Be Smart.

Be Smart.

By Joe HansonScienceEducationNatural Sciences
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Be Smart. episodes

  • Traffic Lights Are So Much Weirder Than You Realize

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    Uploaded 10-03-26

    Why are stop lights red? The common explanation about red light traveling farther through fog is actually wrong. The real story involves early railroads, deadly accidents, an exploding gas traffic light, forgotten inventors, and even the evolution of primate color vision. Here’s how history and biology accidentally created the nearly perfect traffic signal.

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    Be Smart explores science questions you didn’t even know you wondered about. It is hosted and produced by Joe Hanson, PhD. We post new videos all the time, so please subscribe! If you enjoyed this video, hit the ‘like’ button, leave a comment, or watch another of our videos!

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    Stock video and images provided by Shutterstock, Artlist, and MotionArray
    Music provided by APM
    Written by Joe Hanson
    Edited by PW Shelton
    Produced by Least Square Media and Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios



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    22 min
  • Why Salt & Pepper Became Fixtures On Every Table
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    “Salt: A World History” by Mark Kurlansky http://amzn.to/29vj9m4
    “Pepper: A History of the World’s Most Influential Spice” by Marjorie Shaffer http://amzn.to/29BORCW
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    It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
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    8 min
  • Fixing Daylight Saving Time Is THIS Easy

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    Uploaded 10-03-20

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    Every year, hundreds of millions of people voluntarily turn their lives upside down by setting their clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the autumn on a particular date mandated by the government wherever they happen to live. Daylight saving time is a perfect example of how a few people with the best of intentions can end up annoying millions of the rest of us for the better part of a century. And it’s time we take an honest look at how we got to this place where half the world comes unstuck in time twice a year, and ask if the supposed advantages for springing forward and falling back still hold up! #daylightsavingtime #DST

    References: https://sites.google.com/view/fixing-daylight-saving-time/home

    My video about the invention of metric system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3eHHwcMVcA

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    16 min
  • Where Did Life Come From? (feat. PBS Space Time and Eons!)

    Follow us to PBS Space Time: https://youtu.be/GcfLZSL7YGw
    And Eons: https://youtu.be/pk213XSSktQ
    ↓↓↓ More origin of life info and sources below ↓↓↓

    Uploaded 11-04-18

    The origin of life is one of the most important mysteries in all of science. When did life begin? How did life first evolve from chemistry? Where did life get started? In some primordial soup or somewhere else? Let’s journey back to the origin of life, as best as we know it, from the RNA world do the last universal common ancestor of everything alive today.

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    REFERENCES: http://bit.ly/2HtuPZr

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

    Produced by PBS Digital Studios
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    17 min
  • Which Came First - Blossoms or Bees?
    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate
    Stop and smell the flowers… and watch this video
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    ↓ More info and sources below ↓
    Bees and flowers have an amazingly close relationship. Flowers need bees in order to reproduce, and bees need flowers to feed their colonies. Take away one, and the other would disappear too. It begs the question: When it comes to evolution, which came first, the bees or the flowers?
    Book recommendation:
    "A Sting in the Tale" by Dave Goulson, a great scientific and cultural history of bees http://amzn.to/1BcytS5
    Special thanks to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX for letting us hang out with their bees and flowers! https://www.wildflower.org/
    More info/sources:
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-beguiling-history-of-bees-excerpt/
    http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38733/title/On-The-Origin-of-Flowers/
    http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141017-how-flowers-conquered-the-world
    http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/big-bloom/
    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.DFollow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe
    Email me: itsokaytobesmart AT gmail DOT com
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    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 IncKate Eads - Associate Producer
    Andrew Matthews - Editing/Motion Graphics/Animation
    Katie Graham - Director of Photography
    John Knudsen - Gaffer
    Theme music: "Ouroboros" by Kevin MacLeod
    Other music via APM
    Stock images from Shutterstock, stock footage from Videoblocks
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    Last week's video:
    The Energy Series! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsmqeqKj7M-q499mOUvNa3iRreFBzxaQx
    More videos:
    Why Does February Have 28 Days? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgKaHTh-_Gs
    Why Vaccines Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aNhzLUL2ys
    Why Are Some People Left-Handed? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPvMUpcxPSA
    Where Does the Smell of Rain Come From? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcE5x8s0B8​

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    8 min
  • Are You Afraid of Holes?

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    Uploaded 27-02-19

    Honeycomb. Strawberries. Flower pods. Some people find these things incredibly scary. We call this extreme fear trypophobia. But why does it exist?

