SciShow Tangents - Radio

Episode Date: December 24, 2019

Humans have wielded the power of radio waves for more than a century, but what exactly are they and how do we use them to transmit information? It turns out, even geniuses like Hank and Ceri have a hard time explaining that!Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:[Truth or Fail]EROShttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25788334MOZEhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0389-0FReSHhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10428.html[Fact Off]Eidophorhttps://www.earlytelevision.org/eidophor.htmlhttps://hackaday.com/2016/03/15/retrotechtacular-eidophor-an-unknown-widely-used-projector/http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f1/t004319.htmlhttp://www.earlytelevision.org/yanczer_eidophor.htmlCentennial lighthttp://www.centennialbulb.org/index.htmhttps://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66009/light-bulb-has-been-burning-1901https://www.lampsplus.com/ideas-and-advice/how-an-incandescent-light-bulb-works/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracyhttps://www.npr.org/2019/03/27/707188193/the-phoebus-cartel[Ask the Science Couch]Brightest artificial lighthttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/brightest-light-ever-computer-chipshttps://www.nature.com/articles/nphoton.2017.100https://www.unl.edu/diocles/homehttps://www.labmanager.com/research-specific-labs/2017/11/home-of-the-world-s-brightest-laser-looks-to-bring-high-quality-x-rays-to-research-medical-applications#.Xe_nrZNKhnN[Butt One More Thing]Firefly butt vs. LEDhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030402619300452?via%3Dihubhttps://www.futurity.org/light-bulbs-leds-fireflies-1988062/

Hello and welcome to SciShow Tangent. It's a lightly competitive knowledge showcase starring some of the geniuses that made the YouTube series SciShow happen. I'm joined as always by Stephen Chan. Hello. What's your tagline? Mr. Three Forks. And Sam is here. Hey. How many times do you think a fork should have? I think it should be four. I think officially, legally, it's four. The fork review board says four. It's right there in the name. What's your tagline? Advanced Darkness. Sari Riley's joining me here on the science couch.

How's your cookie? I'm like staring at it. It's going to be a little bit more stale after an hour and a half of podcasting, but it's a really good cookie. Were you just going to keep eating it while we podcasted if I didn't say anything? I think if you had given me like a five-second warning, I would have shoved it all in my mouth. Oh, no, no, no.

I'm really good at speed eating. That's what I used to do in high school all the time. Like competitive speed eating? No, I went to Costco and got a hot dog and shoved it in my gob really quickly.

All the way to Costco? Yeah, because we were close. I went to high school in Kirkland, Washington, home of Costco. Yeah, the home land. Her high school was a Costco. Yeah.

So she went to high school. Within Costco. Yeah, the home land. Her high school was a Costco. Yeah. So she went to high school. Within Costco. And so the food court was our cafeteria. And I'm Hank Green. My tagline is 12 penny showdown. There's not even a name for 12 pennies. A dozen pennies. Yeah.

It's a dime and a tip. Oh, yeah. 20% on my dime order. Two cents. Every week here on SciShow Tangents, we get together to try to one-up a maze and delight each other with science facts. We're playing for glory, and we're also keeping score and awarding Sam bucks from week to week. We do everything we can to stay on topic, but we're not great at that. So, if you go on a tangent and the rest of us deem it unworthy, you will have to give up one of your Sam bucks.

Now, as always, we introduce this week's topic with a traditional science poem this week from Sam. This is KSCI SciShow Radio, and tonight, I'm doing something that's quite a delight. I'm answering all the questions that you have about science and nature, and that's done in a lab.

I will use my extraordinary knowledge to help you all out, because I went to college. Caller 1, you all out because I went to college. Caller 1, you are on the air. Hello there. My question is really quite pressing. Can you explain RNA's role in the process of gene expression? The answer is obvious and requires no explanation. You're wasting the time of both me and the nation.

Hang up on this guy. Next caller. Hi. I'm a long-time fan, first-time caller. Please explain thermodynamics if it isn't a bother. This thing that you're asking, a baby would know. I'm sorry to say this, but you're banned from the show. Line four. Yeah, I have a question about gravity waves. Do we know from LIGO detectors if they're... Let me stop you right there.

