How Insects, World War I, Golf Balls And Halloween Candy Helped Lead Us To Daylight Saving Time (Cool Weird Awesome 967)

Daylight Saving Time begins early this Sunday. People have been complaining about the time change, or the lack thereof, since it first came up. So how did it first come up?

By |2023-03-10T07:14:57-05:00March 10, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Science Says Cats Can Perceive Time, Sort Of (Cool Weird Awesome 962)

The news site Inverse stopped me in my tracks with their recent article “Can Cats Tell Time? Yes, But It's Complicated.” And, when we look at the relationship between cats and time, it is complicated.

By |2023-03-03T08:48:19-05:00March 3, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

If Humans Land On Mars, Telling Time Will Get A Lot More Complicated (Cool Weird Awesome 811)

Many people hope humans will eventually walk on Mars. But there's a lot to sort out before that can happen, including this question: how does the way we tell time change when we have humans on more than one planet?

By |2022-07-15T09:30:44-04:00July 15, 2022|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

In Sweden In 1712, February Had 30 Days (Cool Weird Awesome 721)

Most years February is 28 days long. Every fourth year it has 29. But one time, in one country, for one year, there was a February 30th.

By |2022-02-28T09:46:16-05:00February 28, 2022|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

A Wooden Clock That Writes Out The Time (Cool Weird Awesome 684)

Our last show of the year is about the Plock, a very unique clock that doesn’t so much tell the time as it writes the time out.

By |2021-12-31T07:59:43-05:00December 31, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Why Are Clocks More Accurate The Hotter They Are? (Cool Weird Awesome 540)

Time is a funny thing, and measuring time can get pretty wild too. The proof is a study out of the UK that finds clocks that use more energy, and give off more heat, are also more accurate. Plus: a book of photos by Rumi Ando showcases Tokyo, but with its signs, cables, doors and windows removed. 

By |2021-05-20T08:42:31-04:00May 20, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

You Can Learn A Lot About Time If You Hang Out In A Cave Away From The Sun (Cool Weird Awesome 528)

Fifteen people just took part in the Deep Time project, where they lived in a cave in France as far away from time as we can get. And some interesting things happened. Plus: scientists in Brazil have just spotted a pumpkin toadlet, a tiny orange amphibian that glows green under ultraviolet light. 

By |2021-05-04T08:12:20-04:00May 4, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |

For A Person Who’s Hiding Something, Time Slows Down (Cool Weird Awesome 446)

A new study from researchers at Aoyama Gakuin University and Osaka University finds that something interesting happens when we’re trying not to reveal something: our perception of time slows down. Plus: MIT physicists have designed a model for a super-accurate atomic clock that even accounts for quantum physics.

By |2023-02-01T18:43:03-05:00December 29, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |

An Art Project Is Taking Photos Over A Thousand Years (Cool Weird Awesome 373)

The strangeness of this year has been messing with our internal clocks and our sense of how days, weeks and months go. But sometimes it's good to rethink how we understand time, like though Tahoe Timescape, a project to take photographs over one thousand years. Plus: New York City is where King Kong ran wild in the movies, but a new statue could help rebuild the relationship between NYC and big apes.

By |2021-05-20T08:54:16-04:00September 3, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

How Do Time Zones Work At Earth’s Poles? (Cool Weird Awesome 264)

Time is an odd thing no matter where you are, but it's especially weird at the North and South Poles, since all the world's time zones sort of converge there and a day as we know it lasts an entire year. Plus: it may be time to pay a visit to the World's Largest Buffalo Monument!

By |2023-02-01T18:38:45-05:00March 21, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |
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