Be Smart.

By Joe HansonScience Education Natural Sciences

Be Smart. episodes

October 07 How Dogs Became Our Dearest Friends (ft. MinuteEarth!)
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Are you more of a cat person?
Follow me to MinuteEarth to discover the origin of our feline friends! https://youtu.be/LWB0-tGwb_E
↓↓↓More info and sources below ↓↓↓
Of all the species that humans have domesticated, dogs are our oldest animal friends. But how did a group of wolves become the furry pup at the end of the bed? New research is finally unlocking the paw-in-hand evolution of dogs and humans. In this episode we’re answering one big question: Did we domesticate dogs, or did dogs domesticate us?
Special thanks to our friends from MinuteEarth!
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REFERENCES:
Frantz, Laurent AF, et al. "Genomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogs." Science 352.6290 (2016): 1228-1231.
Freedman, Adam H., and Robert K. Wayne. "Deciphering the Origin of Dogs: From Fossils to Genomes." Annual Review of Animal Biosciences 0 (2016).
Freedman, Adam H., et al. "Genome sequencing highlights the dynamic early history of dogs." PLoS Genet 10.1 (2014): e1004016.
Thalmann, Olaf, et al. "Complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient canids suggest a European origin of domestic dogs." Science 342.6160 (2013): 871-874.
Wang, Guo-Dong, et al. "Out of southern East Asia: the natural history of domestic dogs across the world." Cell research 26.1 (2016): 21-33.
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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 Will You Still Eat Raw Fish After Watching This Video?
You can learn more at https://curiositystream.com/smart
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Uploaded 11-09-18

Have you ever noticed that warning about raw or undercooked seafood at the bottom of restaurant menus? Ever wondered why it’s there? Because fish carry a ton of parasites, and if they aren’t prepared correctly then those parasites can make it into your body. But it turns out, this fishy intersection with the wild world of parasites can teach us a lot about how these moochers help keep ecosystems healthy, and why we should protect them.

REFERENCES:

Parasite Evolution https://www.livescience.com/55483-wei...

The World’s Parasites Are Going Extinct. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Thing https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...

History of Human Parisitology https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Parasites in Seattle Sushi http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/sea...

Dramatic evolution within human genome may have been caused by malaria parasite http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/0...

Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer https://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-B...

Interviews and conversations with:
Colin J. Carlson (National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center)
Chelsea L. Wood (University of Washington)

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Shaena Montanari, Ph.D.
Creative Director: David Schulte
Editor/animator: Sara Roma
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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11 min
October 07 Why NASA Rammed an Asteroid
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓
Where did life come from? It’s one of the biggest questions humans have ever asked — and the answer might be locked in ancient space rocks that were around before life began. To find out, NASA pulled off one of its most ambitious missions ever, landing on an asteroid and sending a rock sample back to Earth. Today, we’re going to take a look at what it brought back.
Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart
References:
https://www.asminternational.org/early-analysis-of-nasas-first-asteroid-return-sample/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.11794
https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/news/spotlight/first-look-bennu-sample-reveals-carbon-and-water
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03178-0
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03978-4
https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/osirisrexpresskit-2023.pdf
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18 min
October 07 This Face TOTALLY Changes the Human Story
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Uploaded 21-10-19

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Greetings, fellow Homo sapiens. Our species is the only remaining member of the genus of upright, walking apes known as Homo. Where did we come from? Our history just got a whole lot more complicated (in a good way) thanks to some incredible new fossils unearthed in South Africa over the past few years. I got to visit them, and the scientists who discovered them, to learn their story and ours. Meet your cousin: Homo naledi #homonaledi #humanorigins #evolution

References: https://sites.google.com/view/homo-naledi-references/home
Thank you to:
-Lee Berger, Marina Elliott, and Becca Peixotto for letting me meet Neo and for explaining their science!
-The Republic of South Africa for allowing these fossils to be on display in the USA.
-The Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas. “Origins: Fossils From the Cradle of Humankind” will be on display through early 2020: https://www.perotmuseum.org/exhibits-and-films/traveling-exhibition/origins.html

Special thanks to our Brain Trust Patrons:
AlecZero
Bob Rosset
Brent M.
Diego Lombeida

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18 min
October 07 There Might Be a Dinosaur On Your Dinner Table
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Uploaded 15-11-18

Eating turkey this holiday season? Chowing down on a roast chicken? You’re eating a dinosaur! Entertain your family and friends with a little science lesson this year, and show them why bird bones tell us that birds are actually living dinosaurs.

Comparative anatomy of dinosaurs and chicken - HHMI https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/comparative-anatomy-domestic-chicken

Special thanks to:

Anna Rothschild
Mary Beth Albright and The Washington Post Food Lab
Shaena Montanari, Ph.D.

