Be Smart.

By Joe HansonScience Education Natural Sciences

Be Smart. episodes

October 08 If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?
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Uploaded 11-02-20

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Can trees really save us from climate change? For eons, nature has relied on photosynthesis as a big way to keep carbon dioxide levels from getting out of control. But as we have put more carbon into the air, we’ve also cut down many of the forests we need to suck that carbon up. So big tree-planting initiatives like #TeamTrees to the rescue, right? Actually, we need to think bigger. Here’s three ways trees really can help us solve climate change, from a guy who wants to plant a TRILLION trees, to how we might save the forests we’ve got, to scientists hacking biology to make trees even better.

References: https://sites.google.com/view/3waystreescansavetheclimate/home

Aspect Science: Team Trees Explained https://youtu.be/SLHCA-hHx4Y

Special thanks to Felix Finkbeiner
https://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/en/home

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Ron Kakar

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14 min
October 08 Where Did Zika Arise?
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Follow the latest news on Zika:
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/
http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/en/
Special thanks to the following for personal interviews about Zika outbreak:
Dr. Peter Hotez - Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Scott Weaver - UT Medical Branch, Galveston
Dr. Nikos Vasilakis - UT Medical Branch, Galveston
Dr. Dahotra Sarkar - University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Alex Wild - University of Texas at Austin
Mustapha Debboun - Harris County Mosquito Control
References/further reading:
Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy - Robert Sallares
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50747841
Sallares, Robert, and Susan Gomzi. "Biomolecular archaeology of malaria."Ancient Biomolecules 3.3 (2001): 195-213.
Sallares, Robert, Abigail Bouwman, and Cecilia Anderung. "The spread of malaria to southern Europe in antiquity: new approaches to old problems."Medical history 48.03 (2004): 311-328.
Hotez, Peter J. "Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Anthropocene: The Cases of Zika, Ebola, and Other Infections." PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10.4 (2016): e0004648.
Hotez, Peter J. "Blue marble health redux: Neglected tropical diseases and human development in the Group of 20 (G20) nations and Nigeria." PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9.7 (2015): e0003672.
Thumbnail image credits:
Aedes aegypti mosquito: CDC/ Prof. Frank Hadley Collins, Dir., Cntr. for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Univ. of Notre Dame
Zika virus capsid: Manuel Almagro Rivas, Wikimedia Commons
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Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment or check us out at the links below!
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It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Follow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe
Produced by PBS Digital Studios: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsdigitalstudios
Music via APM
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10 min
October 08 Why Do We Itch?
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Uploaded 08-05-18

It’s one of the most annoying sensations our bodies can feel, but does anything feel better than when you scratch an itch? Ok, maybe *some* things. But itching and scratching are up there. How does this weird sensation work? And what is itching for?

References: http://bit.ly/2IiIqWn

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Kimberly McCoy
Creative Director: David Schulte
Editor/animator: Karl Boettcher and Derek Borsheim
Producers: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
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8 min
October 08 Clarifying Lunar Eclipses and the SUPER BLOOD MOON!
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This episode is brought to you by Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/
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Special thanks to:
Rob Pettengill, Ph.D. http://www.robpettengill.org
and the Austin Astronomical Society http://www.austinastro.org/ for helping me photograph the lunar eclipse timelapse
Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment or check us out at the links below!
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-----------------
It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Follow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe
Email me: itsokaytobesmart AT gmail DOT com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart
For more awesome science, check out: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com
Produced by PBS Digital Studios: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsdigitalstudios
Joe Hanson - Creator/Host/Writer
Joe Nicolosi - Director
Amanda Fox - Producer, Spotzen Inc.
Kate Eads - Producer
Andrew Matthews - Editing/Motion Graphics/Animation
Katie Graham - Camera
John Knudsen - Gaffer
Theme music: “Ouroboros” by Kevin MacLeod
Other music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock, stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted)

