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SciShow Tangents — Science
SciShow Tangents

SciShow Tangents is the lightly competitive knowledge showcase from the geniuses behind the YouTube series SciShow. Every other Tuesday, join Hank Green, Ceri Riley, and Sam Schultz as they try to one-up and amaze each other with weird and funny scientific research… while not getting distracted. There will be tangents about video games, music, weird smells, surprisingly deep insights about life, and of course, poop, but it always comes back to the science.

Copyright: © Complexly

Latest Episodes:

Fungi Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

Plants and animals get all the glory, but fungi are out there every day, breaking down leaf litter, making our bread nice and fluffy, and fermenting alcohols. They deserve a little thanks, so we did a whole episode about them!

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

If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Fungal Pesticides:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/12/522068205/fungal-pesticides-offer-a-growing-alternative-to-traditional-chemicals

https://agrochemicals.iupac.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=3&sobi2Id=31

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-virus-infested-fungus-chemical-pesticides.html

Tinder Fungi:

https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail-1345668003610.html?noticiaid=1345754508535

Egyptian Medicine:

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/nyregion/secrets-of-the-mummys-medicine-chest.html

[Fact Off]

Whiskey mold:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18065010

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5315285/

https://www.wired.com/2011/05/ff-angelsshare/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/78dyqb/kentuckys-whiskey-fungus-problem-is-out-of-control

Plastic-digesting fungus:

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/fungi-research-lifts-lid-shy-organisms-break-down-plastic

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202047

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117300295

http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/2017/09/12/scientists-find-fungus-appetite-plastic-rubbish-dump/

[Ask the Science Couch]

“Zombie” ants:

https://www.pnas.org/content/114/47/12590

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187170

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204140/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/how-the-zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants-bodies-to-control-their-minds/545864/

[Butt One More Thing]

Zygomycota:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003237

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8OAmcUnm4g

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The Apollo Program Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

From 1961 to 1972, thousands of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, seamstresses, pilots, and even a child or two worked on the Apollo Program, collaborating to bring humanity to the moon. Today, Tangents celebrates this unparalleled work of collective science and engineering!

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

If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Golf Club:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/objects-of-intrigue-alan-shepards-golf-club

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/08/16/why-was-alan-shepard-allowed-to-bring-golf-clubs-to-the-moon/#1d7fe6b67f86

Family Photo:

https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-16-hidden-family-portrait-on-the-moon-2015-10

Ashes:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eugene-shoemaker-buried-moon-celestis-nasa

https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/news82.html

[Fact Off]

Greg Force: Boy Hero:

https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/other_stations/guam/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/07/20/apollo11.irpt/index.html

Spacesuit seamstresses:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/neil-armstrongs-spacesuit-was-made-by-a-bra-manufacturer-3652414/

http://mentalfloss.com/article/82726/how-playtex-helped-win-space-race

https://www.racked.com/2018/9/5/17771270/spacesuit-girdles-playtex-seamstresses-nasa

https://gizmodo.com/how-to-sew-a-spacesuit-5788241

[Ask the Science Couch]

Michael Collins lonely:

https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jul/HQ_09-164_Collins_statement.html

https://www.space.com/16971-michael-collins-apollo-11.html

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/overview/

[Butt One More Thing]

Moon poop bacteria:

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/22/18236125/apollo-moon-poop-mars-science

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Cancer Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

Living things are so full of complicated systems of cells and DNA, that things are bound to go wrong. And sometimes when things go wrong, cancer is the result. Today on Tangents we talk about the causes, health impacts, and potential cures (both real and fake) of cancer.

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

If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Norman Baker

https://historycollection.co/norman-baker-man-claimed-cure-cancer/

Cow War

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3298&context=iowastate_veterinarian

Animal Testes Transplant

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4x3p73/early-body-hacking-when-men-got-goat-testicle-grafts-to-boost-their-sex-drive

The Philosophy of Success Book

https://archive.org/details/Law_Of_Success_in_16_Lessons

[Fact Off]

Turtle fossil bone cancer:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/02/ridiculously-rare-cancer-found-fossil-leg-turtle-triassic-paleontology/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2723578

Parasite-human cancer transmission:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p1104-parasite-tumors.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tapeworm-spreads-deadly-cancer-to-human/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190325110313.htm

[Ask the Science Couch]

General:

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/infectious-agents/hpv-and-cancer

https://www.popsci.com/transmissible-cancers-animals/

Tasmanian devil:

https://www.tcg.vet.cam.ac.uk/about/DFTD

https://www.nature.com/articles/onc2009350

https://elifesciences.org/articles/35314

Clams:

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(15)00243-3

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature18599

[Butt One More Thing]

Farts & cancer:

https://time.com/2976464/scientists-say-smelling-farts-might-prevent-cancer/

https://pubs.rsc.org/En/content/articlelanding/2014/md/c3md00323j#!divAbstract

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Natural Disasters Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

Natural disasters are a fact of life when you live on a giant ball of water, ice, and rock with a gooey magma center that’s hurtling through space… and all the pollution we’re pumping into the environment doesn’t really seem to be helping, either.

