A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away… we wondered, could you ever build a real lightsaber like the ones in Star Wars? A lightsaber is a glowing sword that can cut through metal – and pretty much anything else you can think of. It’s the favorite tool of heroes like Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, as well as villains like Darth Vader. That’s just in the movies, but could we make them real? We asked mechanical engineering professor Sayan Biswas to help us find the answer.

Got more questions than Luke when he was training with Yoda? Send them to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help use the force to find an answer!

They come in cool colors, catch popcorn kernels and sometimes even have spacers - it’s braces! Ever wondered how braces magically straighten teeth? We asked Dr. ArNelle Wright - a real life dentist! - to help us break down the science of these tiny metal wonders.

Bracing for a tough question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help uncover the tooth.

The Milky Way! Neptune! Uranus! Halley’s Comet! There are so many cool features in our solar system – but how did they get their names? We asked space scientist and communicator Maggie Aderin-Pocock to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s out of this world? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll make space for an answer.

Waiting for a stoplight to turn green can be really annoying, especially when you’re running late. It would be awesome if you had a magic wand you could wave to get the light to change. But alas, such things don’t exist. But how do stoplights know when to switch colors? We asked Jerry Kotzenmacher with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to help us find the answer.

Got a nagging question that just won’t yield? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll put you in the express lane to answersville.

Have you ever had a scary or weird dream and wished you could switch your brain-television to another channel? Great news! You can learn to use “lucid dreaming,” a technique that helps you realize when you’re in a dream. Once you know you’re dreaming, you can teach yourself to shape your own storyline. So how does that work? We asked Dr. Ketema Paul, Professor, Integrative Biology And Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s keeping you up at night? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help put it to bed.

There are all different kinds of yogurt: Greek, vanilla bean, blueberry, even sheep’s milk yogurt! But how did people first figure out how to make this yummy food? We asked journalist Allison Conroe to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s whey cool? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a legen-dairy answer.

Happy Snake Week! Every episode this week explores a different question about our slithery friends. Here’s a mind blower for you: did you know the ancestors of snakes used to have legs? Somewhere along the zigzag path of evolution, they traded in their lizardy legs for a more streamlined look. But why did snakes go legless? We asked biologist and snake researcher Emily Taylor to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s snaking around your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find a fangtastic answer!

Happy Snake Week! Every episode this week explores a different question about our slithery friends. Did you know that, out of the roughly 3,000 total species of snakes, only about 10-15% are venomous? But how do those snakes make venom in their bodies? We asked snake scientist Emily Taylor to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s biting at you? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll search for the answer-dote!