I'm sorry to tell you, we're all out of time, and this week's show is through. And dear listeners, I leave you with this suggestion. Please next time think of some harder questions. This is Smart Man Sam on KSEI signing off. So this was a science radio show skit.

Were you a science radio show host? You meet people calling with questions and then you belittle them. Yeah, they're too easy. They're too easy. And you did that because our topic of the day is radio. Yeah yeah and radio was too hard to figure out what it is so then we're gonna do a poem about radio so just did a poem about a radio host uh-huh we were getting towards the end and i was like when is this gonna be about radio and then i was

like wait a second we're on a radio show this is great i didn't even know participation was a thing we could do with our poem. Oh, no, no. Sam's always thinking outside of boxes. The question is, do we give him an extra half a point for that? No.

A half a point? I do not want to keep track of. I would give Sam a whole point for this as the first person to introduce a new format. An extra whole point? An extra whole point.

Whoa! In the way, bringing a guitar brings you an extra whole point. He printed out four pieces of paper. That's like four thoughts. True, and he highlighted our lines.

Yeah, it has to be a unanimous decision, though. What's your vote, Hank? I think I want to give Sam the extra point. All right. I'll be peer pressured into it. I'm not in striking distance of any of you. I don't think so. That's probably okay.

Well, it's early in the season. Who knows what could happen? So radio waves are kind of electromagnetic radiation, and we have figured out how to make them contain information. Yes. That was rhymed. Okay, so visible light had a range of wavelengths, and radio has longer wavelengths than that. Okay, so it's just more electromagnetic radiation, and we have figured out how to harness it and shoot these waves. They are of the same stuff.

That's probably not right to call it stuff, but they are of a different wavelength. And using science, they can contain information inside of those waves and pass them along. And we've been able to do that for a long time since Marconi? Since before Marconi, he just tried to take credit for it. Marconi. Does it pass through us or do we block it? It passes through, yeah. One thing that you want out of radiation

actually is for it to pass through you. If you stop it, that tends to be a bad thing because it's energizing you. Then you're being microwaved. Is it bad that we stop light? Do we stop light? We stop light right on the surface, though. It doesn't get very deep. It's weak.

Yeah, weak light. Except for like sunlight, and that's why you get sunburned because then your body's like, what? Strong light and weak light. Those are the two kinds. Yeah, I go for weak light. That's why I don't go outside. Yeah, I go for weak light. That's why I don't go outside.

We've been talking about artificially generated radio waves, but they can also just be generated by energy being released in the universe. And so when you hear about radio waves detected from space, those are used as measurements because other stars and objects in space are generating radio waves as they move around and collide and do space things. But there's no music. Not that we know of, but who knows? There could be aliens broadcasting music to us. There are definitely aliens broadcasting. A whole bunch of new music for you to not know anything about. Uh-huh. Oh, boy.

Now it is time for Teacher Fail. One of our panelists has prepared three science facts for our education and enjoyment, but most of those facts are fake. Two of them. One of them, though, is real. And we have to figure out which one is the true fact. And if we get duped, Stefan will get our sandbuck. If we get it right, we get it.

Stefan, hit me with your facts. So which of these three things is a real cutting-edge way to play music involving radio waves? is a real cutting-edge way to play music involving radio waves. Number one, by implanting a radio antenna into a saguaro cactus with a transducer that turns the cactus into a Bluetooth speaker. Number two, by engineering the genes of E. coli bacteria to act like the components of a circuit and using them to receive and decode radio waves. Or by using an

infrared frequency comb in lasers to transmit and receive a song wirelessly in radio waves laser radio yes okay so we've got number one a bluetooth speaker cactus number two bacteria communicating through radio waves number, a frequency comb laser radio? What's a frequency comb, Stefan? So the easier way, I think, to visualize this is like in sound, there's something called comb filtering. And so if you play a sound against itself, but the copy is slightly delayed,

then the frequencies interact in a way where you get amplifications and cuts in a pattern that makes the frequency spectrum look like a comb so it has a bunch of like spikes that are evenly spaced and so that's happening but in this case with light is this how you feel all the time when i explain things a little bit oh my gosh it's like i was picturing like a physical comb oh i can brush my hair and listen to music wow hold it against your head and the bgs are staying alive so the cactus is the one that i understand the most because it seems very simple cactus equals speaker i feel like it's a lie because it's too simple yeah

the second one are they using the e coli as a as a something the e coli receives and decodes the waves, but they're not like producing sound. Okay. Decoding it into what? Into like a digital signal. Which then goes into the speaker. Oh my goodness. That sounds impossible. I don't know. He seemed like he knew a lot about frequency combs.

