SciShow Tangents - Festive Ecology

Episode Date: December 17, 2019

Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Let it Snow; the timeless sounds of the holiday. And to that pantheon of greats is added another track: this 30-minute-long, spoken-word science podcast!Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Stefan: @itsmestefanchin Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @slamschultz Hank: @hankgreenIf you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links![Truth or Fail]Poinsettia monopolyhttps://www.npr.org/2017/12/22/573046507/how-poinsettias-became-synonymous-with-christmashttp://www.mobileranger.com/blog/the-plant-of-christmas-the-poinsettia/https://www.actahort.org/books/226/226_34.htmhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-dec-23-me-poinsettia23-story.htmlhttps://pubag.nal.usda.gov/download/12136/PDFVanilla flavorhttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-cream-bananas_n_55f8d911e4b0d6492d638853https://www.webmd.com/children/features/is-poinsettia-really-poisonousLatex/rubberhttps://web.extension.illinois.edu/poinsettia/facts.cfmhttp://www.industrialrubbergoods.com/natural-rubber.htmlhttps://www.thespruce.com/facts-about-poinsettias-that-may-surprise-you-2132343[Fact Off]Tinniculite https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134%2FS1075701517070078https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article/102/2/466/264546/new-mineral-nameshttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/9/6/373/htmPine needle recyclinghttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/329280439_Fuels_and_Value-Added_Chemicals_from_Biomasshttps://theconversation.com/new-recycling-process-could-help-your-christmas-tree-lead-a-surprising-second-life-107984https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610217350713[Ask the Science Couch]Natural vs. artificial treehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/business/energy-environment/fake-christmas-tree-vs-real-tree.htmlhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/14/real-vs-fake-heres-why-artificial-christmas-trees-rise/2314418002/https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Real-vs-Artificial-Christmas-Tree-Which-Is-More-14866084.phphttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/14/real-vs-fake-heres-why-artificial-christmas-trees-rise/2314418002/[Butt One More Thing]Mistletoehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/urban-jungle/pages/121218.htmlhttps://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/mistletoe-natural-history/https://www.etymonline.com/word/mistletoehttps://www.etymonline.com/word/missel?ref=etymonline_crossreference

Hello and welcome to SciShow Tangents, the lightly competitive knowledge showcase starring some of the geniuses that make the YouTube series SciShow happen. This week, as always, I'm joined by Stephan J. Hello. What's your tagline 60 water 100 star stuff sam schultz is also with us at the moment hi what's your tagline jolly old elf and sari riley is here as well what's my tagline is small green person you still look so ashamed of yourself every week here on size show tangents we get together to try to one of amaze and delight each other with science facts we're playing for glory we're also keeping score and awarding sam bucks from week to week we do everything we can to stay on topic, but we are bad at that sometimes. So if you go on a tangent

and the rest of us deem it unworthy, we can dock you a Hank buck. Now, as always, we introduced this week's science topic with the digital science poem. It's not from me, thank goodness, because I don't have one. It's from Sam.

Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree. A phylum conifer off at a Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree Of phylum coniferophita Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree Cone bearing woody gynosperm Generally pine or fir or spruce But out of plastic

Sometimes produced Oh Christmas tree Your resins farmed industrially To make turpentine I got one more Oh Christmas tree Your origins are somewhat lost Your resins farmed industrially to make turpentine. I got one more. Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree. Your origins are somewhat lost to history.

Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree. But you were embraced by German peasantry. You might represent life eternal or celebrate the world tree egg drizzle. Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree. Remnant of Saturnalia. I approve. Okay. We're going to, in post, we'll do some reverb and put in some sleigh bell sounds. Oh, tuna?

Tuna, you doing it? Oh, yeah. So our topic today is not Christmas trees, but more broadly, festive ecology. Whose idea was this? It was Terry's because there was a Wikipedia page on it and I thought it was cute. Oh, there was a Wikipedia page called festive ecology? Yeah. Oh, no one told me that.

Festive ecology. So I assume reindeer, holly, mistletoe, penguins? I would extend it to polar bears, penguins. Anything that you can see on a commercial for Coca-Cola products. Coca-Cola itself. No, that's not alive. Yeah. So what is festive ecology?

