Today's episode is sponsored by Gab. Parents, I'm sure you've noticed how your kid looks at your phone. They see us staring at it. It's a big part of our lives and naturally they want one. A lot of parents don't want their kids to have a smartphone, with good reason. But some parents want a safe way for kids to be able to communicate with them, the parents.
or their friends and family. I want my kid to know how to use smart devices to her benefit without feeling like they're starting to take over. Gab's safety benefits make that approach feel much more doable. Gab is the leader in safe phones and watches for kids, teens and tweens. With no social media apps, no internet browser, and GPS tracking, Gab devices are built specifically to keep kids
and teens safely connected. Protecting your kids has never been easier. For the best deals, sign up to Gab today. No contract required at gab.com slash brains on. That's gab.com slash brains on. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, this is Molly with something important to ask you. Like, very important. Like, so important. Imagine everything I'm saying is in all caps with giant font and underlined in glitter.
The Brains On universe is public media. And public media is threatened like never before. To keep doing what we do, we need your help. We need you. That part's double underlined in glitter. Your donation can make sure Brains On, Smash Boom Best, and more stick around through all of this uncertainty. But we need you to give now. Like right now. Please go to BrainsOn.org slash donate.
We have an amazing community of listeners, and we love answering your questions, hearing your mystery sounds, and admiring your incredible drawing. And the cool thing is, this audience is big. If every family that listens donated just $10, we'd be all set. But we truly mean it when we say any amount is helpful. $5. $25. Maybe you like prime numbers and want to give $31 or $83. Just head to BrainsOn.org slash donate. That's BrainsOn.org slash donate.
And when you give, picture me saying thank you so much in rainbow font surrounded by heart emojis with extra glitter. Thank you. You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious. Brains On is supported in part... foundation. What's all that racket? It sounds like Mark. Is he yelling about keys and money? Has anyone seen my cup of tea with honey? Oh, tea and honey. Mark, is everything okay? We could hear you yelling through the soundproof studio walls.
Oh, thank goodness, Molly. Nova, I set down my cup of tea and my bottle of honey, and now they're gone. Disappeared. Vanish. And on today, of all days! Um, are you referring to those squeezy bottles labeled Honey and tea that are attached to the opposite sides of the belt stop to your head.
And it looks like there are tubes attached to each of them dangling next to your mouth. Oh, thank goodness. I've been so focused on dress rehearsal for the big musical I'm writing, I forgot that I was testing my new invention. the honey tea headband. In addition to looking super cool, In addition to looking super cool, My honey tea headband blends a proprietary ratio of tea and honey that guarantees a silky smooth singing. Check it out. It's gonna revolutionize Broadway.
The only problem is that it's a little tough to do choreography with this thing on. Let me just take it off for a second. There we go. Five, six, seven, eight. Heel, toe, shuffle. Heel, toe, shuffle. Mark! You forgot your honey tea happened! You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom, and my co-host today is Nova from Easton, Pennsylvania. Hi, Nova.
brains on is a non-profit public radio program which means your support keeps this show going whether you donate subscribe to smarty class buy brains on shirts or books sign up for our later, or even just tell your friends about the show, it's a huge help and it means a lot to us. Head to BrainsOn.org slash fans to show your support for this show.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, today's episode is all about how our bodies heal, and we're answering listener questions about bruises, band-aids, and scars. Nova, how do you feel about band-aids? I don't really like them because it hurts to pull them off. Oh, yes, you're so right. Do you have any tricks for making it hurt less? Just going really slowly, but my mom does it super fast. I know there's two schools of thought there. The fast and the slow.
I have done a new thing lately where I get it wet with a washcloth. Where I just like soak it. And then it's not quite as horrible. So do you feel like you get a lot of scrapes and bruises? No, not really. That's great. I am super clumsy. And when I was little, I would get tons of bruises on my legs because I guess I was just like bumping into things all the time. Actually, I still do that. It's not that far in the past.
And growing up, my dad would call me banana legs because they kind of look like, you know, bruisey bananas. And, you know, I didn't mind because it was kind of cool. Have you ever, do you have any scars? Yes, I have a scar on my chin from falling off of a skateboard. So that means you skateboard? No, I was playing with my cousins. Gotcha! So, did that hurt? Yeah. My ears were ringing. It was weird. Did you have to get stitches?
