Be Smart.

Joe Hanson
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We give you deep answers to simple questions about science and the rest of the universe. And also dad jokes. Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, PhD. He's a molecular biologist and an award-winning science communicator and journalist

  1. Are You Cleverer Than A Slime Mold?

    1h ago

    Are You Cleverer Than A Slime Mold?

    Slime molds are intelligent, but they are single-celled creatures with no brains. How is that possible? ↓ More info and sources below ↓ I really hope you guys check out Deep Look, it’s one of my favorite channels, full of great 4K, micro-world goodness! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt Many thanks to Prof. Andy Adamatzky (UWE Bristol) for slime mold culturing advice. Special thanks to the following for providing Dictyostelium microscope footage: Prof. John Bonner (Princeton) Prof. David Knecht (Univ. of Connecticut) Prof. Richard Firtel (UCSD) Prof. Jeremy Pickett-Heaps (Univ. of Melbourne) References/further reading: “Intelligence in Nature” by Jeremy Narby http://amzn.to/23HvtKG “The Social Amoebae - The Biology of Cellular Slime Molds” by John Bonner http://amzn.to/1MEmmCR Nakagaki, Toshiyuki. "Smart behavior of true slime mold in a labyrinth."Research in Microbiology 152.9 (2001): 767-770. Nakagaki, Toshiyuki, Hiroyasu Yamada, and Masahiko Hara. "Smart network solutions in an amoeboid organism." Biophysical chemistry 107.1 (2004): 1-5. Adamatzky, Andrew. Physarum machines: computers from slime mould. Vol. 74. World Scientific, 2010. 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! Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/okaytobesmart http://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Snapchat: YoDrJoe ----------------- 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 Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted) http://www.videoblocks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    6 min
  2. Why Some of the Rainbow is Absent

    2h ago

    Why Some of the Rainbow is Absent

    We’re on PATREON! Join the community: https://www.patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart ↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓ Over 200 years ago, scientists were looking at sunlight through a prism when they noticed that part of the rainbow was missing. There were dark lines where there should have been colors. Since then, scientists have unlocked the secrets encoded in these lines, using it to uncover mind-boggling facts about the fundamental nature of our universe and about worlds light-years away. Want to build your own DIY spectrometer? Mine is a modified version of this one from @exploratorium https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/cd-spectroscope And here's what you'll need to make one: https://amzn.to/3sbhr7C References: https://sites.google.com/view/whysomeoftherainbowismissing/home 0:00 Fraunhofer's mystery of missing colors 0:54 Playing with fire 2:11 Puzzle pieces and color codes 3:30 Electrons do the strangest things 5:40 How to make a rainbow analyzer 8:00 Using rainbows to understand the universe 9:57 Life beyond Earth 10:57 Final thoughts SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ----------- High fives to all our Brain Trust Patrons: Holly, Brett, and Ashe Bullion Jaap Westera Millennial Glacier Mehdi Damou Barbora Bei Burt Humburg dani bowman David Johnston Baerbel Winkler Robert Young Eric Meer Dustin Karen Haskell Support us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/itsokaytobesmart Twitter http://www.twitter.com/DrJoeHanson http://www.twitter.com/okaytobesmart Instagram http://www.instagram.com/DrJoeHanson http://www.instagram.com/okaytobesmart Merch https://store.dftba.com/collections/its-okay-to-be-smart Facebook https://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmartpbs/​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    14 min
  3. Can Epigenetic Inheritance Be Real?

    3h ago

    Can Epigenetic Inheritance Be Real?

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate Epigenetic inheritance is really weird, but is it real? Tweet this ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBSepi Share on FB ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBSepiFB ↓ More info and sources below ↓ Crash Course Physics with Dr. Shini Somara: https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse Want more on epigenetic inheritance? Start here: Univ. of Utah’s Learn Genetics: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/inheritance/ Virginia Hughes - “Epigenetics: The Sins of the Father” http://www.nature.com/news/epigenetics-the-sins-of-the-father-1.14816 Dig deeper: Szyf, Moshe. "Nongenetic inheritance and transgenerational epigenetics."Trends in molecular medicine 21.2 (2015): 134-144. Sharma, Abhay. "Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance requires a much deeper analysis." Trends in molecular medicine 21.5 (2015): 269-270. Heard, Edith, and Robert A. Martienssen. "Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: myths and mechanisms." Cell 157.1 (2014): 95-109. Rando, Oliver J. "Daddy issues: paternal effects on phenotype." Cell 151.4 (2012): 702-708. Jablonka, Eva, and Gal Raz. "Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms, and implications for the study of heredity and evolution." The Quarterly review of biology 84.2 (2009): 131-176. Heijmans, Bastiaan T., et al. "Persistent epigenetic differences associated with prenatal exposure to famine in humans." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105.44 (2008): 17046-17049. Pembrey, Marcus, et al. "Human transgenerational responses to early-life experience: potential impact on development, health and biomedical research." Journal of medical genetics (2014): jmedgenet-2014. 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! Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/okaytobesmart http://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Snapchat: YoDrJoe ----------------- 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 Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted) http://www.videoblocks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    6 min