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7 min
October 07 Your Microbiome: The Microscopic Creatures That Keep You Alive!
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“I Contain Multitudes” by Ed Yong http://amzn.to/2aE5rlf
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Learn more/references:
Fujimura, Kei E., et al. "House dust exposure mediates gut microbiome Lactobacillus enrichment and airway immune defense against allergens and virus infection." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111.2 (2014): 805-810.
Strachan, David P. "Family size, infection and atopy: the first decade of the 'hygiene hypothesis'." Thorax 55.Suppl 1 (2000): S2.
Gerrard, J. W., et al. "Serum IgE levels in white and metis communities in Saskatchewan." Annals of allergy 37.2 (1976): 91-100.
Kuleshov, Volodymyr, et al. "Synthetic long-read sequencing reveals intraspecies diversity in the human microbiome." Nature biotechnology 34.1 (2016): 64-69.
Li, Junhua, et al. "An integrated catalog of reference genes in the human gut microbiome." Nature biotechnology 32.8 (2014): 834-841.
Elahi, Shokrollah, et al. "Immunosuppressive CD71+ erythroid cells compromise neonatal host defence against infection." Nature 504.7478 (2013): 158-162.
Gibbons, Deena, et al. "Interleukin-8 (CXCL8) production is a signatory T cell effector function of human newborn infants." Nature medicine 20.10 (2014): 1206-1210.
German, J., et al. "Human milk oligosaccharides: evolution, structures and bioselectivity as substrates for intestinal bacteria." Personalized Nutrition for the Diverse Needs of Infants and Children. Vol. 62. Karger Publishers, 2008. 205-222.
Sela, D. A., et al. "The genome sequence of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis reveals adaptations for milk utilization within the infant microbiome."Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105.48 (2008): 18964-18969.
C-section statitics: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/health-at-a-glance-2015_health_glance-2015-en
Kroiss, Johannes, et al. "Symbiotic streptomycetes provide antibiotic combination prophylaxis for wasp offspring." Nature Chemical Biology 6.4 (2010): 261-263.
Zaneveld, Jesse, et al. "Host-bacterial coevolution and the search for new drug targets." Current opinion in chemical biology 12.1 (2008): 109-114.
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It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment or check us out at the links below!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart
Twitter: http://twitter.com/okaytobesmart
http://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe
Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/jtotheizzoe
Snapchat: YoDrJoe
Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from SciencePhoto http://www.sciencephoto.com/ and Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com
Stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted) http://www.videoblocks.com

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10 min
October 07 Asteroid Mining Will Change Everything About Our Future In Space
Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate

Uploaded 07-11-17

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Read “Soonish” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith! https://smbc-comics.com/soonish/
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

Try 23andMe at: http://www.23andme.com/okay

Asteroid mining sounds like something out of a bad space movie, but harvesting materials from space rocks might be our ticket to building space colonies or living on Mars. Most of Earth’s precious and rare metals are locked too far in the crust for us to get at them, and launching them to space is too expensive for us to supply large colonies off Earth or explore far off worlds. How do we get our hands on the planetary resources inside asteroids? Let’s find out!

Special thanks to Kelly and Zach Weinersmith for working with us on this video. Check out their new book “Soonish” for a hilarious and science-filled look at future technologies: https://smbc-comics.com/soonish/

SOURCES/EXTRAS:

Badescu, Viorel, ed. Asteroids: Prospective energy and material resources. Springer Science and Business Media, 2013.

Crawford, Ian A. "Asteroids in the service of humanity." arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.2678 (2013).

Kleine, Thorsten. "Geoscience: Earth's patchy late veneer." Nature 477.7363 (2011): 168-169.

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Dr. Shaena Montanari
Editor/animator: Andrew Orsak
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com
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10 min
October 07 How Your Memory Works
To learn more about Brilliant, go to https://brilliant.org/BeSmart/ and sign up for free. First 200 people will get 20% off the annual Premium subscription.
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Uploaded 01-05-18

How does memory work? And how does… un-memory work? Our brain does a lot of remembering and forgetting every day, so you should probably make room for som info on how it works. You’ll also get to meet some people who can’t make memories, and also never forget anything.

