Mysteries Of The Universe

Steve Holstein at Interprep does a nice job every day of demonstrating how to take those pesky "DJ prep service wacky items in the news" that it seems like EVERYONE uses (ugh) and localize them, making them relatable to your listener.

For example:

It was one of the great riddles of the cosmos. Along with black holes, the structure of space-time and the origins of the Big Bang, some of the greatest scientific minds have struggled with the dry spaghetti question. Why does uncooked spaghetti snap into more than two pieces when bent? Now, two French scientists believe they have cracked the problem. They conclude that the pasta is broken up by so-called flexural. By taking a high-speed video of each strand of pasta as it broke, capturing the details with 1,000 frames per second, they revealed how the initial break sends waves rippling down the length of the pasta. This wave boosts the curvature of the already bent pasta, triggering a cascade of other breakages, which, in turn, trigger more waves, causing the strand to fragment. The team points out that the motivation for this research extends far beyond the kitchen. The brittle steel struts in skyscrapers, buildings and bridges can fragment by similar mechanisms, so this research can have practical implications in helping to make structures safer.

** PHONER: Now that science has tackled spaghetti, what other mysteries of the universe would you like to see uncovered? Like how come whenever I drop a piece of jellied toast it lands jelly-side down? Or why, when I'm just about the only guy in a movie theater (even, better, mention a local one by name!), does a couple of movie-talkers decide to sit directly behind me?