SciShow Tangents

Latest Episodes:

Farming Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Learning is a little like farming, in a way. You sow your brain field with facts seeds, nurture those seeds into thoughts and ideas and voila: you're smart! So slap on your headphones and jump on that tractor: We've got a bumper crop of knowledge to harvest!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Trivia Question]

Circulation of 1938 Old Farmer’s Almanac

https://www.almanac.com/history-old-farmers-almanac

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/how-the-old-farmers-almanac-previewed-the-information-age/415836/

[Fact Off]

Bradford watermelon seeds that people would die for

https://bradfordwatermelons.com/2014/08/our-story-the-long-version/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71931/super-sweet-watermelon-has-deadly-history

https://www.treehugger.com/bradford-watermelons-were-juicy-delicious-people-literally-die-4862619

Hearing loss in farmed salmon because of weird otolith formation

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/farmed-salmon-are-deaf-and-now-we-know-why

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/220/16/2965/33518/Rapid-growth-causes-abnormal-vaterite-formation-in

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep25249

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.709850/full

[Ask the Science Couch]

Animal agriculture (ants, termites, pocket gophers)

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/did-you-know-leafcutter-ants-are-farmers-who-grow-fungi

https://asm.org/Articles/2017/September/the-leaf-cutter-ant-s-50-million-years-of-farming

https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/25/12024324/termite-farming-25-million-years-ago-before-humans

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0156847

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957505

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00915-0

Video of pocket gopher pulling plant: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/940458

[Butt One More Thing]

Pig sty latrines

https://www.artic.edu/articles/629/pigsty-and-latrines

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001550/seats%2C-squats%2C-and-leaves-a-brief-history-of-chinese-toilets

https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/N5dN_A29v58C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=fertilizer

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Lasers Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

In all of science, there are very few things conceptually cooler than lasers. A beam of light you can use to blast aliens? Heck yeah! But are lasers actually as cool in reality as they are in science fiction? Probably not! But I guess you'll have to listen to find out for sure.

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Truth or Fail]

Gold-plated bacteria

Contact lenses that shoot lasers

Lead into gold with lasers

[Trivia Question]

Universal Product Code first scanned in grocery store

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/history-bar-code-180956704/

[Fact Off]

Laser cooking of printed chicken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jct3f92rIOE

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3-d-printed-chicken-dinner-cooked-by-lasers/

Laser lightning rod for deflection/protection

https://www.unige.ch/communication/communiques/en/2023/devier-la-foudre-grace-au-paratonnerre-laser

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-022-01139-z

https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/faq/

http://www.usfcam.usf.edu/cam/exhibitions/1998_12_mccollum/supplemental_didactics/21.uman2.pdf

[Ask the Science Couch]

Long-distance lasers and masers

https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/lasers/hazards

https://spie.org/news/12-09-laser-ranging?SSO=1

http://ccom.unh.edu/theme/lidar

https://www.icrar.org/megamaser/

https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.02523

[Butt One More Thing]

Low-level laser therapy for butt (or any) tendons

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8886125/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22960-gluteal-tendinopathy

http://www.utahorthopediccenters.com/hip/gluteus-medius-tendinopathy-or-dead-butt-syndrome/

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Poop Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

The bodily function so universal, there's a kids book all about how everybody does it! But... is that kids book a lie?! Find out the answer to that and way more in this very overdue episode of Tangents!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Trivia Question]

Penguin poop distance traveled

https://iposeogsekk.com/penguano.pdf

https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2005

[Fact Off]

AI listening to sounds of poop/diarrhea/fart

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350082-ai-listens-to-toilet-sounds-to-guess-whether-people-have-diarrhoea/

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/fart-monitoring-ai

Dagger made of frozen poop debunked (or, at the very least, not effective in lab conditions)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371

https://nautil.us/the-problem-with-the-frozen-poop-knife-study-237572/

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.5282456/why-scientists-tried-and-failed-to-make-a-knife-out-of-frozen-poop-1.5282458

[Ask the Science Couch]

Period poops (progesterone/estrogen & prostaglandins)

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24411-prostaglandins

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3297513/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823955

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-do-you-poop-more-on-your-period/

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Mating Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

In honor of Valentine's Day, that most cherished day of beauty and love, the Tangents crew gets real down and dirty by telling you more than you could ever want to know about sex harpoons, cannibalism, living sperm, and some other utterly un-romantic methods of copulation employed by the animal kingdom!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

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Spit Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

You need to clean a smudge of your glasses? Use some spit! Gotta make some food moist so you can swallow it? Why not try spit? Lips too dry to whistle a tune? My friend, spit is the bodily excretion for you! Spit: don't leave home without it!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Trivia Question]

Minor salivary glands

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-may-have-discovered-new-organ-set-salivary-glands-hidden-your-head-180976104/

[Fact Off]

Bowerbird making “paint” out of saliva

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3996615/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.2005.0908-8857.03549.x

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347213001097?via%3Dihub

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0325

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/satin-bowerbird/

Spitting cobras evolved to defend against hominids throwing rocks

https://www.newsweek.com/how-it-feels-acobra-spits-face-revealed-excruciating-detail-1749490

