SciShow Tangents

Written by: Complexly
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  • Summary

  • 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.
    Complexly
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Comedy & Humor Science
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Episodes
  • Inventions

    Inventions
    Feb 4 2025
    Is it usefulness, accidental genius, or sheer dumb luck that produces inventions? Well, after this episode, we at least know for sure what Batman's answer would be. As for the rest of it, you'll just have to listen along while we dive into one of Ceri's dream topics: Inventions!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! A big thank you to Patreon subscriber Garth Riley for helping to make the show possible!And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!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[This or That]Pacemakerhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3232561/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/11/from-viagra-to-valium-the-drugs-that-were-discovered-by-accidentSnow globehttps://www.bbc.com/news/business-25298507https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-an-experiment-to-amplify-light-in-hospital-operating-rooms-led-to-the-accidental-invention-of-the-snow-globe-180985742/Stethoscope https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1570491/https://www.thoughtco.com/rene-laenecc-stethoscope-1991647[The Scientific Definition]Pigeon Vesthttps://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/pigeons-bras-go-warBat Bombhttps://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/1090bats/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-almost-perfect-world-war-ii-plot-to-bomb-japan-with-batshttps://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-the-bat-bombs-of-world-war-ii/237267/Chicken Eyeglasseshttps://gizmodo.com/thousands-of-chickens-once-wore-glasses-to-stop-them-ki-1700343874https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/11/27/entrepreneur-wants-a-lens-in-every/https://extension.psu.edu/poultry-cannibalism-prevention-and-treatmenthttps://patents.google.com/patent/US730918Experiment (patent in category “Boats to ascend rivers”)https://books.google.com/books?id=K1YdAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttps://liberalarts.tamu.edu/nautarch/nwl/lake-champlain-projects/hoofbeats-over-the-water-ina-research-on-horse-powered-ferryboats/https://books.google.com/books?id=z0Avt3ruFx0C&pg=PA294#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttps://www.uspto.gov/blog/the-search-for-lost-x[Ask the Science Couch]“Ahead of their time” inventions (Undersea cables, Antikythera mechanism, electric cars) https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/historyculture/french-transatlantic-cable.htmhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-whttps://www.youtube.com/@clickspringhttps://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-early-electric-carsPatreon bonus: Patent law and whether you can apply without a prototypehttps://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/100https://www.legal.uillinois.edu/services/legal_guidance/inventions_and_patentshttps://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2109.htmlhttps://improbable.com/2014/02/21/the-blonsky-centrifugal-birthing-device-in-dublin/[Butt One More Thing]John Henry Kellog’s vibratory dining chair for bowel movementshttps://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/k-chair.htmhttps://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-nutrition-history-quackery/enigmatic-dr-kellogg
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    54 mins
  • Games with Jo Firestone!