Yeah, but that's just something that he already knew about and then he lied about something else involved in it. The laser thing. I don't know how you have a radio laser. Can you store information in light that isn't just the stuff that's bouncing into your eyeballs? Yeah, I think, yes, you can store information in light. Okay. You can transmit data in a laser.

Yeah, that makes sense. That is possible. Okay. Is that what a CD player does? No. Oh, damn. They use a laser to read it. I thought I understood something. Well, they don't exist anymore, so I don't need to know that.

I'm going to just go with the E. coli because it sounds really neat. I'm going to go with that big, bassy cactus. It seems possible, at least. I guess split the difference. I'm going to go with the comb. That is not a comb physically. It is the comb. The laser comb.

Good job, Siri. You won. Yeah, I feel so confident. Oh, God. Normally, lasers are emitting a single frequency of light. They have these laser combs that cause the lasers to emit multiple frequencies of light that are at these regular intervals along the frequency spectrum. lasers to emit multiple frequencies of light that are at these regular intervals along the frequency spectrum.

And they realized that within the laser cavity, which is where there's like a bunch of mirrors reflecting the beams back and forth, those different frequencies of light were interacting in such a way that the electrons in that cavity were emitting microwaves at frequencies within the communication spectrum.

By controlling the laser combs, they can control the radio waves that are coming out and then so they can just transmit songs. And they were also able to go in reverse having the device pick up wireless signals and then that affected the frequency combs and they could read that and so

they could go both ways transmitting the music. Sort of the dream of the future with this is finding a way to apply that to terahertz wireless communication. Right now, we're like our cell phones and everything is using gigahertz wireless. But there's a band of frequencies in the terahertz range where we don't have the technology to like practically generate that for communications use. And no one's really close to doing that, making that viable yet. And that'll make the phone better?

It will allow faster speeds. So the cactus thing is from the Saguaro National Park in 2008-2009, there was a rash of cactus theft. And it's apparently not illegal to buy and sell Saguaro cactuses, but it is illegal to steal them from

a national park. So in the national park, they started implanting RFID chips into the cactuses, which you would think would allow them to track them down, but you actually can't track them down

because you have to be within a foot of the chip to actually detect it. Because they, yeah, these aren't like battery-powered things. They like have to receive a signal to radio

back to you. So it's to scan a saguaro when you get it to see if it's an illegal saguaro? Yeah. Well, they're counting on like people being like, oh, they're putting chips in the cactuses so i'm not gonna steal it right but then actually check i like that but i guess my type of enforcement they were sweeping the

nurseries right and rfid is a radio thing yeah r stands for which is why i found that i watched a review on youtube of a device it's like a little Bluetooth box and it has a thing that you stick on anything and then it vibrates that object and turns it into a speaker. So I was like, well, just do it with a cactus, I guess. That's a great idea. And so then the bacterial thing, this is the one I super do not understand how this works.

I read the article several times and there's too many words in there that I don't understand. But this team has been working in the space of like synthetic biology for a long time. They have several papers that sort of build on each other. And it is through like genetic engineering of the genes to create like components in the genes that act like switches and logic gates. And so they can connect them together to execute what they call genetic programs. The example from their 2011 paper is that they synchronized thousands of E. coli

into what they are calling biopixels. And so they will fluoresce in sync in response to chemicals that are present. So you can detect arsenic or whatever. You have an arsenic detector that gives you E. coli if you're not careful. Yes, you got to be careful. Next, it's time for a short break and then for the fact off. Welcome back, everybody.

Sam Buck totals. Sari's got one. I've got nothing. Sam's got two for his good poem. I shouldn't have given you the extra points. And Stefan's also got two, so you guys are tied. But only because of the grace of Stefan's appreciation for your... My creativity. Creativity.

I did it for myself. Wow. Do we really do anything for ourselves, I guess, in this society? Yeah, no. Everything is built on everything else. Yeah. I stole every one of these words from other people. From Homer.