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/discoveries/discoveries/spitting-cobras-may-have-evolved-unique-venom-to-defend-from-ancient-humans/

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/01/study-did-cobras-first-spit-venom-scare-pre-humans

[Ask the Science Couch]

Compressing salivary glands aka “gleeking”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542272/

https://www.health.com/mind-body/what-is-gleeking

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/pregastric/salivary.html

[Butt One More Thing]

Dung-spitting competitions

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dung-spitting-contest-northern-ireland_n_55ae6aebe4b0a9b9485290c1

https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/bokdrol-spoeg/

https://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/8/1/5960987/spitting-antelope-poop-is-a-sport-kudu-bokdrol-spoeg

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SciShow Tangents Classics - Artificial Intelligence Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

Original Airdate: February 19, 2019

It seems like everyone's using Artificial Intelligence these days, so we thought we'd dip back into our archives for a little refresher on just what the heck AI even is. Plus, meet the character find of 2023: President Smartest Dog in the World!

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Rubber Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

You can bounce it, you can stretch it, heck... some people even chew it! That's right, it's rubber! And at long last, the Tangents team is finally talking about it! You all really wanted an episode about rubber, right? Well, we made it anyway, so you have to listen.

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Definition]

Mesoamerican rubber recipe

https://news.mit.edu/2010/mayaball-0524

[Trivia Question]

Koosh ball filaments

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73583/12-kooky-facts-about-koosh-balls

[Fact Off]

Mimicking birdsong with a rubber tube

https://softmath.seas.harvard.edu/publication/controllable-biomimetic-birdsong/

https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2011/01/simple-rubber-devices-mimic-complex-bird-songs

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-12093906

Mayan dental care & harvesting chicle as gum

https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-249X2018000100007

https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=fieldandlab

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0008621500827755

https://bda.org/museum/collections/teeth-and-dentures/mayan-tooth

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X22000980#b0200

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Tails Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

From a bunny’s seemingly-useless fluffy li’l puffball to a scorpion’s practical and deadly venom-filled stinger, the world is filled with all sorts of wonderful tails! And heck, some of them aren’t even tails at all, but that’s ok!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Trivia Question]

Seahorse square tail segments

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/why_the_seahorses_tail_is_square_and_how_it_could_be_an_inspiration

[Fact Off]

Swallowtail butterfly tails protect from attacking damage

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/butterfly-wing-tail-loss-break-birds-escape

https://phys.org/news/2022-06-evidence-butterflies-tails-distract-predators.html

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0562

Bird-of-paradise light-absorbing tail feathers

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02088-w

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/new-vogelkop-superb-bird-of-paradise-changes-up-the-old-song-and-dance/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/20/20813054/vantablack-ultrablack-black-material-surrey-nanosystems-carbon-nanotubes-science-materials

[Ask the Science Couch]

Evolutionary tail loss in some primates (apes)

https://www.science.org/content/article/jumping-gene-may-have-erased-tails-humans-and-other-apes-and-boosted-our-risk-birth-defects

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.14.460388v1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263034/

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/why-don-t-humans-have-tails

[Butt One More Thing]

Ant head mimicry on wasp tail/metasoma

Image: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Posterior-metasomal-tergites-and-ovipositor-of-Clistopyga-caramba-sp-nov-holotype_fig2_281632324

https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4013.2.9

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-segments-scorpion-metasoma.html

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Gas Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

From precious oxygen to the lowly fart, every day we’re all wallowing around in an invisible soup of gas! Exciting, isn’t it? Tune in to go into an exciting adventure into the world of gas with Sam, Ceri, and Dr. Tubeboy!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Trivia Question]

Horace Wells and Nitrous Oxide/Laughing Gas

https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/119/5/1014/13670/Horace-Wells-Demonstration-of-Nitrous-Oxide-in

[Fact Off]

History of the storage/transportation of gas (cylinders, gas holders, bamboo)

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/natural_gas_basics.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/0471238961.0701190519160509.a01

https://www.apga.org/apgamainsite/aboutus/facts/history-of-natural-gas

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24969284

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_2603

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/349362

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/professional_theses/147/

https://www.nortegas.es/en/our-business/distribution-of-natural-gas/history-of-natural-gas/

Canaries to detect carbon monoxide in mines & resuscitating them with oxygen

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/story-real-canary-coal-mine-180961570/

[Ask the Science Couch]

Fart/flatus noises from anal sphincter

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8601379/

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19545944/fart-noises/

https://flatology.com/consider-the-sphincter/

https://urogynecology.nm.org/anal-incontinence.html

[Butt One More Thing]

Snake cloacal popping

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/377052

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Memory Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

It's the time of year for old acquaintances to be forgot, but SciShow Tangents has never been one to bow to convention! So this week, we're remembering all our dang acquaintances and way more as we dive deep on the concept of Memory!

Want more Deboki? Check her out at https://twitter.com/okidoki_boki to find info on all of the many projects she works on!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces!

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!

A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[Truth or Fail]

Imprinting in general

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.736999/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4726915/

Pekin duckling different eye, different memories

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347216302597?via%3Dihub

https://phys.org/news/2016-11-ducklings-memory-banks-visual.html

California condor puppet funerals