No, my mom just put a Band-Aid on, but it kept leaking through. Oh, no. And now you've got a cool scar, though? Yeah. Do people ask you about it ever? No, not really. It's on my chin. Okay, so it's kind of hidden. Yeah. Cool. Hey, do you hear that? It sounds like an army of professional musicians, highly trained actors, choreographers, and dancers. Oh! Didn't Mark say he's writing a new musical? I bet they're rehearsing in the hall of curtains and chairs. Let's go check it out.
Simple salmon swims up street. Simple salmon swims. My throat is so dry. It's like if that Sahara desert and a box of stale crackers had a baby. Mark, you forgot your honey tea headband. Nova! Perfect timing! Ah! Juniper mint tea with a hint of lavender. M-m-m-m-m-m-much! So, what's the musical about? And before you answer, are you okay? Your arms and legs are covered in bruises. I'm fine, thanks. And these bruises are actually the inspiration for my new show.
Bruisicle the musical. I got pretty banged up trying to feng shui my living room. Uh, Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of arranging a room to be more harmonious? That's it! I thought I had the layout perfected, but every time I walked into the room, I kept forgetting where I had moved the furniture and bumping into stuff. So more of a wrong way instead of a feng shui? I guess so. It was pretty frustrating. Until I had the idea to make these bruises come to life.
On stage. So I started digging into what's happening when we brew. What a coincidence! We're doing an episode all about how our bodies heal, and we got some questions about bruises. Maybe you can help answer them. Molly, I would love to muse on your bruise questions. Let's hear them. Hi, my name is Kiva and I'm from Ireland. My question is how do bruises form and why do they turn different color?
like blue, purple, green and brown land. Hi my name is Hunter and I'm from Cochrane, Alberta, Canada and my question is when you hurt yourself why do your bruises turn black and purple? Amazing questions. I'll make sure to get Hunter and Kiva tickets to opening night. Because Bruisicle the Musical has the answer. Do tell. Okay, so under our skin, blood is moving through these tiny thin tubes called capillaries. But they're pretty delicate.
When we bump into something, these little tubes can break and blood comes out under our skin. Which makes... Bruises! Bruises, bruises, bruises! for the win decorating under my skin Like I was saying, bruises are kind of like cuts, but without breaking the skin. You know how when we get a cut, our skin opens up and blood comes out? Oh, like when we were folding paper airplanes the other day and I got a paper cut? Ow!
Exactly! Well, if you bump into something, but your skin doesn't open up, blood sits underneath it. I've got some blood to give! It hurts, but I think I live! That's good. I gotta write that down. Hold on. So is that why your skin changes color when you get a bruise? The blood that gets trapped underneath your skin? Yes. The color changing is because of a protein in your blood called hemoglobin.
We learned about hemoglobin in our episode about blood. It's what gives our blood its bright red color. And one of its jobs is to carry oxygen around our bodies. You can think of hemoglobin like an oxygen taxi cab. Hemoglobin picks up oxygen passengers in our lungs and takes that oxygen to every part of the body. Molly, allow a bruisition to take a stab at this. Picking up fares, night and day. Gonna drive oxygen all the way. My cab is always open. Yeah, I'm hemoglobin.
So like we mentioned, when you bump into something, blood gets trapped under your skin. That blood has hemoglobin in it, which is carrying oxygen passengers. Over time, the oxygen that was in the hemoglobin taxi leaves. When your blood has oxygen in it, it's bright red. But once the oxygen is gone, it looks dark blue or black or purple through your skin. Ta-da! Over time, they can start to turn lots of different colors.
Oh, I've seen some real doozies. Green, yellow, brown. That's because the hemoglobin starts to break down as a bruised heel. Our bodies know that hemoglobin isn't supposed to be hanging out under our skin, and so it starts to get rid of it. First, it turns it into a chemical called biliverdin, which has kind of a greenish tint. Then it changes into another chemical called bilirubin, which has a yellow color. So, the color of a bruise can actually tell us how old it is?
Yeah! This purple one on my ankle is from this morning when I kicked the coffee table. Oh, oh, and I got this bluish-green one on my arm when I ran into the coat rack a few days ago. And the yellowy-brown one underneath my shoulder here. That's from almost two weeks ago. It's from the floating bookshelf I installed on the wall just above the light switch. Don't let floating bookshelves
For you, they can be the source of bruises, the source of pain. They are the enemy. Mark, your living room sounds downright dangerous. I kind of came to the same conclusion this morning after the coffee table incident. So I decided to move everything back. It's much safer. Good call. Thanks for dropping all the bruise knowledge, Mar.
