SciShow Tangents - Bonus Backlog Bonanza - Ep. 30

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

This bonus episode was originally posted on Patreon on September 14, 2023 titled "Bacteria Questions (Lightning Round)."Original Patreon description: Up the stakes y'all, we've got a challenge: we're answering your bacteria questions as fast as we can with as much accuracy as possible.SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents!And go to https://complexly.store/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on socials:Ceri: @ceriley.bsky.social@rhinoceri on InstagramSam: @im-sam-schultz.bsky.social@im_sam_schultz on InstagramHank: @hankgreen on X

Hello, and welcome. Hello, everybody. What were you doing? You were being Deerhanging John. I was being Deerhanging John. Well, this isn't that show. This is the SciShow Tangent's Patreon. patron podcast, a.k.a. Diareo World. Is that what we called it?

I don't remember. You got a new name. What do you want to call it this week? Welcome to brain farts. Oh, brain farts. That's a good one. Or Sarah's going to fart some knowledge out of her mouth right into your ears. Yep. Yeah. So for each episode of tangents, we ask our audience for science couch questions. And every week we get a lot of them, but we can only answer one. per episode but there's all of these other good questions that you guys ask so each month

we'll answer some of your questions that didn't quite make it into the show lightning round style this time we're going to answer your runner-up questions from our episode bacteria and if you listen to last week you know that we're truly doing lightning round now sari has round about four minutes to answer each question at which point tuna will play what sound the belt and baseball sound from zincaster and then she'll have have to stop talking and you will never know the end of the answer if she doesn't talk fast enough so that's the stakes yeah if i do a bad job if sarah does a bad job you will be ignorant so sary you can't let that happen here we go number one brand anac oh also this is sari hostess is is isha

hello we got then we got the zoo crew we got sound engineer tuna we got ap eve holding it down holding it down i feel like that's the first time i heard you say it you're like in your radio DJ mode. I'm trying out something new. I'm holding it down. I got you guys. DJ Dougie Schultz. Oh my God. I kind of love that. Wouldn't it be so fun to have a morning radio show? I talk about this with my friend Matt all the time. I say we should just apply and go at five o'clock in the morning before work even starts and just from five to like eight local radio show, just me and him talking. He doesn't think it's a good idea. But you know what? I think that'd be really fun. I think it's a great idea. If I lived in Missoula, I would do it with you. I don't really. I don't really

like waking up early but I do like friendship and I do I don't think there is a morning radio show our friend Valerie says that they turn on the radio on their way to work and sometimes it's just empty oh yeah that can't be we have to find real estate Sam yeah you gotta get in there I'll create bumpers for you all right well we'll plan this off the air okay I think this is a good idea but before that we need to answer brand an axe question how do our bodies tell which bacteria is helpful and which is harmful. I'm guessing the immune system knows somehow. Chemical. There's a chemical. Chemicals are involved. And whenever I think too hard about the immune system, it becomes really mushy. And I get the feeling that I'd get all the time in biology, which is like, how are we even

alive? How do we tell the difference between the bacteria that are helping us digest food and whatnot? And the bacteria that are going to make a sneeze. It is like a deceptively great question because, yeah, I've never even considered that before. And I think a lot of it is what we are learning and guessing about the immune system, but there isn't a cut and dry answer. But we do know the parts that are involved in recognizing what we call any sort of harmful pathogen, which is bacteria, viruses, fungi, anything that affects our body negatively and makes us sick. So specifically, our immune system is broken up into two parts.

I'm going to double check. Okay. I think our immune system is broken up into two parts. The innate immune system, which is things like how our skin keeps out, like it's a barrier. It's just always there. We've always have a bunch of white blood cells floating around that are just like eating up stuff, eating up junk that shouldn't be there, toxins, whatnot. But then we have a portion of our immune system called the adaptive immune system where there are

specific types of white blood cells called T cells and B cells or B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes that mediate like a very specific kind of immunity. They learn to recognize molecular markers. So those are the chemicals on the outside of pathogens so that our immune system knows which ones to attack and which ones to leave alone. And this is like the whole idea behind vaccines really broadly. So some vaccines work by introducing a dead version of the pathogen or a very small dose of a pathogen so that our bodies, the T and B cells, can learn that this guy is bad and starting to replicate and starting to like attack cells in some way, learn to recognize

the chemical signals on the outside of those pathogens. And like the way I've described it in science, the way I've described it in like other situations is like they have like a roster of wanted posters at that point where they know like this is a chemical marker of this pathogen. And so we can look out for it. We can tell the rest of the immune system to look out for it. And if that ever shows up again, we can squash them.