Homer, the first worder. Yeah. He made all the words. Yeah. And now it's time for the Fact Off, where two panelists have brought science facts to present to the others in an attempt to blow their minds. The presentees each have a sandbuck to award to the fact that they like the most. So get ready. It's me versus Sari, and we're going to decide who goes first with this trivia question.

The United States National Radio Quiet Zone is a large land area that was designated by the FCC in 1958 originally to protect radio telescopes. The area of the Quiet Zone covers parts of three states. Name one of the states. Colorado. West Virginia. Colorado? What? What's wrong with Colorado?

It's not where it is. Is West Virginia right? Yeah. I just figured it would be someplace where there's nobody. That makes more sense, doesn't it? Instead of there being a place where there's a lot of people? Yeah. Like West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland? Wow, yeah.

That's the three states it covers. I'll go first to get it over with. Oh, no. There is so over radio. My confidence in science and my own scientific ability is low. There are lots of different kinds of wartime technology, but we usually focus on weapons or other big machines to cart people around. But radio, which falls under the umbrella of electronic warfare, has been used in plenty of wars, too. And so specifically, I'd like to talk about a physicist who helped the UK out during World War II using what's known as scientific intelligence, basically like an arms race of radio technologies.

His name was Reginald Victor Jones, or R.V. Jones, and he wrote a whole book about this called Most Secret War, because it basically became his job to figure out what the German Air Force was doing with radio, especially related to navigation, from literal scraps of information from decrypted messages or downed bomber planes. And it was called the battle of the beams just just like a very catchy name and so i have a highlight reel of three of the things that he did the first being on june 5th 1940 a message was intercepted with the word nicobine meaning

crooked leg and a set of compass bearings and nicobine was discovered to be the nickname given to the bent transmitting antenna and planes had a radio navigation system the german bomber planes that involved an antenna that switched between two radio beam transmissions from two locations one was dashes like morse code dashes one was dots and the beams were adjusted to intersect over the target for bombing so the planes would fly over and listen to like just dots until then they heard dots and dashes interspersed and they were like oh x marks the spot got a bomb whoa wow oh that's extremely fraught with definitely accidentally killing people yeah these signals were codenamed headaches so rv jones and his buddies developed transmitters that they

called aspirins by using machines from hospitals that used electromagnetic currents to produce heat and cauterize wounds and they just like pointed them up at the sky and tossed out radio noise or produced false dot and dash signals highlight reel number two this is the same guy same guy yeah x beams were another German technology that they tried where the bomber pilots intercepted checkpoint beams as they got closer to their target. So like at 30 kilometers out, they got a radio signal that was just like or whatever. And then 15 kilometers out, they got another signal and then they set a timer in their plane so that like after X amount of minutes was up, then they would arrive at their spot and then bomb. And so then they modified the jammers to be another cutesy name, bromides, to throw off the accuracy of those.

But still, same hospital machines, just like, oh, we're going to miss them. Shooting cauterizers at the sky. It's like when I bake muffins and I'm like, 15 minutes from now, they'll be ready. Yeah. It's never right. Yeah. Yeah. Except the disaster.

It's whether you murder accurately or not. Yeah. War is bad. War is bad. Yeah. This is very scary. In July 1943, this is the third highlight. Allied bomber planes flew into German airspace under this dude's advice and dropped 92 million strips of shredded tinfoil, which is not very environmentally friendly, but it messed with the radar operators.

And so their screens were just like, we're swarmed because all the tinfoil is reflecting their signals back. So his whole strategy was like, fight war with tricks. Did he have a cute name for that one? Operation Ibuprofen confetti no no fun name that i could find operation tinsel i don't know we could come up with one yeah tinsel oh he's dead he won't hear it it's true i feel like shouldn't you just people like bomb this thing look down look down the hole in the ground you're so far up and like they're just using there's like maps with like grids

on them and you have like a ruler and you're like, I gotta go there. GPS makes this all much easier. And the whole time you're in your plane it's like, boop. Boop. Boop is probably terrifying. Yeah, and then you get that dot dash signal and you're like, okay, well I guess

it's my job to push this button, so I will push this button good thanks to that person for saving lives with hospital equipment which was meant to save lives but in a different way that sounds like the equipment that was responsible for all those surgical fires though

call back you guys want to know about my fact? I guess so yeah I know that was pretty good so there was a young boy his name was owen garriott and his dad uh was really into radios and stuff and so his dad talked to him about morse code and got him a radio and by the time he was 15 years old he had an amateur radio operator license so ham radio like these amateur radio subs

are like things that people use even now and you can sort of like have your radio and talk to people it's like Omegle do you guys remember Omegle?

