Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
From the brains behind Brains On, this is Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Anton, celebrity hairstylist. Um, um, um. I've styled the hair of many, many important people. Presidents, pop stars, even popes.
I don't just trim hair. I'm a hair artist. You want a hot pink mohawk with frosted tips? I got you. A sophisticated mullet with side-swept bangs? Easy. Double buns, Princess Leia style. Consider it a double done. Okay, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I have a brand new, never-seen-before hairstyle that I literally just invented.
It's called the corn poof. It's a little white ponytail on the top of your head that sticks straight up. So innovative and so fresh. And get this, my corn poof hairstyle was inspired by actual corn. You know, that little white ponytail-like thing that pokes out from the top of an ear of corn when it still has its leaves.
And then when you peel back the leaves, you know, the husk of the corn, there's all these little white strands inside surrounding the corn cob. It's just beautiful. Just perfect for my latest hairstyle. But say, what is that hairy looking stuff on the corn anyway? Brooke wanted to know this too.
So those are called the corn silks. Hey everyone, I am Kenji Lopez-Alt and I am a cookbook author and a children's book author. If you were to very, very carefully open up a ear of corn, peel off the husk and look at each one of those silks, you'll find that each one of those silks is actually attached
to a single kernel of corn inside. So every kernel of corn has a hair that is attached to it and goes to the outside. And in fact, those kernels of corn couldn't exist without those silks. What those silks are is essentially they're a pathway for corn pollen
to come down and turn into a new corn kernel. So corn, like other flowers, some of them will release their pollen, and then that pollen will travel over to another ear of corn to fertilize it. And the corn silks are essentially corn's way of catching pollen in the air. So if you think of like a sea anemone in the ocean, you know, it has all those little tentacles that stick out. And what those tentacles do is essentially they catch little bits of pollen
food that are floating around in the water. That kind of shape is really good at catching things like a net. And so that's what corn silks are. They come out of the top of each one of the corn flowers. So an ear of corn is actually a flower. When a piece of pollen lands on one of those sticky corn silks, it eventually will work its way down into the actual ear where it can pollinate the corn. And then that will grow into a kernel that you can eat. Um,
Incredible. The delicious corn kernels that we eat are the seeds of the corn plant. In order for an ear of corn to grow, it needs pollen from other corn plants. The white strands poking out from the top of the ear of corn are sticky, so they help catch the microscopic corn pollen floating around in the air. And once a strand catches a tiny piece of pollen, well, it helps a single kernel of corn grow.
Hmm. So I guess it's not really hair at all. Maybe I should scrap my corn hair ideas and come up with a different, never-seen-before hairstyle then. Think, Anton, think. Oh!
What about a lion's mane? Yeah, you grow your hair really long and then you fluff it up all around your face like a huge fluffy mane. Oh, or how about the mold cut? It's short and fuzzy and green. This is really going to revolutionize the hair art world.
If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you're into plants, and who isn't, check out the Forever Ago History Podcast, where we have a whole episode all about orchid flowers that fueled a wild craze in Victorian England. Want to see our shows come to life? Well, head to YouTube, where we've got awesome animated brains-on episodes.
Just search Brains On Universe in YouTube and subscribe. If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then, bye. It's not a haircut. It's hair art.
Is there a teen in your life who needs a little extra help learning how to manage their finances? Financially Inclined from Marketplace is a podcast you can trust to help Gen Z get serious about money.
I'm the host, Janelia Espinal, and each week I talk to experts about essential and practical personal finance topics, like choosing a college that you can actually afford, finding internship opportunities, and how to start a business while you're still young. Let's make sure the next generation gets these financial lessons sooner than we did. Listen to Financially Inclined wherever you get your podcasts.