Green potatoes — would you like them here or there? Would you like them anywhere? Well as Dr Karl taught us last week, potatoes contain a potentially deadly chemical, and a green tinge is its greatest tell.  In this archive episode, we explore why green potatoes are best avoided. 

Given the right (or wrong) circumstances, the humble potato packs a punch.  It contains a chemical that could kill if ingested in large amounts. The catch-22? That chemical is exactly why potatoes taste so good.  In this archive episode of Great Moments, Dr Karl digs into the science. 

What you eat or drink just after you finish pumping iron is crucial to laying down muscle.  Dr Karl weighs up the best way to bulk up, in this archive episode of Great Moments in Science from 2011. 

The destructive force of a wall of snow is well known. Major avalanches can not only kill, they can also completely reshape a landscape.   But it's not just mountainsides we need to worry about. There are also avalanches happening under the surface of the ocean — forging canyons and threatening our telecommunications.

There are plenty of reasons why a person might poke their tongue out.  Sometimes it can be a rude or cute gesture. Maori warriors do it as a sign of defiance, and Tibetans do it as a greeting. But many times it's a sign of concentration. So here’s why your tongue helps your brain think. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

In development is an amazing new technology which may, eventually, turn your thoughts into speech. It's being designed to help people who can’t speak, turn what they're thinking into speech. But it’s still early days.

Athletes are not just fit, they also attract a lot of media attention, especially if stories are put around that COVID vaccines are a cause of death in this group. In late 2021 such claims were being made - and they’re plainly not true.

In 2022 we found that Neanderthal DNA could kill superbugs. Wait, what ... didn't Neanderthals die out?  Yes, but their hidden power could make them important in modern medicine.

Continuing the story about the effects of alcohol we arrive at the “drunchies”—short for the “drunken munchies”. They’re what occur after a bout of too much drinking. You become very hungry and much your way through any fast food within reach. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

Alcohol in small quantities can make people sociable; but too much of it can mean hangovers and associated consumption of non-nutritional foodstuffs. There's a whole chemical family of 'alcohols', so what's the deal with the one that humans kinda like—ethanol.

For some snapping spaghetti is sacrilege — but for others it’s science.

From spaghetti strands to trees to nanotubes — we need to know about the physics of rod-like structures.

How do trees face an incoming threat if they can't move, see, or hear?

Trees are solid and dense. However, they're made from air. Wait, what?

About 95 per cent of the mass in the universe seems to be missing — what's going on!?

Our skin is like a personal space suit protecting us from the outside world. Skin is best when you are a child—because of the elastic protein keeping it fresh and supple—but, unfortunately, that freshness doesn’t last. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Producer: Diane Dean

An interesting demographics exercise is to add up the number of humans who've existed. This is different from how many people are in a population—which in late November 2022, is about 8 billion. But using data going back as far as possible, the number of people who've existed is reckoned at over 100 billion. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

One might imagine that face masks work because the multiple layers will stop a virus getting through. But no, that's not it—they use a high-tech 'melt-blown' material, developed from a technique first noticed in volcano eruptions. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Producer: Diane Dean

Nowadays we're pretty familiar with wearing a face mask to reduce infection rates, and that some masks are better than others.But understanding why the N95 mask is a really good mask one came as a surprise. Host: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Producer: Diane Dean

Nuclear weapons carry enormous destructive power in a very small package. A nuclear weapon weighing about a quarter of a ton can release as much energy as exploding 1.2 million tons of TNT – that’s a multiplication factor of about five million. During the Cold War the combined numbers of US and Soviet nuclear weapons reached about 70,000. There are not so many these days but there are still enough to end civilisation as we know it.

The further adventures of some of the most powerful events in our Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts. The biggest one recorded was in October 2022, in a galaxy far, far away. What would have happened if it had exploded inside our Milky Way galaxy?  

First on the list of Most Energetic Events Ever in our universe is The Big Bang. No mean contender for top ranking is the "Gamma Ray Burst" - aka the GRB. GRBs can put out more energy in a few seconds than our Sun produces in its 10-billion-year lifetime.

The invention of the elevator made city-living possible. It made possible a rapid mixing of cultures and concepts, efficient use of energy—and ultimately, increased economic output. And now there's a further improvement called 'destination despatching'.

The first definite proof of a link between humans and dogs is a 15,000-year-old grave holding a dog, a man and a woman. Intensive breeding of dogs began about 200 years ago, which resulted in most of today's 450-or-so breeds. And there's a definite mutual appreciation society between people and canines