Robert Lamb

Robert Lamb

Contributing Writer and Co-host of Stuff to Blow Your Mind

Robert Lamb spent his childhood reading books and staring into the woods — first in Newfoundland, Canada, and then in rural Tennessee. There was also a long stretch in which he was terrified of alien abduction. He earned a degree in creative writing. He taught high school and then attended journalism school. He wrote for the smallest of small-town newspapers before finally becoming a full-time science writer and podcaster. He’s currently a contributing writer at HowStuffWorks and has co-hosted the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind since its inception in 2010. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife Bonnie, discussing dinosaurs with his son Bastian and crafting the occasional work of fiction.

Recent Contributions

There's nothing particularly organic about a robot, even if you dress it in hemp and fuel it with alternative energy. But these five can help our planet one mechanical movement at a time.

By Robert Lamb

The question of exactly what is human consciousness and how it came to be in the human mind has raged forever between philosophers, religious scholars and scientists, but does the theory of the bicameral mind explain it?

By Robert Lamb

At some point in your life, a coach may have enthusiastically told you to "fight fire with fire." Coach, of course, was speaking metaphorically. Do firefighters actually employ this strategy?

By Robert Lamb

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The world of our far-future descendants may be as unrecognizable to us as our bustling, urbanized world would be to our bewildered ancient forefathers. Will energy drive many of those changes?

By Robert Lamb

The mighty Romans certainly never thought it would happen to them, but the sun eventually sets on even the most powerful empires. Is there more to the story than war?

By Robert Lamb

We humans love to create. We build soaring skyscrapers from the ground up. We fill blank canvasses with timeless, magnificent art. Can we achieve the ultimate feat and generate matter?

By Robert Lamb

Looking forward to instantaneous travel? The Star Trek teleporter is one step closer to reality. Scientists have now teleported a laser beam. Could humans be next?

By Kevin Bonsor & Robert Lamb

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Whether they make you think of Hurricane Katrina or Led Zeppelin, levees are a critical safety feature for low-lying areas located near water. Why do they break?

By Marshall Brain & Robert Lamb

Let's say a big one strikes the home planet. You, however, happen to be flying above the earthquake's epicenter when the natural disaster ripples through. Would you feel it?

By Robert Lamb

Gravity is great, but if we could figure out how to selectively reduce its effects, we could cut the energy demands of travel and transportation. Don't cheaper airline tickets sound pretty good?

By Robert Lamb

If you swim like a fish or run like a cheetah, you may understand biomimicry better than you realize. The practice involves imitating models in nature to improve technology and design.

By Robert Lamb

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At best, fossilization is a long and tricky process that mineralizes an occasional Tyrannosaurus rex or other extraordinary find. How has that affected our chances at charting a model of life itself?

By Robert Lamb

Of course you know what gravity is. It's the force behind Wile E. Coyote plummeting off the face of a cliff and you stumbling spastically in front of your crush. But did you know it can bend light and help us detect hidden cosmic phenomena, too?

By Robert Lamb

For decades, we've depended on an outdated, centralized power system that wastes power and occasionally fails to meet everyone's needs. The idea of a localized power grid, or microgrid, might just be the change we need.

By Robert Lamb

Every day, astronomers unravel a little more of the universe's inner workings, but the jury is still out on 95 percent of its contents.

By Robert Lamb

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In honor of Douglas Adams and galactic hitchhikers everywhere, we submit this list of 10 spacecraft that we hopelessly pine for. Mindboggingly beautiful!

By Robert Lamb

What was once your manicured front yard is now an unruly jungle, home to various creatures and an eyesore for neighbors. The time has come to mow the lawn.

By Robert Lamb

How would you like to be the person responsible for changing science and Western civilization? With the "Origin of Species," Charles Darwin did. How did this English gent become the reluctant ambassador of evolution?

By Robert Lamb

Skinwalkers blur the line between human and beast. They're shape-shifting magical beings that belong to the Navajo spirit world. But how does one become a skinwalker?

By Robert Lamb & Desiree Bowie

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Almost 300 years after his death, Sir Isaac Newton remains one of the most influential thinkers in history. What are some of his most enduring inventions?

By Robert Lamb & Tristin Hopper

A gulf of difference may separate our human world of empires, science and spirituality from the animal wilds of the other great apes. But the genetic differences are pretty meager.

By Robert Lamb & Desiree Bowie

How are stars formed? In this article we'll explain stars and learn how stars are formed.

By Robert Lamb & Austin Henderson

We know where major fault lines crisscross the Earth and where about 80 percent of the world's earthquakes occur; it's the "when" that seismologists have valiantly struggled with. Why?

By Robert Lamb

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Not a star. Not an airplane. No, this is something radically different. It moves through the night sky with amazing speed and pulsates with radiance beyond anything you've ever witnessed. UFO?

By Robert Lamb & Desiree Bowie

Do we owe the emergence of language and self-reflection to the ancient and sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms?

By Robert Lamb & Austin Henderson