No problem. Is there a song from Bruisical the Musical that you're ready for us to hear? There's one that's pretty close. Let me run through it a couple times with the band and I'll let you know when I'm warmed up, okay? Can't wait. while we're waiting for mark to finish his song how about something else that's music to the ears it's time for All right, Nova, are you ready to hear the mystery sound? Kind of nervous. I don't know. You're going to do great. All right, here it is.
What do you think? Any guess? I think it's a dog eating kibbles out of its bowl. Whoa, that is a specific guess, and I am into it. All right, we're going to hear it again and get another chance to guess after the credits. So stick around. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to float around in space? Well, you're in luck because we're making an episode about astronauts and we want to know what food do you think would be hardest for astronauts to eat in space?
Flying popcorn or a cup of hot cocoa? Nova, what do you think? What would be the hardest food to eat? I think a cup of hot cocoa because it's liquid and... break the ship if it gets in the engine. Yeah, and like, I don't want hot liquid flying around, you know? Yeah. Doesn't sound like a good idea. Well, listeners, we want to know what food you think would be hard to eat. and why. Record your answer and send it to us at brainzon.org slash contact.
And while you're there, you can send us your mystery sounds, drawings, and questions. Like this one. Why is the moon white? And why does the moon have different shapes? Find answers to questions like this on the Moment of Um podcast. A short dose of... weekday. You can find a moment of them and more at BrainsOn.org. And keep listening!
Brains On Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Brains On, you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore! It's Alien Exercise Hour! Hiya! Hoo! Ha! While I stretch my snoodles and bounce on my trampolini, I'll listen to a new... I'm going to try Forever Goal, the best history podcast ever. To understand why anyone would think a TV show could change the world, we need to go way back. To America in the 1960s.
Rock and roll was pretty new. Ford released the iconic Mustang Muscle. Come back here, pod. Must listen to Forever Go. Listen to Forever A Goal wherever you get your podcasts. today's episode is sponsored by gab parents i'm sure you've noticed how your kid looks at your phone they see us staring at it it's a big part of our lives They want one.
A lot of parents don't want their kids to have a smartphone, with good reason. But some parents want a safe way for kids to be able to communicate with them, the parents. or their friends and family. I want my kid to know how to use smart devices to her benefit without feeling like they're starting to take over. Gab's safety benefits make that approach feel much more doable.
Gab is the leader in safe phones and watches for kids, teens, and tweens. With no social media apps, no internet browser, and GPS tracking, Gab devices are built specifically to keep kids and teens safely connected. Protecting your kids has never been easier. For the best deals, sign up to Gab today. No contract required at gab.com slash brains on. That's gab.com slash brains on. Terms and conditions apply. Ba-ba-ba-ba
You're listening to Brains On. I'm Nova. And I'm Molly. So far, we've learned that bruises are kind of like cuts underneath our skin. Blood gets stuck there and changes color as it loses its oxygen and breaks down. it looks like mark is still rehearsing for his bruisical the musical song and he's locked us out of the hall of curtains and chairs
Well, I guess a true artist needs his privacy. Well, there is another listener question. Let's check it out. Hi, my name is E from Cary, North Carolina, and my question... How do band-aids help your booboo heal? That's a great question. And I've also wondered, why do band-aids... stop cuts from Stinging. Very interesting. Yeah, and I've heard that you need to let cuts breathe. So you shouldn't leave Band-Aids on all the time. Is that even true? I wonder that too.
We have a lot of questions about Band-Aids and how cuts heal, so we've invited pediatrician Dr. Chase Schutek to the studio today. Hi, Dr. Schutek. Hi, Nova. Hi, Molly. We have some questions for you. How do band-aids help you heal? Band-aids primarily help you heal by protecting your cut from an infection and irritation. The band-aid prevents bacteria that can cause infections from getting into your cut. It also prevents the cut from being rubbed or tucked.
which can disrupt the healing process. If you get the band-aid on really quickly before the bleeding has fully stopped, it can help with the first stage of healing, where the bleeding stops. The band-aid does this by applying pressure to the cuff. As well, our body actually heals faster if there's a moist or slightly wet environment surrounding the cut. So if you use a band-aid with an ointment, like an antibiotic cream or moisturizer, the body will heal faster. Wow. Cool.
You said cut seal better in like a wet environment. Is that like water, like any kind of wet? So, not any kind of wet. If it is very wet, that will not help the healing either. It needs to be a little wet. What we like to call moist. So that's why we put antibiotic ointment on or Vaseline or some other moisturizer. Gotcha. And so like when I take my bandaid off my finger and it's a kind of all like pruney underneath.