  4. 7h ago

    How The Moon Controls Biology

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate This video is FULL of cool MOON biology 😏 Don’t miss our next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓ Organisms of all shapes and sizes synchronize their behaviors using biological clocks. Some keep pace with the daily rising and setting sun using circadian rhythms. Others use annual cycles or the changing seasons as their cue. But many animals use moonlight and Earth’s lunar cycle to run their biological clock. Do humans do the same thing, with things like menstrual cycles? This week we take a look at living by moonlight. Menstrual cycle data courtesy of Clue app (https://helloclue.com/) Grunion footage courtesy of KQED’s Deep Look (https://www.youtube.com/user/KQEDDeepLook) and Dr. Michael Murrie - Pepperdine University SOURCES: The Myth of the Moon and Menstruation: https://medium.com/clued-in/the-myth-of-the-moon-and-menstruation-f85b151e45c3 Grant, Rachel, Tim Halliday, and Elizabeth Chadwick. "Amphibians’ response to the lunar synodic cycle—a review of current knowledge, recommendations, and implications for conservation." Behavioral Ecology 24.1 (2012): 53-62. Zhang, Lin, et al. "Dissociation of circadian and circatidal timekeeping in the marine crustacean Eurydice pulchra." Current Biology 23.19 (2013): 1863-1873. Zantke, Juliane, et al. "Circadian and circalunar clock interactions in a marine annelid." Cell reports 5.1 (2013): 99-113. Warren, H. B. Aspects of the behaviour of the impala male, Aepyceros melampus, during the rut. National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia, 1974. ----------- FOLLOW US: Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/its-okay-to-be-smart Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Instagram: @DrJoeHanson Snapchat: YoDrJoe ----------- It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. Director: Joe Nicolosi Writer: Eli Kintisch Editor/animator: Stephen Fishman Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox Produced by PBS Digital Studios Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    5 min
  5. We've Got Ants In Our Garden!

    10h ago

    We've Got Ants In Our Garden!

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate What is this? A forest for ANTS?! Deep Look: https://youtu.be/fguo3HvWjb0 Don’t miss our next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓ Want to wear your love for science? We’ve got merch: http://dftba.com/besmart Follow Aaron Pomerantz: http://www.thenextgenscientist.com/ Twitter: @aaronpomerantz Special thanks to Dr. Corrie Moreau from The Field Museum for helpful discussions while we were making this episode! References/Learn More: Edwards, David P., et al. "A plant needs ants like a dog needs fleas: Myrmelachista schumanni ants gall many tree species to create housing." The American Naturalist 174.5 (2009): 734-740. Frederickson, Megan E. "Conflict over Reproduction in an Ant‐Plant Symbiosis: Why Allomerus octoarticulatus Ants Sterilize Cordia nodosa Trees." The American Naturalist 173.5 (2009): 675-681. Frederickson, Megan E., and Deborah M. Gordon. "The intertwined population biology of two Amazonian myrmecophytes and their symbiotic ants." Ecology 90.6 (2009): 1595-1607. Haddad Junior, Vidal, Luiz Roberto Hernandes Bicudo, and Adílson Fransozo. "The Triplaria tree (Triplaris spp) and Pseudomyrmex ants: a symbiotic relationship with risks of attack for humans." Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical 42.6 (2009): 727-729 Heil, Martin, et al. "Partner manipulation stabilises a horizontally transmitted mutualism." Ecology letters 17.2 (2014): 185-192. Hölldobler, Bert, and Edward O. Wilson. The ants. Harvard University Press, 1990. Sanchez, Adriana, and Edwin Bellota. "Protection against herbivory in the mutualism between Pseudomyrmex dendroicus (Formicidae) and Triplaris americana (Polygonaceae)." Journal of Hymenoptera Research 46 (2015): 71. Solano, Pascal-Jean, Monique Belin-Depoux, and Alain Dejean. "Formation and structure of food bodies in Cordia nodosa (Boraginaceae)." Comptes rendus biologies 328.7 (2005): 642-647. Yu, Douglas W., and Naomi E. Pierce. "A castration parasite of an ant–plant mutualism." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 265.1394 (1998): 375-382. ---------------- 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min
  6. The Essential Question

    11h ago

    The Essential Question

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate The book: “The Fly Trap” by Fredrik Sjöberg http://amzn.to/1TlWrkw 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: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Follow on Instagram: @DrJoeHanson Produced by PBS Digital Studios: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsdigitalstudios Music: Monkeys Spinning Monkeys Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    21 min
  7. How Do Bees Generate Honey?

    12h ago

    How Do Bees Generate Honey?

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate Let PBS know more about you and what digital series you’d like to see: http://surveymonkey.com/r/pbsds2016 Tweet this ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBShunE Share on FB ⇒ http://bit.ly/OKTBShunEfb ↓ More info and sources below ↓ Check out our BEE PLAYLIST! http://bit.ly/OKTBSbeelist The Honey Bee Dance Language Explained: https://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/pdfs/1.11%20copy.pdf Being a queen is about more than royal jelly: Mao, Wenfu, Mary A. Schuler, and May R. Berenbaum. "A dietary phytochemical alters caste-associated gene expression in honey bees."Science advances 1.7 (2015): e1500795 Multiple phenotypes coming from the same genetics (like workers and queens) is called “polyphenism” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphenism The social structure of honeybee hives: https://hymenoptera42.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/the-social-structure-of-honey-bees/ The following clips were used under Creative Commons CC-BY license: Mary Ann Aschenbrennerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG6tWrcy3mQ BeesOnTheNet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEMg_F1yUJk 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 Follow on Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Snapchat: YoDrJoe ----------------- 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/pbsdigita... Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock, stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  8. The Remarkable Owl!

    13h ago

    The Remarkable Owl!

    Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/PBSDSDonate Enjoy these amazing facts about owls! Don’t miss the next video! SUBSCRIBE! ►► http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓ 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 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Instagram: @DrJoeHanson Snapchat: YoDrJoe Produced by PBS Digital Studios Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    5 min
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About

We give you deep answers to simple questions about science and the rest of the universe. And also dad jokes. Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, PhD. He's a molecular biologist and an award-winning science communicator and journalist

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  • Creator
    Joe Hanson
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    217

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