no what's that? it's a internet application that you can just turn on and it'll match you with a random stranger it's like chat roulette oh creepy um yeah yeah i mean it's very good way to see a penis okay but this is like with people and they're i can just turn this switch and like this radio will connect me to people and we

can talk so he was super into that and then in 1983 that kid went to space because he was an astronaut by that point. And he did a 10-day flight. And he wasn't a kid anymore. He was no longer a kid. Okay. He was an adult man at that point. And he brought a handheld amateur radio transceiver with him. And he operated the first amateur radio station in space using a call sign, W5LFL.

And he turned it on. And his first contact was with some guy in Montana. And he was just like, hello. And the guy in Montana was like, what's up? And he was like, I'm in space. And the guy in Montana was like, that doesn't seem right. And he was like, no, seriously, I'm an astronaut. You can look it up, W5LFL, and they talked for a while, and then he talked to a bunch

of different people while he was up there. And that project actually lives on. There is a project called the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Project. And when you wake up from your space nap, if you don't have anything to do, you can go over to the thing and just, like, turn it on and see if you can talk to anybody. So they do it specifically and intentionally with school groups, but they also will do it just to strangers. Bill MacArthur is an astronaut who was on the ISS, and he made it a point to talk to one person from each of the 50 states while in space.

And he did that while also making 1,800 different contacts in more than 90 countries and every continent, including Antarctica. So you've got to just turn it on and hope that you're getting somebody from a state that you don't have? You can do it intentionally. So, like, one, if you're flying over that part of the world, you're going to be able to connect. And you can also, you know, sort of know when your partner is going to be available and, like, both be there at the same time to talk. But you can also just, like, have it on and wait for somebody to talk. How long can you stay connected to one?

Not long. When you're in the space station, not long because it moves pretty fast. Seconds or minutes? Minutes. Okay. Like prank calling people from space. Yeah.

I mean, how do you, I could just have an amateur radio and be like, I'm in space. There'd be no way to tell, right? People would know your voice. You're Hank Green from SciShow. I'm a nerd. No one's going to let you in space.

That's a great story, and it's beautiful. Thanks. Maybe someday we can podcast from space. No. Oh, okay. Very dangerous. Why? Not us, but somebody.

I could be up there, and I could talk down to you guys. Oh, that's fine. I'll just go by myself. Just you guys are just chicken to go to space. Yeah. It doesn't sound fun. To go to space? No.

Nah. It's weird to feel that way, but I kind of feel that way. Yeah. I don't really like to have fun. It sounds expensive, too. It's like a tattoo. It's like paying a lot of money for just being uncomfortable. Oh, I'd be a fully trained...

I like tattoos, so... strong disagree on that one. I'd be a fully trained astronaut, so I wouldn't have to pay any money. They'd be paying me, baby. That seems especially unlikely for everyone in this room to be paid astronauts. Maybe I'm the only one who has the knowledge needed to fix something. Yeah, they're looking for radio skit script writers. All right, you guys want to do it on three? One, two, three.

Hank. Oh, okay. Are we all tied now? Nope. I only have one point. Everybody else is tied though. Such a nice story. They were both good.

Hank's was more wholesome. One was about war. Yeah, you had to think about war and like people dying with mine. I just kept trying to bring it up. So people died, huh, Sarah? A lot of people were dying in your story, huh? Mine's cute, though. It's about a boy.

A little space boy. And then he just wants to talk to Montanans. Oh, that's probably what really got me. I should have just ended at Montana. That's it. End of the story. They got Sam. And also, this astronaut says he loves Anaheim, California.

He loves it there. That's where he was born and raised. And now it's time to ask the science couch. We've got a listener question for our couch of finely honed scientific minds. We're terrified. This question is from Patty Shag, who asks, What is digital radio or HD radio, and how does it actually relate to standard radio, like what was coming out of our car stereos 10 years ago?