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PO Box 303356
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14 min
October 07 How Many Species Are Out There?
Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate
How do we protect what we don’t know exists?
Don’t miss the next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub
↓ More info and sources below ↓
How many species are there on Earth? In biology, this is one of a fundamental question that we still don’t have a very good answer for. Imagine if chemists didn’t know all the elements of the periodic table, or if physicists didn’t know all of the particles of the standard model. Knowing how many different species there are is information we need to know in order to protect the environment, but it’s a lot harder than you think!
Check out last week’s video, where we find a weird caterpillar in the Peruvian Amazon and ask “How do you discover a new species?”
LEARN MORE:
Costello, Mark J., Robert M. May, and Nigel E. Stork. "Can we name Earth's species before they go extinct?." Science 339.6118 (2013): 413-416.
Locey, Kenneth J., and Jay T. Lennon. "Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016): 201521291.
May, Robert M. "The future of biological diversity in a crowded world." Current Science 82.11 (2002): 1325-1330.
May, Robert M. "How many species inhabit the earth." Scientific American 267.4 (1992): 42-48.
Mora, Camilo, et al. "How many species are there on Earth and in the ocean?." PLoS Biol 9.8 (2011): e1001127.
Stork, Nigel E. "How many species are there?." Biodiversity and Conservation 2.3 (1993): 215-232.
FOLLOW US:
It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Editor/animator/producer: Andrew Matthews
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox
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Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson
Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com
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Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

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7 min
October 07 A Brief (Scientific) History of Butts
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Uploaded 30-06-21

Hold on to your butts. This episode is about… butts. The science and evolutionary history of your rear end, the down-low on your derriere, shining a little light where the sun don't shine… you get the picture. But(t) seriously, we don't talk about this all-important hole enough, and how, from an evolutionary perspective, it might be the most important orifice on your body.

References: https://sites.google.com/view/briefhistoryofbutts-references/home

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17 min
October 07 How The Placebo Effect Influences Your Brain
Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate
This episode is brought to you by Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/
Tweet ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBSplacebos Share on FB ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBSplaceboFB
↓ More info and sources below ↓
How does the placebo effect work? Here's how your brain tricks itself when it comes to medicine
Follow me to Reactions to learn what is (and isn’t) in those vitamin supplements: https://youtu.be/9gQoG0AT3kY
We’ve got t-shirts! Get yours here: http://store.dftba.com/collections/its-okay-to-be-smart
References:
Niemi, M. B. (2009). Placebo Effect: A Cure in the Mind: Scientific American.Placebo Effect: A Cure in the Mind: Scientific American.
Price, D. D., Finniss, D. G., & Benedetti, F. (2008). A comprehensive review of the placebo effect: recent advances and current thought. Annu. Rev. Psychol.,59, 565-590.
Finniss, D. G., Kaptchuk, T. J., Miller, F., & Benedetti, F. (2010). Biological, clinical, and ethical advances of placebo effects. The Lancet, 375(9715), 686-695.
Marchant, J. (2015). Strong placebo response thwarts painkiller trials. Nature News http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-painkiller-trials-1.18511
Dr. Ben Goldacre's book "Bad Science" http://amzn.to/1TZ5WUE
Harold Pashler "Encyclopedia of the Mind" http://amzn.to/1HT7RJ4
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!
Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/okaytobesmart
http://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe
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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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10 min
October 07 What Is A Dinosaur And What Isn’t a Dinosaur?
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Uploaded 23-06-20

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There’s a lot of confusion out there about what is and isn’t a dinosaur. And you’d be forgiven for being kinda confused. Maybe paleontologists are just messing with us. Or… maybe the question of what is and isn’t a dinosaur goes deeper than we think? Well, like an intrepid fossil hunter, I set out to dig up an answer, and what I found teaches us a lesson about how hard it is to build a picture of the past when you only have a few puzzle pieces and a lot about why we classify things the way we do.

"The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" by Dr. Steve Brusatte https://amzn.to/2Nndyoj

"Scrotum Humanum" comes from Brookes, R. (Richard). (1763). A new and accurate system of natural history ... London: Printed for J. Newbery.
https://archive.org/details/newaccuratesyste05broo/page/n409/mode/2up

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12 min
October 07 Why Is The Universe So Empty? (ft. PHD Comics!)
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Uploaded 26-09-17

A collaboration with Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson. Their book: http://www.WeHaveNoIdea.com
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Why is the universe organized the way it is? And why is it so empty? From planets and stars to superclusters and galactic filaments, the universe’s largest structures formed because of its smallest. In this special collaboration with PHD Comics, we’ll learn how the earliest, quantumest blips seeded the structure of everything everywhere.

Special thanks to Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson!
http://phdcomics.com/
@PHDcomics
@DanielWhiteson

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READ MORE:
Check out “We Have No Idea”: http://amzn.to/2yFfWyr

We used visualizations from:
NASA Goddard
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

The Aquarius Project
http://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/aquarius/

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It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Matt Caplan, Ph.D.
Editor/animator: David Schulte
Additional animation: Jorge Cham
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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7 min

About Be Smart.

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We give you deep answers to simple questions about science and the rest of the universe. And also dad jokes.

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