We can get rid of this attack faster than if they have never seen it before. Okay, so are you born with some of those in your immune system already? Or do you have to like, so is it like this little guy that lives in your belly and helps you to digest this thing is good? Or do you have to learn that yourself somehow? I think you have to learn that yourself. So like as a baby, you start populating your microbiome. I think it's, I think the wound. is pretty sterile as far as most cases like I don't know I think it's kind of hard to

study the microbiome of developing fetuses there's probably some exchange with the like the parental whatever like feeding to blood transfer is going on like there's a little bit of that but that's like there's like a whole body of research of how babies have different microbiomes based on whether they exit through the vaginal canal or are a C-section and, like, cut out of the body. That's real. That's real. Yeah, that's real.

So, like, there's, like, the vaginal microbiome confer some bacteria onto the baby. Or, like, breast milk versus formula milk. Some of that is a little bit hyped up of, like, formula being unhealthy, but we have a lot of, I don't know, like, science that goes into developing baby formula. but part of it is helping boost the immune system, helping like introduce some of the bacteria or give the bacteria some something to munch on that allows the microbiome to develop. It's right sugars for them or something. That's it. We can't know anymore.

We can't know. I don't know. It's complicated. We can do a whole bonus episode on this. We can't talk about it anymore. We'll never know. we don't know we don't know if it's complicated or not

we don't know if we're going to do a whole bonus episode or not that's stricken from the record okay forget it from your brains that's the little extra fart on top of the fart oh sorry you're getting dangerously close to getting yelled out again tune is going to have to enter another sound that's like

that we can play when you're talking to a beat like a scary sound time like a sensor beep yes that's when it is play it too okay all right I took it off of there so let me I just put it right back. Because you didn't want it. I didn't want to hit it accidentally.

I've been doing that a lot. When an actor is giving too much, too long of an acceptance speech, this is me talking too much about science. And that's the sound that plays. Do you want us have to listen to that horrible sounds area? I hate it. No. We're putting a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.

The next question is from Bear Stravaganza. Bear Stravaganza gets a lot of questions in. They must ask a lot of good questions. Are there, I don't understand this question. Are there multicellular prokaryotes? Do bacteria differentiate into different roles when they make biofilms? Good luck answer to this in four minutes. I think I can do this one.

I actually think I can do this one a little faster. So defining the things, multicellular are organisms like humans, other animals, anything that has more than one cell, which is defined as like, I don't know, a membrane enclosed unit of life. And so life in general is divided up into two big categories. There are eukaryotes which have nuclei inside of their cells. So a little special chamber like us, yeah, storing just their DNA. And then there are and other kind of organelles inside. So eukaryotes have like ribosomes which help with RNA stuff. They have like vacuoles or other little membrane enclosed.

stuff within the cells to help with various mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, makes the ATP, which Sam talked about in an upcoming episode. Yeah. So eukaryotes have different organelles. Prokaryotes like bacteria do not have organelles. They do not have a separate nucleus. All their junk is just floating around in that one big cell goop. Their DNA is floating around in there, the RNA is floating around, any sort of energy source. That's why you're still so tiny. yeah and so then the question is is all um is can you have multiple prokaryotes or a prokaryote like a bacteria that has multiple cells working together as one organism the answer is all all technically multicellular organisms that we know of are eukaryotic so they have these

like subdivisions of cells and are more complicated like we have billions i think at the very least hundreds of millions, but if not billions of cells in our bodies. But bacteria can kind of clump together. We still consider them separate organisms, but they can form kind of like a clonal population. So a biofilm is an example of this, like a biofilm on your teeth before you brush and mix it up, biofilms like mats on lakes or things like that. Whenever there's a big, like a bunch of bacteria gooped together, then they're still their own organisms and they can still divide separately and have their own genetic material and swap it. But we've observed some clonal colonies of bacteria that do differentiate a