Basically that. Basically that. Wikipedia defines it as the relationships between plants, fungi, animals, and the cultural events such as festivals, processions, and special occasions. So anything that, like a cornucopia is also technically festive ecology because it's like fruit, I think. Yeah, there are other festive times than solstice. Rabbits are probably a festive ecology. What's a fungi? Yeah, what's the most festive fungi? I don't know.

Well, you said it. Wikipedia said it. They didn't give a good example of it. It's just trying to include all the living things. Yeah. Yeast. Oh, yeast is extremely festive. That's true. Do you want the etymology i know i know ecology the study of the home yeah oh oh like our earth is the home of biosphere one

i've never heard of more dickish way of saying biosphere one in my life what's festive though from feast feast Feast. Feastival? I want to have one of those with Pringles. That's my plan for Christmas morning. They had the Pringles that were all the different flavors for Thanksgiving. They had Turducken this year, so it was turkey, duck, chicken, mashed potatoes.

Like all of it? There was a different set of Pringles for each flavor, but you're supposed to eat them all together to make the proper Turducken flavor. So turkey Pringles taste different from duck Pringles for each flavor, but you're supposed to eat them all together to make the proper turkey Pringles. So turkey Pringles taste different from duck Pringles, which taste different from chicken Pringles. Apparently so. You know, there is a flavor scientist who did that, and I want to talk to them. I want to have a long conversation, both about the technique of their work and also just sort of how they feel.

About themselves? like the technique of their work and also just sort of how they feel about themselves what are you proud of what you've done what drives you turducken pringle man you don't get a lot of interviews with flavor scientists is it because it's like a secret or something yeah yeah secrets okay they have so much to explain for themselves. Like, they gotta come clean about a lot. Yeah, the flavor scientists at Oreo have to just be overworked. Just very tired. And now it's time for Truth or Fail. One of our panelists has prepared three science facts for our education and enjoyment, but two of them are lies! And we have to figure out which one is the true one. If we do, we get a sandbox. If not, then Sari gets the sandbox. Sari, hit me with your facts.

The poinsettia is the leafy red festive plant. Is it both ways? Yes, according to the dictionary. And people set it out around Christmas. And then I don't know where they go for the rest of the year. So which of these facts about it is true? One, in the wild, poinsettia plants are long and gangly, nothing like what gets sold today. The reason they got popular as a Christmas plant was a parasitic bacterial infection that caused excessive

branching and cute, short, dense plants that then were marketed heavily. Number two, one horticulturalist created a hybridized poinsettia that had a mild vanilla flavor and started marketing it as a holiday decoration and treat. However, people started eating a ton of the non-hybridized version and got sick, which is why the all poinsettias are poisonous warning spread and this weird edible version went extinct.

Or number three, material scientists have discovered a new use for the holiday leftovers of poinsettias. They extract milky sap from the branches and some leaves and process it like latex from rubber trees to make natural rubber gloves and other products that are relatively eco-friendly. So we have three things here. In the wild, poinsettia plants don't look like that, but they have had a parasitic infection that makes them all bushy

and leafy. Two, a horticulturalist created a vanilla-flavored poinsettia, and then people started eating the other ones and got sick, and so now you don't have, just like, all poinsettias are poisonous. Or three, material scientists have used the sap from poinsettia plants to make

a kind of rubber for, like, gloves and stuff. Now, now i know one that this is a thing that has happened to some plants that they get infections and that makes them more desirable to us even though it is not as good for the plant and i also know that you're not supposed to eat poinsettias and i was told that a lot as a child that they were poisonous. And I also know that if you break a poinsettia stem, milk does come out. And all of those are great, great basis for lies. So the one with the sap involves recycling. So that makes it seem less plausible to me.

