When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story...
Eric from Scranton, Pennsylvania, shares a funny story about having his hopes dashed as a five-year-old when his teacher told the class they were going down the hall to the laboratory. This is part of a complete episode.
A listener leaves us a voicemail about a sign his high school science teacher posted in the classroom to encourage students to keep the noise down. It read “Laboratory — more of the first 5, less of the last 7.” As in more of the first...
gross room technician n.— «Grant became a deiner/ gross room technician at Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp), a company which offers diagnostic testing. “A deiner or a gross room technician is just another term for autopsy...
labette n.— «The center is envisioned as a “labette,” a little laboratory, that will examine whether the old way of telling stories—particularly those delivered to the millions on screen, with a beginning, a middle and an end—is in...
suitcase scientist n.— «Maryville resident Bill Cabage, a spokesman for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said ORNL’s frequent fliers are referred to as “suitcase scientists.” Those scientists with their carry-on luggage and laptops are...