SciShow Tangents

A bunch of things are considered agricultural science, from planting crops and raising sheep for wool to food safety and developing fertilizers. This week, we’re skimming the surface of agriculture, with a little detour into animals that sort of farm too. What accidental evolutionary pressures turned weeds into popular crops? Why are seed vaults so important to humanity? And what made Big Mike  basically go extinct, and are we worried about it happening with other crops? (Big Mike is a banana, by the way.)Want to know more about our topics? Check out these links:[Truth or Fail]https://india.mongabay.com/2018/10/farmer-termites-bury-invaders-alive-to-protect-fungus-farms/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10886-017-0902-4https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-010-0092-3https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0156847[Fact Off]Vavilovian mimicry:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/weed-science/article/vavilovian-mimicry-nikolai-vavilov-and-his-littleknown-impact-on-weed-science/1B0263622E208DA4548BF0BCB918F255https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02858881http://labs.eeb.utoronto.ca/barrett/pdf/schb_54.pdfhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00140.xLeningrad seed vault:[Ask the Science Couch]Bananas:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/25/banana-farming-danger-cavendish-crop-geneticshttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/18/scientists-scramble-to-stop-bananas-being-killed-offhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/12/27/banana-fungus-panama-disease/#.XIgdQFNKhxwhttps://www.apsnet.org/about/newsroom/releases/Pages/03Banana.aspxhttps://fusariumwilt.org/index.php/en/about-fusarium-wilt/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44712034[Butt One More Thing]Night soil: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/05/07/182010827/is-it-safe-to-use-compost-made-from-treated-human-waste

Pregnancy is, biologically speaking, extremely weird! A pregnant animal’s body goes through so many hormonal and physical changes to make sure a zygote has everything it needs to grow. This week, we’re talking about a few of those things, like why pregnant people get nauseated and other animals might not. So is pseudopregnancy a real thing, or are pandas just tricking zookeepers to get extra treats? Why is there a patent for a birthing machine that looks like a horrible carnival ride? And what the heck is a stone baby?Want to know more about our topics? Check out these links:[Truth or Fail]https://patents.google.com/patent/US3216423A/enhttps://dublin.sciencegallery.com/failbetter/apparatusfacilitatingbirthchildcentrifugalforce/[Fact Off]Panda pseudopregnancy:Lithopedion:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3979976/https://alumni.amc.edu/pages/archives/archives---the-stone-babyhttps://utmb.influuent.utsystem.edu/en/publications/lithopedion-stone-babyhttps://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/calcium-beyond-the-boneshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4750627/[Ask the Science Couch]Morning sickness:http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2000/05/morning-sickness-protects-mothers-and-their-unbornhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3676933/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2664252?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contentshttps://www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/resources/literature-review/symptoms-of-nvp-in-animals/https://www.livescience.com/32301-do-pregnant-animals-get-morning-sickness.html[Butt One More Thing]Meconium:http://science.sciencemag.org/content/112/2901/150.longhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18281199

This week, we’re joined by Blake de Pastino from the YouTube channel PBS Eons to talk about how plants, animals, and geologic events used to be so… huge. There are still blue whales and massive natural disasters, but the days of the Megalodon have passed. So were those big tunnels in South America really dug out by giant ground sloths? Where is the largest impact crater in the Solar System? And did humans really huddle under the skeletal remains of the giant armadillo-like Glyptodon? To learn more about this week's topic, check out these links:[Truth or Fail]https://natural-history.uoregon.edu/collections/web-galleries/saber-toothed-salmonhttps://cals.arizona.edu/classes/ento596c/topic/session9.htmlhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10420940.2016.1223654?scroll=top&needAccess=true&http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/03/28/paleoburrows-south-america/#.XFC3uc9Khxzhttp://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/044_Paleotocas_ING.pdf[Ask the Science Couch]Glyptodon carapaces:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/ancient-armadillos-grew-big-vw-beetleshttps://books.google.com/books?id=kUAKgNfiAvoC&pg=PA184#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttps://www.jstor.org/stable/971990?read-now=1&seq=6#page_scan_tab_contentshttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/2055556315Z.00000000031?journalCode=ypal20https://books.google.com/books?id=2tk_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223[Butt One More Thing]Stegosaurus butt brain misconception:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-double-dinosaur-brain-myth-12155823/