Why? We're not so good at that. I mean, here's the thing. People throw away their poinsettia plants. And this is what I know about humans. We're fine throwing away stuff we're not so good at wait i mean well here's the thing people throw away their point set of plants and this is what i know about humans we're fine throwing away stuff we're used to throwing away we do not like throwing away stuff we're not used to throwing away and so we're like i'm freaking out about throwing away this thing when like you threw away like a thousand pieces of plant matter in the last year but this one you care about and so they're like i want to fix this

problem and so then people fix the problem even though it's not a big problem so it seems like somebody might have worried about that specifically because we're not used to throwing poinsettias away we had poinsettias but no one told me they were toxic but i think i just didn't like lick plants a lot no yeah you don't like it's really weird to have a particular plant be like don't eat it i'm like i don't eat plants. I'm like, I don't eat plants. I don't normally. And none of the plants in this house will I eat. We never had poinsettias, but I still know that they're toxic.

But that might just be because they are. You had them at school? That's the place where kids eat everything. That's a bad place to have them. Yeah. Well, unless they're not poisonous and saw lies. Oh, my gosh. Why would you make a vanilla flavor?

Especially if the thing is that they are toxic. Also, it's Christmas. You want to make it smell like pine or mint or something. Yeah, gingerbread. Gingerbread. That's such a January flavor. But the rubber glove one, that's just boring enough to be it. But there aren't that many poinsettias in circulation, are there?

Yeah, and also you'd have to do it all at once. Do people throw them away? I see them at Christmas and then they're gone. And I guess people just toss them. Are they planted in dirt at Christmas? They're in a pot with dirt. Yeah, I have no idea where they go either. Apparently, maybe to gloves sometimes.

I've never received one, so I've never had to deal with a poinsettia. I hope no one gifts me one ever, so I don't have to think about it. But as someone who only recently started having houseplants, I just can't imagine that I would have the houseplant. Like, plants are expensive. Yeah, they are. And so, like, you buy this plant. Like, why would you throw it away

i mean i guess that's what we do with the christmas tree but yeah yeah man cheap i am gonna put an end to this and i'm gonna go for the gloves i guess this is wild i must be wrong i'm gonna go for the gloves i guess you're gonna okay i'm gonna there's not enough material in a poinsettia to make a glove i'm doing it you're locked in i'm gonna go with the first one that the parasitic infection okay i'm gonna go i know it's gonna be wrong but i'm gonna go with the gloves oh he's going with the gloves too you're going with me whoa i think you're wrong but two on gloves is the parasitic factor coming clawing my way back the idea of a bacterial infection like you said hank happens in nature and it happens to things that humans end up liking but the history of poinsettias

is very intense because in the early 1900s there was one family. Their last name was X. Poinsettia. No. Someone's name was Poinsettia. And he brought the first plant from Mexico to the United States, but the X really commercialized it. E-C-K? E-C-K-E-S. Oh, I thought you meant it was like ex-wife or something.

No. The X grafted together two types of poinsettia plants. And as part of that grafting process, they infected the plant with what are called phytoplasmas. Intentionally? I think accidentally. Okay. Some part of the plants that they chose to graft to one another did this infection process. Phytoplasmas are bacterial parasites of plants that they chose to graft to one another did this infection process. Phytoplasmas are bacterial parasites of plants that are known to cause excessive branching. And a bunch of other horticulturalists throughout the 1900s were trying to make bushy poinsettias, but couldn't figure it out.

They were like cross-pollinating different species to try and get the colors and branchiness but the x had a monopoly on this grafting process until a scientist figured it out in the 1980s and was like it's not any of these weird horticulture techniques you're trying they just stuck two plants together and infected them and that's what's causing poinsettias to bloom in this very particular bushy way and so then the scientists publish a paper about it and then the x at this point it was like x the third or whatever was like dang it you revealed our secret and so they still have a big corner on the poinsettia market but other people can do it now now other people can do it because they've learned wow it's like the secret ingredient. Yeah. That's cool. So they intentionally infect... Do they still graft it together?

Or like... Whoa. Jeez. It's a lot of work. A lot of work goes into each poinsettia. Yeah. Because it seems like a trash plant. It's just like...

Yeah, it seems like you're just throwing the garbage in your dump. It's also like green, naturally. And then to get the leaves red, you have to deprive it of light. No. What the heck? And certain cycles make it extremely dark.

