SciShow Tangents

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 seedinghttps://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-935704-30-0_9https://science.sciencemag.org/content/195/4274/139Absorbent polymerhttps://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5d.htmlhttp://discovermagazine.com/2002/sep/featrainHail cannonhttps://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0477(1981)062%3C0368%3AHRTFHC%3E2.0.CO%3B2https://www.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-hail-cannons-mexico-farmers-draught-2018-8https://books.google.com/books?id=h-ADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA548https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hail-cannons-the-devices-that-supposedly-blast-away-bad-weatherSoothttps://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5b.html[Fact Off]Year Without a Summer:https://scied.ucar.edu/shortcontent/mount-tambora-and-year-without-summerhttp://mentalfloss.com/article/73585/15-facts-about-year-without-summerhttps://medium.com/@spencerbaum/the-year-without-summer-and-the-origins-of-frankenstein-13e6884c3eceTae 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.htmlhttp://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.htmLhttps://www.nature.com/news/2009/090325/full/news.2009.190.htmlIce quakes on Earth: http://climate.missouri.edu/news/arc/mar2014b.phphttp://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.htmlhttps://www.livescience.com/63625-pig-manure-overflow-hurricane-florence.html

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-rom72PHN9Zg7RML9EbAAnd 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.aspxUnderwater 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=yhttp://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6920Picture: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110927-crocodile-fossils-found-underwater-cave/#/40959.jpgAmber:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00379271.2010.10697637https://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-earthhttps://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/

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/braincraftvideoAnd 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).pdfhttp://www.genetic-programming.org/gecco2004hc/lohn-paper.pdfhttps://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/ABOUT/about-index.phpPicture of ST5 antenna: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/TECHNOLOGY/antenna.htmlEvolution 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.htmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/08/22/chirps-whistles-clicks-do-any-animals-have-a-true-language/?utm_term=.1e218b9e7f00http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/spackled/2009readings/Slobodchikoff%202009.PDFhttps://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-touchhttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsbl.2003.0107

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.longhttps://patents.google.com/patent/US6986907B2/enhttps://pslc.ws/macrog/pib.htmSwallowed gum:https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/swallowed-gum.htmlhttp://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-ageshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037053/

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!

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-sleephttps://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/24026624https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130911211923.htmNarcolepsy and dogs: https://med.stanford.edu/narcolepsy/narcolepsyhistory.htmlhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12026-014-8513-4https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3625934/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9481825https://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-sleephttps://www.pnas.org/content/115/13/3434.short?rss=1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589707/Circadian rhythms:http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/variations/individual-variation-geneticshttps://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

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-1446913https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/foods/recipe/ammonia.htmlBog butter:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/for-peat-s-safe-bog-butter-unearthed-with-turf-1.583009https://www.nature.com/news/1998/040315/full/news040315-5.htmlTurnspit: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/13/311127237/turnspit-dogs-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-vernepator-curhttps://books.google.com/books?id=FVF_PhTjK7cC&pg=PA316#v=onepage&q&f=false[Fact Off]Iodine in salt:https://www.nber.org/papers/w19233Hank’s notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13t4UeMlNg5bH3v1HpkixBa_PYT6AB8NtCFqIBEw9XQk/edit?ts=5cbfd777Graphene vegetable oil:https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-turned-cheap-cooking-oil-into-a-material-200-times-stronger-than-steelhttps://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14217[Ask the Science Couch]Cooking at high elevation:https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/article-3-03.htmlhttps://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/foodnut/p41.pdfhttps://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.htmlhttps://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%3Dihubhttps://www.livescience.com/43465-baby-poop-sausage-probiotic.html