Bats have a bad reputation because of the ones that drink blood or spread disease, but these furry flying critters can be pretty cute! This week, we’re talking about everything from echolocation to weird potential uses for bat poop. Are there really bats with suction cups on their wings or is that just a cool toy idea? What is white nose syndrome and could vaping mushroom compounds… help? And what do you really think about Hank’s Dracula impression?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:[Poem]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-pitcher-plants-call-bats-get-their-poo-180956014/https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2010.1141[Truth or Fail]Bats that spend time on the ground:http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/03/vampire-bats-keep-out-trouble-running-study-showshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16621953https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2018/01/why-fly-when-you-can-shuffle-the-lesser-short-tailed-bat-prefers-the-ground/Diurnal bats:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/daytime-bats-help-explain-nocturnal-evolution/https://blogs.plos.org/ecology/2017/06/29/bat-species-found-only-on-islands-in-trouble-worldwide/https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mamm.ahead-of-print/mammalia-2017-0128/mammalia-2017-0128.xmlSuction cup bats:https://www.wired.com/2010/04/how-sucker-winged-bats-hang-on/[Fact Off]Bat & dolphin echolocation:https://evolutionnews.org/2012/05/tangling_the_tr/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/hear-bats-and-whales-share-sonar-proteinhttps://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)02073-9https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12511https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/refined-fine-tuned-placental-mammal-family-tree/Moth echolocation blocker:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/07/moths-block-bats-sonarhttp://science.sciencemag.org/content/325/5938/325?keytype=ref&siteid=sci&ijkey=GbDjRlkoHfRnYhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2009/07/17/tiger-moths-jam-the-sonar-of-bats/http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/14/2416[Ask the Science Couch]White-nose syndrome:https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/bat_crisis_white-nose_syndrome/Q_and_A.htmlhttps://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/static-page/what-is-white-nose-syndromehttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-bats-could-bounce-back-devastating-white-nose-syndrome-180969378/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02441-zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/4/2/48[Butt One More Thing]Bat guano gunpowder:https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dkc09  

You might know him from his greatest hits: natural selection, Galápagos finches, and eating lots of the animals he studied… it’s Charles Darwin! This week, we’re talking about this famous biologist and some of the weirder science he did. What kind of books did he write after he published On the Origin of Species? Why was he so disgusted by fish spitting out seeds? And was it normal to write a letter to a scientist friend and ask detailed questions about barnacle sex? Sources:[Truth or Fail]https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/4x38gj/darwins-monsters-parasitoid-waspshttps://books.google.com/books?id=lIcoAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=charles+darwin+eyebrows&source=bl&ots=YrNkw9VczZ&sig=ACfU3U06m2pYFahEfpPveHOyT8auD0ZeXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivsMeU4LvgAhUbJzQIHUaoA5wQ6AEwFXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=charles%20darwin%20eyebrows&f=false[Fact Off]Seeds & fish:http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1683&viewtype=text&pageseq=1https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-1681.xmlhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/11/17/darwin-bird-vomit/#.XBlv3c9Khxwhttps://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/161/1/20/2418329Barnacles: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574338/[Ask the Science Couch]Darwin’s understanding vs. ours:http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20141017-how-flowers-conquered-the-worldhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-darwin-didnt-know-45637001/https://www.wired.com/2014/12/fantastically-wrong-thing-evolution-darwin-really-screwed/http://www.esp.org/books/darwin/variation/facsimile/contents/darwin-variation-chap-27-i.pdfhttp://www.blc.arizona.edu/courses/schaffer/449/Soft%20Inhertance/Geison%20-%20Pangenesis.pdf[Butt One More Thing]Darwin bark spider:http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151126-the-worlds-biggest-spider-web-can-span-an-entire-riverhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011234

If you think about it, we’re all time travelers moving forward at one second per second… right? This week, we try really hard to define time, get sort of existential about it, and then talk about the science of timekeeping, from circadian rhythms to weird mechanical clocks. What happens to someone’s sense of time if you put them in a big bunker locked away from the outside world? How did we decide there would be 60 seconds in a minute, and did we ever try to measure time with a decimal system? And if a human were to instantaneously dissolve into a pile of goo because their time was up, what would it sound like?Sources:[Truth or Fail]https://mechanism.ucsd.edu/teaching/F11/philbiology2011/aschoff.circadianrhythmsinman.1965.pdfhttps://www.mpg.de/943613/S003_Flashback_060_061.pdfhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/6216073/Maurizio-Montalbini.html[Fact Off]Music & walking:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0067932Castle Clock: http://muslimheritage.com/article/al-jazari%E2%80%99s-castle-water-clock-analysis-its-components-and-functioninghttps://artsandculture.google.com/asset/al-jazari-s-book-of-knowledge-of-ingenious-mechanical-devices-the-castle-water-clock/DgF6LT4UYXvU4Ahttps://www.ee.columbia.edu/not-your-father%E2%80%99s-analog-computer-professor-yannis-tsividisAnimation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz7soHvy-Pw[Ask the Science Couch]60 seconds/minutes:https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1487,00.htmlhttp://curious.astro.cornell.edu/161-our-solar-system/the-earth/day-night-cycle/761-why-is-a-day-divided-into-24-hours-intermediatehttps://gizmodo.com/why-there-are-24-hours-in-a-day-5926491http://mentalfloss.com/article/32127/decimal-time-how-french-made-10-hour-day[Butt One More Thing]Speed of poop:https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/speed-of-poop-big-or-small-mammals-drop-a-deuce-in-12-secs-study-finds/https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/sm/c6sm02795d/unauth#!divAbstract