And so you have to heavily control the environment to get it red. And so I think if you kept your poinsettia for longer than a year, it would turn green and it wouldn't look all pretty and Christmassy. And you have to throw it. You're like, this is trash now. Yeah, this just looks like a normal plant. No. But that's better because you don't want

a poinsettia sitting around when it's not the holiday season. But then the holiday season rolls around and you're like, I just got a green plant. Yeah. It's called

a rehabilitated plant. That's right. You experience all this trauma of being deprived of light. Yeah. Almost thrown in the trash. Almost. Almost trashed.

The other two facts are kind of tied together. We think poinsettias are poisonous because they can cause nausea and diarrhea. If I eat them? If you eat them. Okay. I won't do that. At some point in like 1919, a girl died and her parents blamed it on poinsettia leaves,

but they weren't entirely sure. So it kind of spread as an urban legend. Wow. That's a long time ago. Yeah. weren't entirely sure so it kind of spread as an urban legend wow but as we've tested yeah we've tested like toxicity of poinsettias trying to i think feed it to rats or things like that but we've gotten to numbers of like 500 leaves and that's still not a deadly dosage 500 leaves for one rat yeah and it's still not deadly so it's like they seem okay they seem okay everybody at home

if you're listening eat that poinsettia you want to do your whole life don't let these lies hold you back give it the channel munch on that boy if a rat can have 500 imagine how many you can you're gonna poop weird or throw up so it'll be festive though so there's no vanilla flavored plants um there is a vanilla-flavored plant. Well, besides the one called vanilla. Besides vanilla, there's the blue java banana or ice cream banana. And it's a banana that apparently has like a soft, creamy texture, kind of like vanilla. What the heck?

For the gloves fact, poinsettias do have milky sap. And that causes irritation in certain groups of people especially those with latex allergies and so that's where i got that back because latex is the milky sap from so if you have a latex allergy i rescind my previous comments that you should eat the heck out of that boy everybody else it's neat i loved it Every second of it Except the part where I didn't win Now it's time

To go for a short break And then we will be back For the fact of Wow All right, we're back. Sari's got two points. Sam's got one. Stefan's got one. I got Ziplo.

Ziplo. Congratulations, Sari. Thank you. Yeah, good job. Good job. Now it's a chance for me to get my point, because it's time for the fact-off, where two panelists have brought in science facts to present to the others in an attempt to blow your minds. You each have a sandbook to award the fact that you like the most.

And it's going to be me against Stefan, and we're going to decide who goes first with this question. Which popular festive flora belongs to the same genus as yerba mate used for the beverage mate? Poinsettia. I'll say ivy. Holly. Hey! Ivy! I guess I will go first.

Everyone, we are aware that Santa Claus gives gifts, and so he has a big bag full of gifts. Yes. But then also, he sometimes doesn't give gifts. Whoa. When you're bad, he gives you coal. So he has a separate bag full of coal. Oh. Does he?

He does. I never thought about the bag of coal. He's got a separate bag of coal. Everybody knows that he's got the coal bag. I didn't know. Instead of being big and red, it's smaller, but still quite big and black. And it's a dirty bag of coal. Okay.

Wow. For the sake of this segment, I'm going to agree with you. It's got a magic bag he pulls it all out of, but okay. That's what I thought, too. Like, the coal is just at the bottom of all the toys. Right. You have to go a big way in there and be like, oh, another bad one. I got to go all the way down past all the scratch and sniff jello so he has to have a bunch of coal for everybody and that's

really sad for you unless you're a mineralogist and coal can be a real good gift actually for example if you're boris valentinovich chesnikov in 1989, and you are investigating a burning Russian coal mine, and you discover a brand new mineral. And that mineral is a yellow-white color and formed small plates that further microscopy revealed were made up of rectangular crystals. There were two made ingredients that made up this crystal. One was the warm gas produced by the burning coal in the mine, and the other ingredient was bird poop. Chesnikov named the mineral tenunculite for falcotununculus, the European kestrel, whose poop contributed the uric acid that crystallizes in this mineral.