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

If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Cloud seeding

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-935704-30-0_9

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/195/4274/139

Absorbent polymer

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5d.html

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/sep/featrain

Hail cannon

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0477(1981)062%3C0368%3AHRTFHC%3E2.0.CO%3B2

https://www.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-hail-cannons-mexico-farmers-draught-2018-8

https://books.google.com/books?id=h-ADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA548

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hail-cannons-the-devices-that-supposedly-blast-away-bad-weather

Soot

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5b.html

[Fact Off]

Year Without a Summer:

https://scied.ucar.edu/shortcontent/mount-tambora-and-year-without-summer

http://mentalfloss.com/article/73585/15-facts-about-year-without-summer

https://medium.com/@spencerbaum/the-year-without-summer-and-the-origins-of-frankenstein-13e6884c3ece

Tae Bo “earthquake:”

https://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/korean-skyscraper-shakes-from-17-middle-aged-people-doing-tae-bo-1405157/

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/07/117_91209.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31349/how-power-literally-rocked-house

[Ask the Science Couch]

Glass rain:

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/galaxy-of-horrors/

Cryovolcanoes:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20081215b.htmL

https://www.nature.com/news/2009/090325/full/news.2009.190.html

Ice quakes on Earth:

http://climate.missouri.edu/news/arc/mar2014b.php

http://time.com/5517690/frost-quakes-ice-polar-vortex-sounds/

[Butt One More Thing]

Hurricane Florence poop:

https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Hurricane-Florence-Bathed-North-Carolina-in-Raw-Sewage-New-Figures-Show-it-was-Even-Worse-than-we-Thought.html

https://www.livescience.com/63625-pig-manure-overflow-hurricane-florence.html

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Fossils with Kallie Moore Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

Fossils: a profound link to our Earth’s past… some are profound... some are beautiful… some are poop! Kallie Moore, host of PBS Eons joins the Tangents crew to talk old stone bones, fraudulent fossils, and a dinosaur so well preserved, we may be able to figure out what its last meal was.

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

If you want more Kallie Moore, check out PBS Eons:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzR-rom72PHN9Zg7RML9EbA

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Pseudofossils:

http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Pseudofossils-1663.aspx

Underwater cave:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110927-crocodile-fossils-found-underwater-cave/

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/6440/N3779.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6920

Picture: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110927-crocodile-fossils-found-underwater-cave/#/40959.jpg

Amber:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00379271.2010.10697637

https://www.pnas.org/content/112/32/9961?ijkey=4607330261d2012edc599837b06f71be63ebc148&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

[Fact Off]

Opalized fossils:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/12/exclusive-sparkly-opal-filled-fossils-reveal-new-dinosaur-species-paleontology/

Super preserved Ankylosaur:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/06/dinosaur-nodosaur-fossil-discovery/

https://www.livescience.com/65640-opal-dinosaur-herd-bones.html

[Ask the Science Couch]

Zircon:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/scientists-may-have-found-earliest-evidence-life-earth

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/09/news-earth-rocks-sediment-first-life-zircon/

Tully monster:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/laelaps/tully-monster-still-a-mystery/

https://www.isgs.illinois.edu/outreach/geology-resources/illinois-state-fossil-tullimonstrum-gregarium

[Butt One More Thing]

Fake poop:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140729-dinosaur-coprolite-paleontology-dung-fossil-auction/

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Communication with Vanessa Hill Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

Birds singing, dogs barking, computers sending and receiving data, you reading this description: at the end of the day, it’s all communication. This week, we sit down with Vanessa Hill, host of the YouTube channel Braincraft, and do a little communicating about communication!