little bit into different roles where they help out their neighbor. So instead of each organism being completely separate, they can notice and how this noticing happens is also easy to anthropomorphize but it's probably based on like chemical gradients it's probably based on sensing what's happening around them either physically or chemically um and some parts of a biofilm can be extra good at sucking up nutrients and then redistributing them to their neighbors or um there's one bacterium that forms spores when it's time to reproduce or like these other I don't know, reproductive structures where some bacteria but not others in the clonal colony form these structures and it helps the colony as a whole. So it's not like, it's not quite

multicellularity, but it is maybe a step on the way to that. Maybe that's how we got started being what we are doing. Yeah, I mean, kind of, probably. It's like, that was probably the origins of multicellularity is things work together until they couldn't not be together. And then they all shared the same DNA. Then they got married. Then they smooched and got married. Okay. Is that the end?

I think so. Is there anything else that you don't understand in the question? No, I understand everything now. That was the best answer you've ever given in your life. Wow. Thank you, Sam. I'm getting better. Oh, no.

The witch says it's time to go. Yeah, I wanted to give a little bit of that tension. It's Halloween flavor. I'm all scared. Sarah is the magical science which Yes when she does a good job When she does a good job It's like she casts a spell isn't it

When she does a bad job it's like That sound that Tuna plays Play it Nothing like it Whatever I made with my mouth It's nothing like the bad sound It sounds like you're like a bad kid Like in Power Rangers or something

And you like walk through the door And it's like, hey losers Tuni you're supposed to play the sound our first say hey losers okay i'll try again too no i didn't say that was too early okay well you said hey losers so i thought okay once more back to places back to places and action hey losers

still a little slow yeah dude you've given me roger klotz vibes now that's exactly yes okay softful vase softles on twitter asks do our gut bacteria ever get too strong and start to hurt us I bet they do. Is that your answer? Is that your guess?

Yeah. And then have a tummy ache. Eat too much yogurt. Can you eat too much probiotic yogurt? I don't think you can eat too much. Well, you can eat too much of anything. I'd have to take that back. You can drink too much water and you can get water toxicity.

So like anything in your body can become unbalanced. And so yes, your gut bacteria, intestinal bacteria, anything along your digestive tract can grow too much or become unbalanced like certain kinds of bacteria could stage a coup and overgrow and disregulate things and specifically like the sciencey word

if you want to read about this is called dysbiosis and this is just the prefix this sounds bad yeah dystopian and then biosis because that's like the biological stuff going around in you I mean it's exactly that it's like

has to do with diversity It has to do with, like, what the bacteria that are overgrown are producing. And then it starts creating problems with the lining, especially of your stomach or your intestines, which is what doctors or scientists call the gut barrier. And those are really, really complicated systems, much like your skin is a really complicated system of, like, protection from the outside environment and radiation, like, UV radiation. and it produces oils, and it grows hair, and it does all kinds of different things. The internal lining, the epithelial cells in your intestine and stomach do all kinds of things, too.

They absorb food, they protect against stomach acid. They protect from, I don't know, like gnarly stuff going down there. They don't tear or rip or things like that. And sometimes the bacteria more directly cause problems, like they release too many. any toxins that our bodies can't filter out or that get absorbed through those linings. But sometimes that imbalance just means the bacteria are producing more stuff that our bodies aren't used to dealing with, like producing too much gas, which can cause bloating or cramps or weird poops and farts.

Or, I don't know, they can like form these colonies, again, like a biofilm in somewhere that's not used to having it. And those toxins in turn can cause things like some sort of gastrointestinal cancer. Like it can mess with our cells' DNA or things like that. Or it can just like fall under the umbrella of IBS or IBD. Like is it irritated bowel, inflamed bowel? Irritable. Irritable bowel.