Is that probably just because I washed my hands and water got underneath? Or why is that happening? Right. It's because you've trapped some moisture under the bandaid. And so it's pruney because you've kept that moisture in there. While the moisture helps the healing process, it also causes that pruning up. And if you left that for many days, it can affect the healing process. Do cats really need to breathe? So no, cuts do not need to breathe.
The second and third stages of healing, the inflammation stage where old body cells and bacteria are removed, and the proliferation stage where new body cells are made, actually occur faster in moist or slightly wet environments. allowing a cut to breathe does help your body to make a scab faster, but cuts that have scabs actually take longer to fully heal. If you do have a scab, though, you should not pick it. Scabs are like nature's band-aids. Okay.
I do that a lot. Yeah, we all do. Okay, it kind of blew my mind when you said that you don't actually need to have a scab for the cut to heal. Yeah. Tell me more about that. Right, so the band-aid can bypass the scab part because we're creating essentially an artificial scab with the band-aid. And so you can have all of the healing process occurring and be protected from the outside, be protected from infection with the Band-Aid without the scab.
Gotcha. So the scab is not a necessary part of the healing. It's there to protect what's happening underneath. Yes, exactly. Gotcha. So if the band-aid's protecting it, your body's like, I don't need to grow a scab. Thank you so much. Yes. And you'll form the new skin cells and the new blood vessels faster. Fascinating. That's so cool. What else should we know about how to help our bodies heal? Most importantly, always make sure to wash any cuts you get.
Washing cuts with soap and water helps to clear out any bacteria that could cause an infection. Okay, good to know. Very cool. Why do band-aids stop it from stinging? So, band-aids help to kind of keep the skin in place. And so because the skin isn't moving around as much, it's not getting irritated. And so if it's not getting irritated, if you're not getting that new feeling from all the movement, it doesn't sting quite as much.
As well there are two parts to pain. There's the physical part and the mental part. All pain has both of those parts. The physical part is kind of the reactions that are happening in our body, the nerves, the inflammation, all of that. The mental part is in our mind. And there are things we can do that help decrease the mental part, but aren't actually doing anything for the physical part. So sometimes putting a Band-Aid on just makes you feel better because you did something.
Thanks, Dr. Shutak. You're welcome. So, Band-Aids help protect cuts by keeping out dirt and germs that could cause infections, and that helps your body heal. But let's rip off the Band-Aid and see what's happening after that initial burst of healing. We open on the black emptiness of space. The title crawl reads, Scar Wars. The skin pyre strikes back. Hello, Sandin. Let me get- Are you also making a musical based on some kind of injury? What? No, of course not. Don't be absurd.
Oh, okay. We just assumed since Mark was- I'm making an entire movie franchise based on some kind of injury. Yeah, I got inspired after Ansel sent this question. Hi, my name is Ansel, and I'm from Salt Lake City. My question is, what makes scars form on our bodies? It seemed like the perfect subject for my epic film, Scar Wars Part 2. It's a sequel. Was there a part one?
Of course not. If I'm going to establish this as the next big movie franchise, I gotta get right to the good stuff. And sequels are always better than the original. Are they, though? Dubious. The movie begins with... In a body far, far away. There was some skin dealing with a major calamity. A super deep paper cut. Ow! Ouchie! As the cut begins to heal, the body sends in special cells. called fibroblasts.
Fibroblasts help repair sliced skin by connecting the two sides of a cut together. And the bravest of all fibroblasts... is our hero, Luke Scabwalker. Wow, what a terror. I've never seen anything like it. But no time for scab-gazing. I better get to work. Luke and the other fibroblast cells use a special power to fix the cut. Let me guess. Is it the force? Even cooler! They make something called collagen. Oh yeah!
collagen. That's a protein you find all over the body in skin, hair, bones, nails, and more. Yeah, it's really important and does a lot. It helps make bones strong and makes skin stretchy. Exactly. And when your body fixes a deep cut or scrape, it uses collagen to fill in the areas of torn skin. So, back to the movie. Luke Scabwalker and his fibroblast friends are there in the wound, making big, long strings of called collagen. to fill in the gap created by the cut.
in a unique way. Okay, fibroblasts, I know in typical uninjured Collagen is kind of woven like a web or a basket, but this is Scar Wars, and we have to work fast. So we're going to lay our collagen in straight lines. You got that, everybody? Straight Lines of Collagen. Copy loud and clear. Awesome work, team. This cut was no match for Fibroblast. Wait, so why did fibroblasts make collagen in the same direction after I cut? Well, we're not really sure why.