When can you start calling a rodent “giant?” When it’s twice the average size of its species? When you’re not grossed out by it? When it could be a mascot for a family fun center? We don’t really have a precise answer to that… but this week, we’re exploring the science of big ol’ rodents! Turns out, giant rodents have shaped the environment in lots of ways, from ancient megafauna stomping through South American wetlands to beavers affecting the climate. And even though they sound kind of scary, giant rats might be able to save human lives. But the real question is: what’s up with capybara anal pouches?Sources:[Truth or Fail]https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2015/02/making-teeth-tough-beavers-show-way-to-improve-our-enamel-http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-biswamoyopterus-laoensis-new-species-flying-squirrel-laos-01361.htmlhttps://www.apopo.info/en/tuberculosis-detection/projectshttp://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/tb/backgroundhttps://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/23/rats-who-sniff-out-tubersulosishttps://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140816-rats-tuberculosis-smell-disease-health-animals-world/[Fact Off]Hippos & biggest rodent:Beavers & carbon emissions:https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/uoh-bha082918.phphttps://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/07/what-role-do-beavers-play-climate-changehttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13280-014-0575-y[Ask the Science Couch]Gigantism:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-king-kong-should-have-been-blue-whale-180962603/https://www.nature.com/articles/482008dhttps://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120521-killer-mice-birds-gough-island-endangered-animals-science/https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00534.xhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4358651/[Butt One More Thing]Capybara anal pouches:https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1984.tb05087.x

For our very first live show at PodCon 2, we were joined by Elah Feder, the co-host and producer of the podcast Undiscovered! Podcasting on a stage with a live audience meant we really had to bring our A-game, so we swapped stories of famous actors, politicians, and other celebrities who also dabbled in science. Sources:[Truth or Fail]http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/eng/TC003EN.htmlhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/old-world-high-tech-141284744/[Fact Off]Julia Child:https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/shark-repellent.htmlhttps://appliedecology.cals.ncsu.edu/absci/wp-content/uploads/Stroud-et-al-2014.pdfhttps://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/4935https://faculty.washington.edu/sisneros/Sisneros%20and%20Nelson%202001.pdfZeppo Marx: [Ask the Science Couch]Brian May’s thesis: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295744.pdfhttps://www.space.com/5692-queen-guitarist-publishes-astrophysics-thesis.htmlhttp://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/cosmic_reference/zodydust.htmlhttp://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1994IAUS..160..127D[Butt One More Thing]Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills:https://io9.gizmodo.com/archaeologists-tracked-lewis-and-clark-by-following-the-1727887223https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/medrush.htm

Do you ever just wonder, “are the bees doing okay?” They’re so important to our food industry and native ecosystems, and every couple of years it seems like something horribly bad is happening to them. So this week, we’re taking a look at the fascinating lives and deaths of bees! Can they recognize human faces or understand the concept of zero? Why are blister beetles mimicking sexy bee pheromones? And what do nightclubs and honeybee hives have in common? Sources:[Poem]https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120316-hot-bee-balls-hornets-insects-brains-animals-science/http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/206/2/353.full.pdf[Truth or Fail]Handedness in beesBees understanding zeroBees recognize faces[Ask the Science Couch]CCD: https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorderGlyphosate:http://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/17/2799https://www.glyphosate.eu/glyphosate-mechanism-actionhttps://www.pnas.org/content/115/41/10305Native bees:https://www.wired.com/2015/04/youre-worrying-wrong-bees/http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Xerces_policy_statement_HB_Final.pdfhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5722319/[Butt One More Thing]Isopentyl acetate:https://www.extension.entm.purdue.edu/beehive/pdf/Breed_et_al.pdfhttps://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/isoamyl_acetate#section=Top

We’ve all heard about “The Algorithms” that affect our lives, making decisions for and about us. And artificial intelligence systems are recommending podcasts, picking out targeted ads, and playing games against humans every single day. This week, we’re going to skim the surface of AI and chat about everything from Siri to personality prediction software. How are these tools used to help the world, or are we mostly heading toward a dystopian future? What’s the Turing test and is it even a useful measure of artificial intelligence? And if a poem is written with software… is it really art? (We don’t know either.)Sources:AI-[Poem]http://janusnode.com/[Truth or Fail]https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-ai-vs-siri-vs-bing-iq-tests-show-one-is-smartest-by-a-mile/https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.10242https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38390798[Fact Off]Anti-poaching:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-ai-camera-helps-conservationists-spot-elephant-poachers-180971180/https://www.inverse.com/article/52203-ai-camera-poacher-watchhttps://www.inverse.com/article/48043-paul-allen-makes-amends-with-coral-reefs-with-artificial-intelligence-researchEye tracking:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00105/full?utm_source=FWEB&utm_medium=NBLOG&utm_campaign=ECO_FNHUM_personality-eye-movements[Ask the Science Couch]Turing test:https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20865-software-tricks-people-into-thinking-it-is-human/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/turing-test-measures-something-but-not-intelligence-180951702/https://www.wired.com/2012/06/flawed-turing-test/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/09/scientists-disagree-over-whether-turing-test-has-been-passed[Butt One More Thing]Artificial anus:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5655776