BrainStuff Classics: Why Did London Once Have...

Fainting goats don't really faint -- their muscles just lock up for a few extra seconds when they startle or get excited. Learn how myotonia works and why it can actually be a useful trait in goats in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffwork ...  Show more

Although a little air pollution can bring out brilliant colors in sunsets, most of it just causes a washed-out haze. Learn how both sunsets and smog work in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/smog-sunse ...  Show more

In the mid-19th century, London was literally filling with corpses. When the city was in the grips of a cholera epidemic, the already-overfilled cemetaries couldn't handle the extra bodies. So when there's literally no room in the soil for another dead body, what's a city to do? ...  Show more

In 1952 London was gripped by a acrid smog that settled throughout the city so thickly residents couldn’t see their own feet on the sidewalk.

Between 1854 and 1929, 250,000 orphans - at peril in the dangerous, overcrowded streets of New York - were placed on trains and sent west to live with new families. A desperate solution to a desperate problem, some of the stories turned out well and some far from well. The bond b ...  Show more

This 2014 episode covers why when the Great London Smog descended in December of 1952, nobody initially realized anything unusual was going on. At its largest, it extended 30 kilometers around London, and it killed thousands of people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info ...  Show more