You guys don't even know what standard radio is. I'm ready. I'm ready for a general explanation. It'll be unsatisfying, but you'll know more than when I started. Generally, how radios work is an electric signal can be an input to the antenna, which radiates electromagnetic energy, and that's transmission. Or like the receiver antenna can pick up electromagnetic energy and convert that into an electric signal. And that's reception. And radio waves have different frequencies. And by tuning a radio receiver to a specific frequency,

you can pick up a specific signal. And so AM and FM radio have different bands of frequencies that they operate in. I am not tuned to radio, so I have to explain this for myself. Yeah. No, this is part of the problem is that Sari's never used a radio. Yeah. I also have never used a radio to listen to music, so. That couldn't possibly be true. My mom played it in the car

when she dropped me off at school during a brief period i listened to it when i rode the school bus the thing that we have said on this podcast but anyone who doesn't hasn't listened sari when driving just is in silence oh yeah it's nice it's not no that's horrible that when you're doing mundane things like that is when the real demons come out. I like that Sari is comfortable with her own thoughts and we should all aspire to that greatness. No way. The shower, the car, you always have to have something going on or else you're going to have to grapple with some stuff. Yeah.

Do you want to grapple with some stuff? You got to grapple. I grapple all the time. Otherwise, you're just hanging out in space. Hell yeah. I'm turning all my houseplants into speakers as soon as I get home. AM is amplitude modulation. So if you imagine a wave,

it's like how far up or down it goes. And FM is frequency modulation. So if you imagine waves and you imagine a point in space, it's like how many waves, full waves, pass that fixed point over time. So like if they're moving left to right, like how many are passing it?

That's what radio sounds like. Is this radio? Yeah, that's what radio sounds like. And then I found a really good Reddit explain like I'm five post about the difference between AM and FM and why AM is worse quality than FM. Is this a known thing? Yes why AM is worse quality than FM. Yes.

Is this a known thing? Yes. AM is like talk radio, really fuzzy, very hard to understand. So this person said to imagine instead of radio, light, because they're both electromagnetic energy. And with an AM light bulb, the signal would be varied by adjusting the brightness.

And with the FM, the light would be changing in color to produce the signal and so if you're trying to see the signal through like a forest or something it'd be easier to tell a difference in color than a difference in brightness and that's why fm signal stays stronger than am neat okay i was like wow this person i love it thank you very much yes that doesn't what what about h about HD and digital radio? Okay, yes, that is old radio. I've set the groundwork.

So now, U.S. radio broadcasters use both analog and digital signals, but a digital radio receiver can receive both. So like analog and digital. HD radio does not stand for high definition or hybrid digital. It is a proprietary method of digital radio that is standard in the U.S. declared by the FCC and owned by a company. Can you just pan our groans to either side? Yeah.

Stereo groan. Stereo groan. Of course it's a proprietary format owned by some company. Not all countries have HD radio. So if you want to talk about this kind of radio use digital because that's the umbrella term.

HD radio is like I found the trademark page to explain what it is and what it isn't. Is it higher quality or is it just a different system? Yes.

It is higher quality sound or it's supposed to have higher quality sound and more stations. I don't have any first hand experience with this. Do you like XM radio? Is that different? That's different. That's different. That's satellite more stations. I don't have any first-hand experience with this. Do you like XM radio? Is that different? That's different.

That's different. That's satellite. Then maybe I don't know what we're even talking about. It is a different way for the information to be transmitted over radio waves. Is it something that some cars have? Yes. If you have a newer car, you can receive digital radio, and you'll know when you get out of range of it, if it's regular old analog radio, it'll get like, and you can still kind of hear it.

And if it's digital, it starts to have like digital artifacts where it goes like, and it sounds like a Skype call gone wrong. Unfamiliar with this. So radio frequencies like AM and FM analog have a limit on how much information they can hold. So there's a limit to sound quality. analog have a limit on how much information they can hold so there's a limit to sound quality but in digital radio the signal is digitized so to the ones and zeros and compressed on a computer so instead of like just transmitting the waves it's transmitting digits and so then decoded by my radio yeah that's being decoded by your digital radio and not only can you transmit sound but you can also transmit information so things like with digital radios,

the song title and artists can pop up on screen because that information can be stored with the song. And you don't have just like a radio man saying, and now we're playing. A radio man. No, I want to hear what Sari thinks the radio is like. I'm like trying to think of one song. That was what the pause is like okay um i'm like trying to think of one song that was what the pause is and now we're playing that or no they said afterward right that was just call me maybe

by carly ray jefferson and now another another song yeah another song totally know the title one from carly lover welcome to carly Jetson power hour, et cetera. Yeah. No, that's absolutely. They definitely, every time a song ends, they're always like, that was this song. Yeah. And then during the song, sometimes they go, we're listening to. Everybody, just so you know the name of this one.