However, Chesnikov wanted tenunculite to be an official mineral, and when it was submitted to the Commission on New Mineral Names, which is a thing, part of the International Mineralogical Association, it was not approved as a mineral because the definition of a mineral requires that the formation cannot involve human activity, and the coal mine was on fire because of people now there are some coal mines that are naturally on fire but this particular coal mine was on fire unnaturally got them on a technicality got them on a technicality so tenunculite was not a mineral and i was and and it was sad for poor boris but then in 2012, scientists, after much searching, so this was 1989 to 2012, they found tenunculite in the Arctic tundra of the Kola Peninsula, where the cold and the humidity helped drive the crystallation, so that tenunculite is now officially recognized as a mineral species. But only that one, and not the one that Boris found. Actually, different species of tenunculite, but they did give it the name that he wanted to give it.

So, I would like to propose to the SciShow Tangents Board of Regents that Santa switch from giving people coal to giving them this bird poop created coal fire not actually necessary for mineral tenunculite does it do anything useful no okay then that's fine the tundra was in the arctic where the tenunculite yeah was found santa probably made it just for him oh that was his christmas on the cola peninsula the coca-cola peninsula oh the coca-cola peninsula he's like birds take a shit right here yeah yeah and all the all the

polar bears live there too and they were shitting on it also there was a little bit of talk about whether minerals could involve the action of any living species it turns out though that almost all minerals are the result of the action of any living species. It turns out, though, that almost all minerals are the result of the action of living species because without oxygen in the atmosphere, the vast majority of minerals wouldn't happen. Wow. It's all connected, man.

It's all connected, man. Except not human beings, it seems like. Right. We're doing our own thing. We do do our own thing. There's no denying that. We're not just eating and pooping and stuff. All right, Stefan, I've given you a very weird obstacle to overcome. Can you beat coal pea minerals?

Let's find out. As discussed earlier, every year we throw away a bunch of Christmas trees. And apparently a lot of them make it into wood chippers and get turned into mulch but a lot of them end up in landfills and uh in the uk there are maybe up to seven million trees going into landfills every year wow and the breakdown of pine needles is much slower than for other leaves and as with all decomposition it releases co2 into the atmosphere though that's not like a significant contributor to climate change compared to the overall amount that we're producing.

But what if there was something else we could do with these pine needles? Rubber gloves! Whoa! It turns out that pine needles are about 85% lignocellulose, which is a polymer that has historically been too complex and rigid as a molecule to be attractive to industrial processes because it takes a lot of energy to break it down. And so this team at Sheffield University in the UK has applied a process called liquefaction to the needles instead. And so this uses a significantly lower temperature and either

water or glycerol. and glycerol is a pretty cheap solvent and they say it's environmentally friendly i couldn't confirm that so i don't know you wouldn't want to drink it you wouldn't want to drink it but it's apparently an unwanted byproduct it's like a waste product of biodiesel manufacturing so this would be a potential use for it this liquefies the pine needles and turns them into, there's like a liquid result and then a solid like biochar. And the liquid is the thing that like is really valuable potentially because it contains glucose, phenols, and acetic acid. So glucose, pretty straightforward. You could use it in all kinds of food products as a sweetener. Phenols are used in plastic production

and different medications. And acetic acid is used for like paint, adhesives, vinegar, all kinds of stuff. It's undiluted vinegar. It's the hard stuff. And then the biochar is also potentially useful as a catalyst in other chemical reactions. So my first question was like, well, that's great, but that's like once a year that you have this influx of material. But the researcher was pointing out that you could use this on any species of pine tree and also like agricultural waste or like waste from forest management. So potentially you could be pulling in stuff all year and processing it into this material. to this material. And then it will become so popular that we'll go out into the forest

and we'll just take all the leaves off the pine trees and be like, you don't need these anymore. We need more biochar. What's biochar? I'm not 100%. Are we doing it now?

No, these are like researchers at a university who were like, this is possible, guys. Okay. So we've got me with my weird pea mineral made of coal fire. We've got Stefan with,

what are we going to do with all these pine needles? We're going to make a bunch of industrial, useful products. You have to make your choices and you have to make them now. Are you ready? Yeah. Three, two, one.