Yeah. So it's just like your bacteria are doing bacteria. things. They're not, maybe not intentionally attacking you, or there are some species that are on the line of helpful versus harmful bacteria. And when there's too many of them, then your body's like, oh, roguish bacteria. Yeah. Okay. You don't know whether they'd love them or hate them. They're the bad boys with bacteria world. They're anti-hero. Yeah. They're like Vigida. You know, Vigida? Oh, I don't think so. It sounds a little bit like Velveeta, which I do know.

No, he's from Dragon Ballsy. Oh, okay. One of the bad guys, turned good guys. I do see him. And he'd give you a bellyache for sure. Tuna, play that beautiful. Oh, you got four seconds left. Three, two, four.

One. All right, here we go. Great job, Sarah. You're getting so good at this. Next up, Connor Sponsler on Twitter, asked, which neurotransmitters do our gut bacteria actually produce, and are they actually used? to influence us.

What on earth is he talking about? So, neurotransmitters. Yeah, is that what it is? Can you make, like, your gut bacteria could change and make your brain chemistry different or something? Yeah, so there's, I think this is kind of a light misconception. Your nervous system is all over your body. You have nerves all over your body, sensing and communicating and whatnot.

They help make your muscles contract. They help take in information about the world, like whether something is hot or cold, or sharp or things like that. Of course, you have a really, really dense amount in your brain, but your nervous system all over your body uses neurotransmitters because neurons are all over your body. And so, yes, your gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters, and some of them are the same and have uses in the brain,

but they also have different uses when they come in contact with like intestinal muscles or other parts of your nervous system. Some of them are cell signaling to, I don't know, I don't know necessarily if a bacteria can signal something that tells your brain like you're full, like, oh no, I'm eating too much cake. But it's more likely that a bacteria signals like contract intestines, please, because there's food, food happen in here. So gut bacteria has to create a lot of, like, the big name neurotransmitters, the big one that a lot of people mention is serotonin because people are like, oh my gosh, serotonin is related to brain chemistry and, like, chillness and happiness.

And other parts of your body, maybe it does different things. Yeah. Okay. Yes. And it can do a variety of things. And, like, there is, there are links in the way that everything in your body is connected. Like, people are like, oh, an imbalance gut bacteria can, in some cases, be a symptom of or comorbid with Alzheimer's disease or something like that. But, like, the serotonin in your gut bacteria has maybe an effect on the amount of depression that people have, but it is not the sole cause of it.

Like, your bacteria pumping out serotonin isn't going to make you happier necessarily. And bacteria use all kinds of neurotransmitters. They like use glutamate and gabba and dopamine and acetylcholine and all these things that I think in pop science and in pop psychology and biology we talk about in relation to brain chemistry and mental health. They are used throughout our body to regulate secretion of different things in the stomach. like secrete a little bit more acid here or something that will have no impact on your mood at all. Yep, exactly. And then you read an article that says, this stuff will make you have more happy juices in your belly, make you happier, and then you just take it from there.

Yep, exactly. So it's like they are, so gut bacteria produce a bunch of neurotransmitters, and they are used to influence us, but they are mostly used for, get related things like I don't know water and acid and particle food absorption and maintaining that gut barrier and whatnot not necessarily stabilizing your mood even though there are links between like what you eat you are what you eat pajama sam was right you know you are what you eat from your head to your feet but you're not going to be sad if your gut bacteria i don't know like it's more complicated than just being like

you can't make a rhyme out of it that's for sure yeah that's for sure and that's all I'll say about that yeah great pajama sample love that thank you I love those games I can sing the whole put putt put go to the zoo song I was an old head I was playing put put put goes to the moon oh yeah I love yeah great times with humongous entertainment thank you for your service.

Humongous Entertainment saved my childhood and shaped me into the man I am today. Same. Were you a Freddie Fish guy, Eve? I bet you were a Freddy Fish guy. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Freddy the Fish was the best. Luther, I felt bad for him constantly.

His little guy just wants a purple sea urchin and gets lost a lot. So, no. Tuna, do you ever play these games? No, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I kind of thought so. Yeah, yeah. Because of the segment of the audience who's with me, like, I got your back. Yeah.