    REFERENCES: http://bit.ly/2NvhWki

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    BOOKS WE’VE FEATURED:
    http://smart-books.tumblr.com/

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    It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
    Director: Joe Nicolosi
    Writer: Berly McCoy, Ph.D.
    Creative Director: David Schulte
    Editors/animators: 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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    10 min
  • How Baby Sea Turtles Find Their Route Home
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    The cutest conservation story ever? Maybe.
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    Special thanks to Dr. Donna Shaver and the Padre Island National Seashore Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery for having us!
    Andrés Herrera film courtesy of Dr. Thane Wibbels - University of Alabama at Birmingham
    References/Learn More:
    Bevan, E., et al. "Estimating the historic size and current status of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) population." Ecosphere 7.3 (2016).
    Johnsen, Sönke, and Kenneth J. Lohmann. "The physics and neurobiology of magnetoreception." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6.9 (2005): 703-712.
    Lohmann, Kenneth J., Nathan F. Putman, and Catherine MF Lohmann. "Geomagnetic imprinting: a unifying hypothesis of long-distance natal homing in salmon and sea turtles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences105.49 (2008): 19096-19101.
    Lohmann, Kenneth, and Catherine Lohmann. "Detection of magnetic inclination angle by sea turtles: a possible mechanism for determining latitude." Journal of Experimental Biology 194.1 (1994): 23-32.
    Putman, Nathan F., et al. "Evidence for geomagnetic imprinting as a homing mechanism in Pacific salmon." Current Biology 23.4 (2013): 312-316.
    Shaver, Donna J., and Charles W. Caillouet Jr. "Reintroduction of Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) sea turtle to Padre Island National Seashore, Texas and its connection to head-starting." Herpetological Conservation and Biology 10.1 (2015): 378-435.
    Ueda, H. "Physiological mechanisms of imprinting and homing migration in Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp." Journal of fish biology 81.2 (2012): 543-558.
    ----------------
    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!
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    9 min
  • What's The Most Accomplished Species on Earth?
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    Life. There's just so MUCH of it!
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    There are now more than 7 billion human beings on Earth, and that got me wondering: How successful are we compared to other species? I take a look at out how our numbers stack up to some other domains of life. It turns out that biomass, or what things weigh, can be more important than how many of something there are. Find out how our numbers stack up against everything from bugs to bacteria, and get ready for some mind-blowing numbers!
    For more on the numbers in the video, check out the blog: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/41790778768/episode-extra-life-by-the-numbers-how-do-we-know
    Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment below!
    Written and hosted by Joe Hanson
    Produced by Painted On Productions (http://www.paintedon.com/)
    Music:
    Whalehawk: http://vimeo.com/musicstore/track/137257
    Clips from this episode via:
    "Aspens" by Altitude Filmworks: http://vimeo.com/50345182
    "Golden Aspen Meadow" by David Huting: http://vimeo.com/9695494
    Red-billed queleas by Antero Topp: http://youtu.be/3_zLeu5n4yM
    Bacterial growth: http://youtu.be/gEwzDydciWc
    Dengue virus infection: http://youtu.be/0PUsdv1kDTc
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    7 min
  • What’s The Hottest Hot and Coldest Cold?

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    Uploaded 12-06-18

    The hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe are rarely witnessed, but in these rare spots, our understanding of physics is challenged. Weird things happen at extreme hot and absolute cold.


    References:

    Clark, J. B., Lecocq, F., Simmonds, R. W., Aumentado, J., and Teufel, J. D. (2017). Sideband cooling beyond the quantum backaction limit with squeezed light. Nature, 541(7636), 191.

    An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd ed, Bradley W Carroll and Dale A Ostlie, 2006.

    An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Daniel Schroeder, 1999.


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

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    8 min
  • Why Deadly Viral Pandemics Are Becoming More Common

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    Uploaded 03-06-20

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    Viruses keep jumping out of nature and into humans and getting us very sick in the process. So why do zoonotic spillovers like SARS-CoV-2 happen, and why are they becoming more frequent? We asked an expert.

    #coronavirus #zoonosis #itsokaytobesmart

    Special thanks to David Quammen
    For more, please read “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic” by David Quammen https://amzn.to/2AvxIta

    If you doubt the claim about Earth's viruses stretching millions of light-years, then read this Nature paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2644.pdf

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    18 min

About Be Smart.

From the publisher's feed

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