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  • Which Came First - Blossoms or Bees?
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    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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    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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    Produced by PBS Digital Studios
    Music via APM
    Stock images from SciencePhoto http://www.sciencephoto.com/ and Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

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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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    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: Mara Johnson-Groh
    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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    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
  • Are You Sharing a Breath From Isaac Newton?
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    We all breathe the same air. Literally.
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    Take a deep breath. Smell that? It could be a little eau de Einstein. Or maybe a whiff of Cleopatra. Here's an amazing thought: every time you breathe, you could be sharing air with everyone who's ever lived. A few million of the same air molecules that enter your lungs in a lifetime also entered Albert Einstein or Marie Curie's lungs! That's some smart air.
    Earth's atmosphere is big, but not as big as many people think. All the air that keeps us alive is just a thin candy shell around our planet. In this episode, echoing the words of John F. Kennedy, I'll show you the science of how we all share the same air. So let's be careful about what we're putting in it!
    References for this episode: http://dft.ba/-5AuU
    Read about John F. Kennedy's American University speech: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University_speech
    Earth's atmosphere illustrated by Adam Nieman: http://adamnieman.posterous.com/
    Written and hosted by Joe Hanson
    Produced by Painted On Productions (http://www.paintedon.com/)
    Music: Johnny Ripper (with Ekoda) - Speak
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    6 min
  • Space is Overflowing with Junk. Here's How to Clean It Up…
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    We know pollution is a problem on earth, but we’re filling space with our junk too. And if we don’t figure out a way to clean up space junk, we could end our interstellar dreams before they even get started. Today, we’re visiting some cool engineers in Switzerland to learn about the space junk problem and the giant space claw that might be the perfect solution.
    References: https://sites.google.com/view/space-junk-references/home
    Filmed at ClearSpace - Lausanne, Canton Vaud, Switzerland
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    16 min
  • Why Do Clouds Hover Aloft?
    There's nothing wrong with having your head in the clouds!
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    Subscribe to It's Okay To Be Smart: http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub
    Big thank you to my favorite cloud scientist Dione Rossiter for help researching this episode!
    "The Cloudspotter's Guide" by Gavin Pretor-Pinney http://amzn.to/1s3kk2S
    The International Cloud Atlas: http://bit.ly/1q0kgLy
    William Rankin - The Man Who Rode the Thunder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cqQzcChFG0
    Bacteria that live in the clouds: http://www.pnas.org/content/110/7/2575.abstract
    Mass of a cloud: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49786/how-much-does-cloud-weigh
    Amazing facts about clouds: http://blog.ted.com/2013/07/16/8-illuminating-facts-about-clouds/
    A beginner's guide to being a cloudspotter: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/12/cloud-spotting-beginners-guide-predicting-weather
    How clouds affect climate change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDo7saKaEys
    The clouds and bushes in Super Mario Bros are the same thing: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/the-clouds-and-bushes-in-super-mario-bros-are-the-same/
    Produced for PBS Digital Studios
    Joe Hanson - Host and writer
    Joe Nicolosi - Director
    Amanda Fox - Producer, Spotzen IncKate Eads - Associate Producer
    Katie Graham - Director of Photography
    Andrew Matthews - Editing/Motion Graphics
    John Knudsen - Gaffer
    Dalton Allen - Post-production Intern
    Theme music:
    "Ouroboros" by Kevin MacLeod
    Stock images via Shutterstock
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    9 min
  • How the CIA Secretly Surveilled Climate Change
    Cold War… warming planet?
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    A few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a top-secret, first-of-its-kind US spy satellite program was declassified, leading to the unexpected story of how former enemies became scientific allies, and technology invented for Cold War espionage was repurposed to study and combat the newest and greatest threat to human civilization: Climate Change.
    Thank you to the following for help in researching this video:
    Michael McElroy
    D. James Baker
    The Office of Vice President Al Gore
    0:00 Peeking behind the Iron Curtain
    1:52 Spies in space
    2:53 A time machine… but for Earth
    3:41 Early days of the Space Race
    5:37 Code name: CORONA
    8:37 No more Iron Curtain… now what?
    10:48 Spies… but for the Earth
    13:20 New data & unlikely allies
    16:31 Teamwork makes the dream work
    17:46 Support us on Patreon!
    Note: The thumbnail for this episode includes a picture of Joe Hanson created with a text-to-image generative AI tool
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    This episode of Be Smart is licensed exclusively to YouTube.​

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    22 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.