All right. So now we know everything we need to know about bacteria and the fine games of humongous entertainment, which means it's time for a segment. I like to call Eve's Thing. Oh, welcome to Eve's Thing. All right. Here's it. This is a big game that you've probably never, ever once heard of called Would You Rather? Oh, hell yeah. where I asked chat GPT to give me slightly science-related, goofy, would-you-rather questions? Perfect use for this AI. Right? That's what I was thinking.

All right, here's the first one. Would you rather have the ability to photosynthesize and never need to eat again, but turn bright green whenever you're exposed to sunlight? Oh, that sounds like that. have the power to teleport instantly, but transform into a fruit fly for 24 hours after each teleportation. Absolutely not the second one.

I would be killed. Yeah, that sounds like such a pain in the ass. I'd get squished. Yeah, but teleportation? And it's only 24 hours. Where can you teleport to? Anywhere, instantly. You'd have to take a whole sick day off

every time you teleported. That's true. I can't work as a fly. You get pretty much anywhere in the world in 24 hours, and you don't have to be a fly. It's a really good point, too. Thank you. I would love to be green. That would kick ass.

Yeah, that would be green as hell. Yeah, I agree with the photosynthesis. Eating food, I would save my food budget so much if I could just be green and be like, accept it. That's why plants are so relaxed. They don't have to worry about money. They don't have to worry about cooking. Yeah, one step closer to being a plant. Sounds amazing.

Also, I have no guarantee that fruit fly me won't. die. Absolutely. Like, what if I get teleport to a place and then there's this like nice looking muddy puddle, I could just die and I wouldn't even know it because, and no one would know it because I'd be a fruit fly until my body shows up approximately like 23 and a half hours later. Oh, gross. This is horrible.

All right, but what if it was, what if it was you could teleport instantly, but you transform into a fruit fly for like 10 minutes? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You would do that one and said. Yeah. I'd be way too scared to ever do it. Yeah.

I wouldn't want to do it. I just teleport somewhere high up where maybe a bird won't get me also. There's so much. Fruit flies are the bottom of the food chain, I have to imagine. Everything would be after your ass, tuna. Okay, but this is your choice. You do whatever you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, they got 10 minutes to catch me. Otherwise, I'm back to Boytown. Tuna's one fast, fruit fly. Piam, pium. Eve, what would you do? Which one? I think I would, well, I never really eat. So being able to photosynthesize would be great.

Yeah. Not having to think about eating. I feel like it's the ideal scenario. Cooking. I would not love being green, though. I wouldn't love it. You wouldn't like to be green. That's interesting to me.

No, I wouldn't want to be green. You know who's green? Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. Just like, you know? I mean, he and Vagita. He got a bunch of little of Vigitas in his belly. Vigita does sound like someone who would be green, though. He's not.

He's not. Green. Piccolo's green. Seems like a missed opportunity in naming. But Kermit's green. He says it's not easy, but I feel like it's pretty easy if you can also photosynthesize. Yeah, there you go. Okay, I have one more that's so absurd.

It's worth asking. Okay. Would you rather have a talking pet rock that dispenses profound scientific knowledge but is constantly sarcastic and condescending? Oh. Or have a time machine that only allows you to travel to the past, but you can only observe and not interact with anything or anyone. Oh, obviously a time machine.

Yeah, for sure. You can be the smartest person in the whole universe. You can only go to the past. and observe only you can only go to the past I think both would be fun too because you could bring the rock and it would be like

hey stupid check it out I would totally pick the rock Hey idiot you ever heard of farm rotation I feel like the rock is just like any podcast if I want someone to be like

scientifically knowledge and a little bit sarcastic listen to Sisha Tangents And maybe we're a little bit kinder than that. You could make so much money off of that rock, though. But you could make so much money. You could make so much money. That's true.

Oh, gosh, that's really good. Could you bring some? Interesting. Would the rock have to be a co-author on any papers you wrote? It's just a rock. It's just a pet rock. You could all have the choice. You always have the choice to put the rock in a box and put it in your closet.