From countless stories of little green men to colonization plans and endless rover and satellite missions, humans are sort of obsessed with Mars. One of those obsessed humans is Hank Green! This week he finally gets to put all his knowledge about his favorite planet to good use: winning fake points on a game show he made up!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]https://docs.google.com/document/d/12swg6fcCIZYuQh4q9vmW6SBwMoLwnb7jq3s2qT9_Djg/edit?usp=sharing[Fact Off]First Mars image: The picture: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA14033Plutonium-238:https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbyz4v/scientists-are-automating-plutonium-production-so-nasa-can-explore-deep-spacehttps://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/plutonium-production-space-exploration/https://www.greenwichtime.com/technology/businessinsider/article/NASA-s-deep-space-nuclear-power-crisis-may-soon-13530374.php[Ask the Science Couch]Earth tectonics:https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/pltec/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/science/plate-tectonics-continents-earth.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2018-09-plate-tectonics-earth.htmlMars (lack of) tectonics:https://marsed.asu.edu/mep/tectonicshttps://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/solar-system/mars/surface/volcanoes/[Butt One More Thing]Poop-eating bacteria:https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/03/582968023/making-space-food-with-space-poop

We couldn’t make podcasts without the science of sound. There’s a lot of technology involved in capturing the vibrations we’re making with our vocal folds so that we can share them with the whole Internet! So this week, we’re fine-tuning our knowledge of sound. Do scientists even know why music makes us feel emotions? Is the ocean really as silent as it seems, or are fish partying down there? And how did computer nerds send each other video games and Christmas cards through radio broadcasts?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 these links:[Truth or Fail]Butterfly Hearing:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/these-butterflies-boost-their-hearing-unusual-strategy[Fact Off]Coral reef sounds:Computer program cassettes:https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/1156672/http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Audio/tape2.htmlhttp://artsites.ucsc.edu/EMS/music/tech_background/TE-16/teces_16.htmlhttps://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_fifty.htmlhttps://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1976-02/1976_02_BYTE_00-06_Color_Graphics#page/n73/mode/1uphttp://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/cass_data.htmlhttp://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/10/13/people-used-download-games-radio[Ask the Science Couch]General Feelings & Physiological Effects:https://www.nature.com/news/why-dissonant-music-strikes-the-wrong-chord-in-the-brain-1.11791https://www.pnas.org/content/109/48/19858https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140130600899104?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=terg20https://www.nature.com/news/neuroaesthetics-is-killing-your-soul-1.12640Chills:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-look-what-happens-brain-when-music-causes-chills-180959481/https://www.wired.com/2011/01/the-neuroscience-of-music/https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2726 https://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/10/scan.nsw009.abstract?cited-by=yes&legid=scan;nsw009v1https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305735615572358Harmony:https://arxiv.org/html/1202.4212v1/#sec_2_3_2https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20930-why-harmony-pleases-the-brain/https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.108103[Butt One More Thing]Fart noises:https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19545944/fart-noises/

This week, we’re joined by Trace Dominguez from the YouTube channel Uno Dos of Trace to talk about genetic mutations! Tiny changes in an organism’s DNA sequence can lead to big variations or absolutely nothing. It’s just a roll of the dice! So what mutations have shown up in modern humans—different bones, livers, or even eyeballs? What is “foreign DNA” and where does it even come from? And can anybody name as many X-Men as Sam?If you want to know more about any of the topics discussed today, check out these links:[Truth or Fail]Hypoxia:https://www.sciencealert.com/indonesian-bajau-genetic-changes-adapt-them-to-aquatic-lifestyle-2Bones:https://www.the-scientist.com/notebook-old/the-worlds-densest-bones-47155https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa013444https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28893644Smoking:https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-17-mn-51362-story.html[Fact Off]Tetrachromats:Colchicine and watermelons:https://csuvth.colostate.edu/poisonous_plants/Plants/Details/79https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4656054/https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=jbs.2013.277.282https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT71326739/PDFhttps://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2000/may00/h5may00.htmlhttps://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/for-plants-polyploidy-is-not-a-four-letter-word/[Ask the Science Couch]Foreign DNA:https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uonc-ahc111815.phphttps://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/290835.phphttps://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-015-0607-3https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2009.1679https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7934/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6177113/[Butt One More Thing]Beautiful buttocks:https://www.nature.com/news/2002/020917/full/news020916-3.html