• Are you eager to learn and discover new things?
• Do you have a wide range of interests, often finding connections between seemingly unrelated subjects?
• Do you constantly ask questions and ultimately find your answers through self-directed research, and exploration?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, more than likely, you’re insatiably curious.

Here’s an even simpler way to determine if you’re insatiably curious. When something unexpected happens, are you more inclined to have a ‘wow’ moment and then go on with your day? Or are you more likely to have a ‘wow’ moment and then become curious as to why it happened?

If you answered the latter, you’re insatiably curious.
Welcome to the club!

Just today…

It just so happened that I had one of these ‘unexpected moments’ earlier today. I was heating water in the microwave to make iced tea – something I commonly do. But today, something ‘unexpected’ happened. I heated the water, and it didn’t really get hot.

A few minutes later, I decided to reheat it. Within 30 seconds, there was a ‘pop’. I checked the microwave, and found it drenched in water. Sure, I’ve seen similar things happen in the microwave when overheating food. But water?

Being me, my curiosity took over. Wow! Why did that happen?

A short time later, with a bit of quick research – I had an answer:

The phenomenon is known as superheating. What happens is that the water heats up faster than vapor bubbles can form. If the cup or glass is relatively new, it likely doesn’t have tiny surface scratches that provide places for bubbles to form (called nucleation sites).

Without these bubbles, the water can’t release the built-up heat, so it doesn’t boil and keeps heating past its boiling point. If the water gets bumped or jarred, it can cause bubbles to form suddenly, leading to an explosion of scalding hot liquid.

My bonus discovery? I’m a very lucky woman! More often than you think, someone will take a container of seemingly unheated liquid from the microwave and it literally explodes in their face! Ultimately landing them in the ER with severe burns. Ouch!

There is a workaround: place a wooden stir stick or something non-metallic in the water to help diffuse the energy as it is heating in the microwave.

…and now you know 😉

Curiosity kick-start challenge.

In a nutshell, being insatiably curious means having a strong and constant urge to learn, explore, and understand the world around us. While our endless questions might sometimes annoy friends and family, this kind of curiosity also pushes people to make big contributions in different fields and to keep growing and developing as individuals.
So, what do you think? Are you insatiably curious? If you are, wear that badge with pride!

Until next week…stay curious!

elaine