    Games with Jo Firestone!
    Jan 21 2025
    Do you want to play a game? Well, we sure do! We're joined by Sam's dream guest Jo Firestone, a comedian, podcaster, and game author and enthusiast to celebrate the joy (and evil) of playing games, especially the games on 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! A big thank you to Patreon subscriber Garth Riley for helping to make the show possible!And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!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: Express]Researchers turned quitting smoking into competitive sporthttps://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2024/novel-digital-pet-game-within-smoking-cessation-app-increases-user-engagement-with-apps-tools-to-quit-smoking/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37566442/Scientists watch a hydrogel play ponghttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/22/scientists-enable-hydrogel-to-play-and-improve-at-pong-video-gamehttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1063433Bonus: Dead salmon FMRI studyhttps://www.psychology.mcmaster.ca/bennett/psy710/readings/BennettDeadSalmon.pdfOregon Trail decision model https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1063290[The Gauntlet]Game Boy Pocket Sonar accessoryhttps://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/game-boy-fishing-sonar/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/21/nintendo-game-boy-25-facts-for-its-25th-anniversaryhttps://gameboy.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Boy_Pocket_SonarFoldit players solve puzzles with what moleculeshttps://fold.it/about_foldithttps://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/press-release/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foldit-gamers-solve-riddle/AI neural network from floppy disk to electronic gamehttp://www.20q.net/?historyhttps://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/2006-Spring/announce.burgener.htmlhttps://openreview.net/pdf?id=FlR4WyubayyJenga name in Swahilihttps://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/jenga-tale-randomness-and-designhttps://www.museumofplay.org/toys/jenga/Candy Land disease epidemichttps://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/candy-land/https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/history-disease-outbreaks-vaccine-timeline/poliohttps://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/07/how-polio-inspired-the-creation-of-candy-land/594424/Jeopardyhttps://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/03/19/jeopardy-has-first-3-way-tie/https://www.npr.org/2009/12/20/121664528/sing-muse-of-the-jeopardy-three-way-tiehttps://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=3578https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/behind-scenes/breaking-down-four-rare-jeopardy-scenarios100% win rate from high-speed robothttps://ishikawa-vision.org/fusion/Janken/index-e.html[Ask the Science Couch]Game replayability reasons, impacts, and areas of future researchhttps://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED596614.pdfhttps://www.firstpersonscholar.com/the-games-people-replay/https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/3135888/293191.pdfhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1875952121000574https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X22002652https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2024/5876780Patreon bonus: Gamification, another facet of motivation psychologyhttps://academictechnologies.it.miami.edu/support/course-design-assistance/game-based-learning/index.htmlhttps://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1475760/1/gamification_CHI2016_preprint.pdfhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1875952119300953https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050921023255https://online.nursing.georgetown.edu/blog/how-to-stop-procrastinating-there-is-a-science-to-it/https://mcgraw.princeton.edu/undergraduates/resources/resource-library/understanding-and-overcoming-procrastination[Butt One More Thing]Original inventor of Scrabble was named Alfred Mosher Buttshttps://time.com/archive/6909539/scrabble/https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/scrabble/
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    55 mins
  • Randomness

    Randomness
    Jan 8 2025
    Is all life predestined, or is existence blown about by the whims of entropy? If we restarted the universe with the same world generating seed a la Minecraft, would it all play out the same??? These are ginormous questions that we do not get into in this episode! Instead, we're examining slightly more manageable examples of randomness in nature, in computing, and even in ourselves. 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! A big thank you to Patreon subscriber Garth Riley for helping to make the show possible!And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!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[The Scientific Definition]The Lost Boarding Pass Problemhttps://www.varsity.co.uk/science/23162The Secretary Problemhttps://www2.math.upenn.edu/~ted/210F10/References/Secretary.pdfhttps://slate.com/technology/2014/12/the-secretary-problem-use-this-algorithm-to-determine-exactly-how-many-people-you-should-assess-before-making-a-new-hire-or-choosing-a-life-partner.htmlThe Sleeping Beauty Problemhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW27QJYNXtUhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-sleeping-beauty-problem-is-keeping-mathematicians-awake/[Trivia Question]Sum of numbers on a D120 vertex where 10 faces meethttps://www.wired.com/2016/05/mathematical-challenge-of-designing-the-worlds-most-complex-120-sided-dice/[Fact Off]Fastest computer worm in history was the random-scanning worm called Slammer (aka the Sapphire Worm) https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~savage/papers/IEEESP03.pdfhttps://www.science.org/content/article/fastest-worm-everhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1523881Effectiveness of randomly promoting employees in a business instead of promoting by merit[Ask the Science Couch]Humans are (maybe) bad at intuitively understanding or predicting randomnesshttps://cocosci.princeton.edu/tom/papers/hard.pdfhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5215234/https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5933241/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027717302895https://zhaolab.psych.ubc.ca/pdfs/Zhao_2014_JEPHPP.pdfPatreon bonus: pseudorandom number generators and randomization seedshttps://www.random.org/randomness/https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/pseudorandom_number_generatorhttps://www.acsac.org/2003/papers/79.pdfhttps://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/[Butt One More Thing]Dung beetles that attach themselves to butts to find poop non-randomlyhttps://www.sfzoo.org/dung-beetle/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19169550/
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    52 mins

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