But that's part of what makes a scar a scar. So picture like a pack of uncooked spaghetti. You know how all the spaghetti is kind of lined up in a neat row? Collagen in a scar is like that. Now, in uninjured skin, it's more like a tangled mesh of cooked spaghetti. You know, like all the noodles crisscrossing in kind of a web. So is that why scars look different from the skin around them? Yeah, that's part of it. The new skin also doesn't have things like hairs or sweat glands anymore either.
But not all cuts will leave a scar. If you just injured the very top layer of your skin, you probably won't have a scar souvenir. Well, I gotta say, Scar Wars sounds pretty cool. Yeah, seems like a great and totally original idea that certainly won't have any copyright issues. None whatsoever. Now, I gotta go start working on the next movie. Scar Wars 3. Revenge of the Zits. See ya, Molly. See ya, Nova. Later. Bye, Sandin.
Looks like Mark and the band are ready to give us a sneak peek of Bruisical the Musical. I do love a show tune. We're all ears, buddy. Okay, at this point in the show, the stage is pitch black. I'm moving around in the dark and... OOF! Not again! I should have never rearranged the furniture in my room! I keep running into stuff, and I'm covered in these awful bruises. And then, spotlight. Wow, Mark. You've made me a bruised believer. This show is going to be epic. You are a...
So beautiful. Aw, thanks you two. I could have never done it without my soon-to-be patented honey tea headband. Mmm, my favorite, hibiscus boba tea. I am a rainbow with bruises, blue, green, and yellow. Bruises happen when we get a bump and blood gets trapped underneath our skin. They usually start out dark blue or purple, but as the hemoglobin in our blood breaks down, they change to green and yellow.
Band-Aids help cuts heal by protecting them from irritation and infection. And your body repairs deep wounds with a special protein called collagen. But that collagen is in a different pattern from the collagen in the rest of your skin. That's what makes a scar. That's it for this episode of Brains On. This episode was written by Mark Sanchez, Sandin Totten, and me, Molly Bloom. It was edited by Shayla Farzan. We had engineering help from Josh Savage-o and Joe Gangemi with sound design by...
Rachel Breeze. And fact-checking by Rebecca Rand. Original theme music by Mark Sanchez. We had production hop from the rest of the Brain Zone team, Rosie DuPont, Anna Goldfield, Nico Gonzalez-Whistler, Ruby Guthrie, Lauren Humpert, Joshua Wright, Charlotte Traver, Anna Weigel, And Aron Walda-Selassi. Beth Perlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Juda Lee Young and Nova's little sisters, Ezra...
Brains On is a non-profit public radio program. There are lots of ways to support the show. Join SmartyPass for bonus episodes and ad-free versions of all four shows in the Brains On universe. Become a SmartyPass subscriber today for just $5 a month or $45 for the whole year. To sign up, head to smartypass.org. While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions. Okay, Nova, are you ready to listen to that mystery sound again? Yeah. All right, here it is.
All right. Last time you had a very specific and immediate guess. Which was a dog eating kibble. Do you stick with that answer or do you have a new thought? I mean, okay, so at first I thought like cereal because...
It just sounded like that, but it's too wet to be a human. So I still think it's a dog eating kibbles. Do you have a dog? No, but I've... lived with dogs multiple times in my life so gotcha okay so you've heard of dog eating before and you're like that is a dog yeah i love it all right let's hear the answer Hi, my name's Bo. My name's Tay. And we're from Papamoa, New Zealand. That was the sound of our dog eating kebble.
Oh. I got it. I never get them right. You got it. Not only did you get it right, you got it, like, exactly right. You said kibble. They said kibble. I'm so impressed. Holy cow. If you had to pick a time to get it right, I'm glad it was today, you know? Yeah. This one's for all the cute puppies that you've lived with because of them. So cute. You were able to get it. Tell me one of the dog's names that you've lived with. Sheba. Sheba. This one's for Sheba. Yeah.
Now it's time for the Brain's Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high five. Millie from Simsbury, Connecticut. Amelie from Centennial, Colorado. Maya from La Mesa, California. Simone from San Jose, California. Evan from Marlboro, Connecticut. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Adeline from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Anna from Horseheads, New York, Senna from Blacksburg, Virginia, and Matthew from Bangkok, Thailand. We'll be back next week with an episode all about trees. Thanks for listening.