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

If you want more Vanessa Hill, check out BrainCraft: https://www.youtube.com/user/braincraftvideo

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Fact Off]

Languages & ecological risk:

Evolved antenna:

https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/pub-archive/1244h/1244%20(Hornby).pdf

http://www.genetic-programming.org/gecco2004hc/lohn-paper.pdf

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/ABOUT/about-index.php

Picture of ST5 antenna: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/TECHNOLOGY/antenna.html

Evolution of antenna: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/2-Sequence-of-evolved-antennas-leading-up-to-antenna-ST5-331427_fig2_226537559

[Ask the Science Couch]

Animal communication:

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test1materials/Animalchart.htm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/08/22/chirps-whistles-clicks-do-any-animals-have-a-true-language/?utm_term=.1e218b9e7f00

http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/spackled/2009readings/Slobodchikoff%202009.PDF

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834009/

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150512-birds-hold-the-key-to-language

[Butt One More Thing]

FRTs:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2003/11/farting-fish-keep-touch

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsbl.2003.0107

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Digestion Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

Everybody eats, and everybody poops, but in between… that’s where the magic happens! This week we’re talking about everyone’s favorite organic method of removing nutrients from food: digestion!

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

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Fact Off]

Throat to small intestine:

Phytobezoars:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4400622/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2673384/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apt.12141

[Ask the Science Couch]

Gum composition:

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/102/2/e22.long

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6986907B2/en

https://pslc.ws/macrog/pib.htm

Swallowed gum:

https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/swallowed-gum.html

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/basics/transit.html

[Butt One More Thing]

Everlasting pill:

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/antimony-metallic-cleanse-middle-ages

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037053/

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Messes with Joe Hanson Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

Be they big or small, purposeful or accidental, innocuous or potentially-planet-destroying, there is no question that humans are great at making messes and not so great at cleaning them up. Joe Hanson, host of the PBS channel Hot Mess, joins us to talk about some of the more notable messes we’ve made, and what, if anything, we can do to be less messy in the future.

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

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out this episode’s page at scishowtangents.org!

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Sleep May 28, 2019

Show notes

So,right off the bat, basically all you need to know about this episode is that Hank sings this week's Science Poem. Beyond that, we delve into the eternal mystery that is 'sleep.' Where do oursdreams come from? How does sleeping help rejuvenate our brains and bodies? Why do some people need less sleep than others? Turns out, no one really knows yet, but it's still fun to talk about!

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

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Sleeping and Idea Generation:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/sleep-creativity-theory/560399/

http://mentalfloss.com/article/12763/11-creative-breakthroughs-people-had-their-sleep

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/08/mendeleev-periodic-table-dream/

https://www.inverse.com/article/3696-5-dreams-that-led-to-scientific-breakthroughs

[Fact Off]

Auto activation deficit:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24026624

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130911211923.htm

Narcolepsy and dogs:

https://med.stanford.edu/narcolepsy/narcolepsyhistory.html

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12026-014-8513-4

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3625934/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9481825

https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/psychiatry/documents/narcolepsy/latestnews/cell98.pdf

[Ask the Science Couch]

Naturally short sleepers:

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2018/03/410051/scientists-discover-how-gene-mutation-reduces-need-sleep

https://www.pnas.org/content/115/13/3434.short?rss=1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589707/

Circadian rhythms:

http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/variations/individual-variation-genetics

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/having-this-gene-may-make-some-people-night-owls/

Flies:

https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1007098

[Butt One More Thing]

Dormant butt syndrome:

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/your-dormant-butt-might-be-to-blame-for-knee-hip-or-back-pain

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Cooking May 21, 2019

Show notes

Every day, billions of people perform vital, life sustaining chemistry right in their homes! Baking, frying, boiling, fermenting… all cooking is science, and the way it weaves into our lives and cultures makes it uniquely fascinating! Join us this week to learn why the heck there’s iodine in your salt, what happens if you forget where in the bog you buried your cask of meat, and why baking a cake at high elevations can be so frustrating!

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

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

Hartshorn salt:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/ammonium-carbonate-hartshorn-hirschhornsalz-1446913

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/foods/recipe/ammonia.html

Bog butter:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/for-peat-s-safe-bog-butter-unearthed-with-turf-1.583009

https://www.nature.com/news/1998/040315/full/news040315-5.html

Turnspit:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/13/311127237/turnspit-dogs-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-vernepator-cur

https://books.google.com/books?id=FVF_PhTjK7cC&pg=PA316#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Fact Off]

Iodine in salt:

https://www.nber.org/papers/w19233

Hank’s notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13t4UeMlNg5bH3v1HpkixBa_PYT6AB8NtCFqIBEw9XQk/edit?ts=5cbfd777

Graphene vegetable oil:

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-turned-cheap-cooking-oil-into-a-material-200-times-stronger-than-steel

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14217

[Ask the Science Couch]

Cooking at high elevation:

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/article-3-03.html

https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/foodnut/p41.pdf

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6098858/

[Butt One More Thing]

Baby poop meat:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0309174013005263?via%3Dihub

https://www.livescience.com/43465-baby-poop-sausage-probiotic.html

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