Stefan. Dang it. Here's why I picked Stefan. choices and you have to make them now are you ready yeah three two one stephan dang it here's why i picked stephan i don't appreciate santa claus being used as a smoke screen to teach me about rocks i like the rocks but you talked a big game with santa sorry i was just trying to get to the festiveness yeah i a little roundabout. I chose Stefan because it was more festive. And Stefan's process basically makes more coal for Santa. Just like ground up bits. Oh, you're welcome, Santa. Hey, when your mom gives you presents, does she still pretend Santa gives them to you?

Yes. Mine too. Cool. Yeah, I get those Santa in my mom's handwriting. And she gets wrapping paper that says naughty and nice. And my brother gets one, I get those Santa in my mom's handwriting. And she gets wrapping paper that says naughty and nice.

And my brother gets one and I get the other. And I always get the naughty one. Wow. All right,

this is our new podcast. Sam complains about his mom. Does the pretending go beyond writing Santa on the

thing though? Does she eat cookies? If I get something that needs refills, she won't tell me where I just the pretending go beyond writing Santa on the thing does she eat cookies if I get something that like needs refills she won't tell me where I can buy like new filters I don't know

Santa wow yeah she's devoted it's magical though I love it my dad would eat the things that we left out

and we left like increasing amounts of like cookies and carrots and things like that for like santa and the reindeer and the milk right at a certain point you just take a bite out of one and throw the rest away that's true you probably threw him out yeah in the backyard with the poinsettias yeah i didn't even like think about that as an option i just assumed that my dad ate

like five cookies every year oh god if it was If it was five cookies, he totally ate five cookies. Yes. I want five cookies. All right. All right. Good job, Stefan. And now it's time to ask the science couch. Three different people asked us this question

at MrsBowers22, at AtinyMob, and at EmilyJanet6. Ask, what's better for the environment? Reusable plastic trees or a real tree? I had never thought about this before researching for this episode.

It's been something of a hot topic on Twitter for the last couple of weeks, people arguing about it. I think what it comes down to often is how you will use these products and also where you live. Yes. That's one I didn't think of. My short answer is if you're going to be using this reusable plastic tree for like 10, 15 years, it's going to be better. But I don't know where the cutoff is. Doesn't seem like anyone knows where the cutoff is. It's very contentious. So we're going to go through the pros and cons.

Oh, boy. Love a pros and cons list. Sam is sitting back. He's relaxing, crossing his arms. He's just like, what do you prefer, Sam? Oh, I like a fake tree. Oh. The real tree's too messy. Yeah.

The needles fall off. I love a real tree. Yeah. So that's like one of the big pros for a plastic tree. So like allergies, you don't have to worry

about people who don't want to go out and buy a tree every year. So it's generally cheaper because it's like a one-time purchase. Oh, definitely cheaper.

You can reuse it over and over again. And according to a study, that asterisk was carried out on plastic tree manufacturers' behalf. So they admitted to this. According to that study, if you use an artificial tree for five or more years, the environmental impact is less than a real tree.

Depending on where you live. Depending on where you live, depending on where you send it. Like if you send the trees to the landfill instead of mulch so if you are very flippant with where you what you do with your tree and you live far away from a christmas tree farm then an artificial tree may be better starting at five years starting at five years but so don't buy like i feel like some people get new artificial trees all the time because they like they get more fancy and they get like cooler and you're at target and you're like how are they upgrading artificial you've

been to the tree section of target they're like so many fancy things now i'm not like embedded lights where you don't have to worry about putting the lights on that's that's kind of nice but also i like putting on the lights and they do wear out really kind of like they kind of wear out yeah i don't know i've definitely i have friends have been using their same one for like 20 years yeah but they don't make them like they used to that's also true they gotta make them like they used to good old days you can't really recycle trees like you see how artificial trees get show up in Goodwill or places like that. Maybe trees are going to be shipped from overseas. So you have to consider that artificial trees have travel time as well.

Do we import real trees for Christmas at all? I don't think so. There are plenty of Christmas tree farms in the U.S. So that's the pro of the real trees is the fact that Christmas tree farms are an actual crop. So we're not cutting down forests to decorate our living rooms, except for the times when people like go out on their own like rogue agents. Well, you can also get a permit. We live in Montana where you can get a Christmas tree permit and you go out into a certain area and you are allowed to cut a certain size tree. And because trees take so long to grow, like around a decade to grow to like Christmas tree height, they provide like all the good things that trees provide in the meantime. So it's like planting a bunch of trees and then, I don't know, you're planting them in cycles.