References: http://bit.ly/2rdFW0O
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SEND US STUFF:

It’s Okay To Be Smart
PO Box 303356
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USA

BOOKS WE’VE FEATURED:
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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Maria Ter-Mikaelian
Creative Director: David Schulte
Editor/animator: Karl Boettcher and Derek Borsheim
Producers: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

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13 min
October 07 How Well Do Masks Work? (Schlieren Imaging In Slow Motion!)
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateOKAY
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Uploaded 04-07-20

We're on PATREON! Join the community ►► https://www.patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart
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Wearing a mask is a cheap and easy way to help stop the spread of airborne infections like COVID-19. It's also a sign that you want to help protect other people and have them protect you… that we're all in this together. Here are some awesome slow-motion schlieren imaging experiments to demonstrate why masks work! Share with someone who needs to see this.

References: https://sites.google.com/view/why-masks-work-references/home

Special thanks:
Matthew Staymates - National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Richard Davis - Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center (https://twitter.com/richdavisphd/status/1276629360212979712)
Derek Muller - @Veritasium (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tgOyU34D44)
David McRaney - You Are Not So Smart https://youarenotsosmart.com/

Special thanks to our Brain Trust Patrons:
AlecZero
Diego Lombeida
Dustin
Ernesto Silva
George Gladding
Jay Stephens
Marcus Tuepker
Megan K Bradshaw
Peter Ehrnstrom
Ron Kakar
vincbis

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12 min
October 07 Why Do These Deadly Insects Look Like Flowers?
This video is perfect for adults orchids.
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Uploaded 11-07-17

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Many creatures wear disguises in order to keep safe from predators, but there are some that dress to kill. Orchid mantises are one of nature’s most awesome examples of aggressive mimicry. These killer insects are almost indistinguishable from orchids! Scientists recently learned that their disguise doesn’t work quite how we thought it did.

Special thanks to YouTuber Fruchtpudding for letting us use their awesome orchid mantis hunting footage! https://www.youtube.com/user/Fruchtpudding

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READ MORE:

O’Hanlon, J. C. (2016). Orchid mantis. Current Biology, 26(4), R145-R146.

O’Hanlon, J. C., Holwell, G. I., and Herberstein, M. E. (2013). Pollinator deception in the orchid mantis. The American Naturalist, 183(1), 126-132.

O’Hanlon, J. C., Herberstein, M. E., and Holwell, G. I. (2014). Habitat selection in a deceptive predator: maximizing resource availability and signal efficacy. Behavioral Ecology, 26(1), 194-199.

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Sarah Keartes
Producer/editor/animator: Andrew Matthews
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox

Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

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6 min
October 07 The Remarkable Owl!
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Enjoy these amazing facts about owls!
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↓ More info and sources below ↓
As we get ready to watch that big football game that my lawyers tell me I’m not allowed to say the name of, let’s celebrate a champion of the bird world: Stealthy and silent owls! Learn how owls fly so silently, how they see in the dark, and how owls’ incredible hearing makes them such superb aerial hunters.
Want more awesome owl science? Check out “What Makes Owls So Quiet and Deadly?” from KQED’s Deep Look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a68fIQzaDBY
Special thanks to:
The Witmer Lab at Ohio University
Learn more:
Wagner, Hermann, et al. "Features of owl wings that promote silent flight." Interface Focus 7.1 (2017): 20160078.
Wagner, Hermann, et al. "Neuroethology of prey capture in the barn owl (Tyto alba L.)." Journal of Physiology-Paris 107.1 (2013): 51-61.
FOLLOW US:
It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Shaena Montanari
Editor/animator/producer: Andrew Orsak
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox
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Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson
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Produced by PBS Digital Studios
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7 min

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