And the rock can't do anything about it. It's just a rock. but what's it going to do Rock don't have thumbs I love the live stream idea I think that's really compelling could you bring live streaming equipment with you back in time

or a camera you can't you can't observe or interact with anything you can't observe sorry you can only observe sorry you cannot interact with anything that's fine I would that's what you can observe

what is a camera but I guess if you can't take a picture of it I can still go back you can't interact with anything so you couldn't push the record button That makes sense. You're a ghost back in time.

That's fine. But you could, if you forget something, you could just go back again at the same moment and then come back to the present, write it down, go back, look. But would anyone believe you? Would anyone believe you? Have you say a rock? Oh, my rock told me this. You could show him the rock.

Well, they could show them. And the rock would say. It's a talking rock. Hey, shit. What the fuck I eat it would be in here. Yeah, what are you looking at? Yeah. I do kind of love this rock, though.

profound scientific rock here's what I'm thinking now though that going to the future could be lucrative going to the past could also be lucrative but it's more of a risk and more boring I think the rock on a live stream is the way to go

I love that I guess that's what I'm saying I feel like you could make bank if you were like hey you know that homer guy full of shit here's how the Odyssey really happened that's true and you could go say you could learn everything about dinosaurs you just go back in time and then you come back and be like this is all wrong or you'd be like this is we got it exactly right guys congratulations yeah and then

everyone with her name's not sue it's pete yeah she told me well it's easy to find evidence to prove something you already know right like that is all of human bias summed up in a nutshell and so if you go back you look at a dinosaur and you're like oh their feathers look like this then you can go look at all the research that already exists and be like oh obviously here's evidence that feathers look like this and I'm a genius and maybe people won't take you super super seriously but you can like build a career very easily knowing that what you're saying is right so you're not everyone's just guessing you're not even telling anybody that you learned it from a secret time machine you're just you know and you're finding the evidence that proves the truth that you know

yeah that's good because I feel like people cherry pick evidence all the time yeah I feel like the worst part about the time machine one is people wouldn't believe you yeah yeah I don't even care I won't even tell people. I'll tell my friends. Yeah. Sam, you three could know. I would tell you, I think. I feel like you could maybe go to, like, Joe Biden and say, like, tell me something

only, or like, you could tell him something that only he would know, you know. You'd be like, I went back in time and did this. And then he'd be like, ah, you're the new scientist laureate of America. Like, there's ways you could figure it out, I think. Yeah, you can pick stuff that's, like, very close to, like, oh, we think it's this. Maybe it's this. And then you can pick the right one. You do enough of those.

and then you build up credibility and you're like, alright, guess what? But we need to decide which one. We have to decide one or the other. Tuna, which one? Oh, time machine. Cary? Time machine, no question.

I don't like the rock. I already hate him. Eve? Rock. Sam? I think I'd pick time machine because I got to know about dinosaurs. I want to see him with my own eyes so bad.

I'm going to make so much money. You guys are going to watch myself play pup pot for the first time. You guys are all just going to be living in the best. All right, well, great, great thing, Eve. And thank you also chat GPT for your contribution. Very polite. And thank you all listening for your contribution, too. We couldn't, as I've said, many times before, do this without you.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening to us while we're trying out this new lightning round format. Is it hard, Siri? Are you exhausted? No, I'm no. I always get nervous giving fast answers. because I like nuance, but it is, because I've already researched them all.

This is a paywold podcast. It doesn't matter. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I'm, I'm constantly stressed out about spreading misinformation when I say things. Yeah. But this feels like, fine. Everybody listening, tell people about this bonus podcast. Don't tell them any of the facts that you heard on it. How's that? Is that work out? You got to pay to hear these fast and loose science facts. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell us if you like it. to be paired with episodes too. So you've got like a main episode

and then a little follow-up. Yeah. Like extra snack of the same kind of knowledge. Extra snack, I like that. Extra snack is the name of our new podcast. Yes, that's better than you. Extra facts. Get your extra facts here.

Extra facts and extra snacks. Yeah. Like a little ballpark hot dog. They're a little bit, a little bit off, maybe, but you love them anyway. They might make you, you might poop a little bit, but, you know. You had some fun. All right. See ya when we see you.

Goodbye. Bye. Bye.