Why are there holes in Swiss cheese?
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From the brains behind Brains On, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Rosie DuPont. This is my friend, Bob. He's a mouse. I'm a mouse, in a house, a good mood, because there's food literally everywhere. Oh boy. These humans are a mess. They had a huge party and didn't clean up and went to bed. Oh boy.

There's chips and salsa, peanut butter granola balls, and cheese galore. Oh, what a great day. So many snacks to attack, crunches to munch. But wait a minute. Why does this piece of cheese have holes all over it? Did some other mouse get to it first? Why are there holes in Swiss cheese?

My name is Jenny Eastwood and my company is called Small Goods. I am what is known as a cheesemonger. A cheesemonger is one who sells cheese. Swiss cheese has holes because of little gas explosions caused by very tiny, very healthy microbes. So what are microbes? Well, microbes are very tiny organisms that can only be seen under a microscope.

microbes live in cheese, happily munching away on the sugar and fat within that cheese. And just like people, all that food makes them full of gas. Because these microbes live inside the cheese, this gas, known as carbon dioxide, is trapped and it blows up like a balloon. When these balloons pop, they create holes, or eyes, as we cheesemongers call them.

If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you cheese for cheese as much as I do, check out our new episode all about mac and cheese from forever ago. Here's a little taste. There are recipes for mac and cheese in English as early as the 1300s. And we know that it was served at Queen Elizabeth's courts here in the 16th century. You know who else lived in the 16th century? William Shakespeare. ♪

In fact, there he is, writing a sonnet. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more cheesy. Macaroni is so good, but making it is not so easy. I've never heard that one before. Yeah, it didn't make it into any of Shakespeare's greatest hits.

Cheesy and good. Sounds like the same macaroni and cheese we have today. Except for, making it isn't that hard, especially for the instant kind.

It's true. I'm going to go make a quick box of mac and cheese right now. In the meantime, I hope you'll send us a moment of um 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, um.