So it's not just like a waste. There's like a little forest out there, a little mini forest. Yeah, mini forest that grow and then get harvested. I think the cons of a real tree, like we said, are transportation. So if you don't live near a Christmas tree farm, then there's gasoline and other things that you have to consider in getting the tree to your place of residence. incidents from the study that the plastic tree manufacturers put out they said that real trees have a bigger impact on greenhouse gas emissions water and energy use and other areas than a reused artificial tree does basically they were comparing i think a reused artificial tree to growing a tree from scratch which like yes of course it's going to use more resources but they

didn't consider factors like wildlife and natural water supply. Like you could just water your Christmas tree farm with the rain. You don't necessarily need sprinklers because they're pretty hardy growth. So big Christmas tree. Has made the research more difficult. Yes. Big fake Christmas tree. It seems like there's tree propaganda on both sides of the spectrum.

I'm sure there is. It seems like there's tree propaganda on both sides of the spectrum. I'm sure there is. And so what these listeners need to do is really consider the factors for yourself. There is no one right answer for how to be eco-friendly. Consider what your needs are, the needs of your family are. Don't listen to big tree propaganda and have a merry holiday season. Stop fighting. Stop fighting. And have a merry holiday season. Stop fighting.

Stop fighting. If you want to ask the Science Couch your questions, you can follow us on Twitter at SciShowTangents, where we will tweet out topics for upcoming episodes every week. Thank you to at EmilyPigeot1, at FutterDuds, and everybody else who tweeted us your questions this week. Final scores.

I got nothing. I got nothing. Sam's got one. Sarah's got two. And Stefan's got three. A clear winner this week. Oh scores! I got nothing! I got nothing. Sam's got one, Sarah's got two, and Stefan's got three. A clear winner this week. Oh, no! I've given Stefan my buck. Let him creep ahead of me. Well, in the day, but not in total, where you

are still leading, but Stefan is only one point behind you. I'm only one point behind Stefan, and Sam's only one point behind me. It'm only one point behind Stefan, and Sam's only one point behind me. I'm in last. This is great. It's true that you are last. If you like this show

and you want to help us out, please do several things. One, you can write us a review on iTunes. That helps us know what you like about the show. You can also leave ideas for future topics there.

We look and see what you might like us to talk about, whether you want us to talk about different kinds of festive other-ologies. Festive biology. Festive mineralogy,

which is actually what I did today. What's another ology? Osteology. Festive osteology. Is that bones? That is bones. Titus loves bones. I hate bones.

Second, you can tweet out your favorite moment from the show. And finally, if you want to show your love for SciShow Tangents, just tell people about us. Thank you for joining. I've been Hank Green. I've been Sari Reilly. I've been Stephen Chin. You know, there's a very festive bone.

It's the wishbone. And I've been Sam Schultz. SciShow Tangents is a co-production of Complexly and the wonderful team at WNYC Studios. It's created by all of us and produced by Caitlin Hoffmeister and Sam Schultz, who also edits a lot of these episodes, along with Veruca Matsushima. Our editorial assistant is Deboki Chakravarti. Our sound design is by Joseph Tuna-Medish. Our social media organizer is Victoria Bongiorno.

And we couldn't make any of this without our patrons on Patreon. Thank you. And remember, the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted. But one more thing. Mistletoe basically means poop on a stick. No, it does not. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon words mistle, meaning dung, and tan, meaning twig. Twig dung.

Poop stick. Because mistletoes rely a lot on birds and mammals to eat them. And then the berries are covered in a sticky glue called viscan, which can survive through an animal's digestive tract. So as they poop, it like sticks to tree branches. And then that's how they become a parasite on whatever plant that they become a parasite on. Because it's like poop and then they're stuck. And they're just going to grow right there. Yeah.

Up in the top. I guess that's why it's always up there. So why are we smooching underneath it? That I don't know. I don't know. Is that romantic? This isn't a culture show. It's a side show.

It's not mouth one more thing. It's butt one more thing.