Green Bay, Wisconsin, Desmond from San Francisco, Caleb from Detroit, Ansel from Salt Lake City, Sioux from Seoul, South Korea, Remington and Eastern from St. Augustine, Florida,
Amalia from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Keon from New York, Mia from Santa Rosa, California, Theo from Nashville, Kate from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Daphne from Lettered Count Maryland, Rowan from San Mateo, California, Juniper from Lakewood, Colorado, Eli from Camberwell,
Australia, Eden from Sydney, Australia, Estelle and Felix from Maple, Ontario, Lucy from Temecula, California, Rhett and Reed from Mertle Beach, South Carolina, Brian Michelle and Dominic from Kissamy, Florida, Rowan from Vancouver, British Columbia, Abby from Denver, Lily from Oregon, Sydney from Houston, Texas, Ray from Wheat, Illinois, and Lucía from Melbourne, Australia. We'll be back next week with our last episode of the season, a super special Halloweeny episode all about vampires.
Thanks for listening.