Everybody, that was our girl Carly with Call Me Maybe. You're good at that. See, I don't know if this is like a real radio voice or if you're faking it. Okay, I think I trust you, yeah. Do all radio announcers sound like the Kool-Aid man? Yes. The end. I tried my best.

Well, if you want to ask your question to the Science Couch, you can follow us on Twitter at SciShowTangents, where we'll tweet out upcoming topics for episodes. us on Twitter at SciShowTangents, where we'll tweet out upcoming topics for episodes. Thank you to at Kujmus at SarahPreston92, and everybody else who tweeted us your questions for this episode. Final Sambuck scores! It's a

three-way tie! Starring everyone but me. It's a Christmas miracle, because I think today is Christmas Eve. Is it? I think so. Why didn't we do a Christmas episode? I didn't think people would really be listening on Christmas Eve because they're with their families. You think so?

I mean, people do all kinds of stuff. I love to listen to podcasts on Christmas. In our SciShow analytics, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas do really well. I think people are avoiding their families. Maybe we'll make this an extra long one or something since it already is very long.

Right. Since it's our Christmas Eve episode, what's your favorite cookie? A Christmas cookie? Your favorite Christmas cookie. I pretty much only have room in my heart for chocolate chip cookies. Wow. That's not a Christmas cookie at all. Well, what is a Christmas cookie?

If your mom makes them, it's a Christmas cookie. Gingerbread? Is that the only Christmas cookie? Gingerbread? It is a Christmas cookie, but it's also a Christmas cookie at all. Well, what is a Christmas cookie? If your mom makes them, it's a Christmas cookie. Gingerbread? Is that the only Christmas cookie? It is a Christmas cookie, but it's also bread. Of course, Snickerdoodles. And there's also the ones that are like white chocolate with like melted with a bunch of crushed candy canes in them. It's not really a cookie. What about the ones that are the circle of sugar cookie

with the kiss in the middle? Is that a Christmas cookie? Thumbprint cookies? Yeah. Is that what they're called? Is that a Christmas cookie? I don't know. It has a kiss in the middle. Is that a Christmas cookie? Thumbprint cookies? Yeah. Is that what they're called? Is that a Christmas cookie? I don't know. It has a kiss in the middle. It has a kiss in the middle. Yeah, I remember buying them. You probably put your thumb in the middle and then

you put it on top. I can eat those in one bite. That's right. Congratulations. Yeah, that's it. I want to know more about how fast Sari can eat. How fast can you eat a hot dog? The fastest I've ever eaten a hot dog is

so I was moving from Indiana to Washington State. My dad and my grandpa were in the car. He gave me a footlong hot dog from a gas station

and then as he walked around the other side of the car and got in I had already finished it. Wow. Sari's a professional. She's Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

It's been amazing to watch Sari not eat this cookie for the entire episode. I want to so badly. And you could eat it so fast, too. It's been sitting there. The icing is so bright. This is probably the slowest you've ever eaten a cookie. Yeah.

Hank, I have a Christmas present for you. Oh, no. It's a Hank book. We're all tied. No. How about that? Holiday season. We're all tied.

Yeah, okay, I like that. For once in our lives. We're all tied. No. How about that? Holiday season. We're all tied. Yeah. For once in our lives. What did I do to deserve this? You, um, hmm. I just think you should have one. Okay. Does everybody agree? Are we actually going to do this?

Can I eat my cookie? If I can eat my cookie, you can have a book. Yes, sir. You can have your cookie. You can eat your cookie. Heck yes. Everything's going wild cookie. You can eat your cookie. Heck, yes. Everything's going wild now. It's all breaking down.

SciShow Tangents' end is just like there's no structure anymore. Well, if you like this show and you want to help us out, while Sarah eats her cookie. Gotta give it some crunch. It's not really a crunchy cookie. No, it's a soft cookie, but I don't want to eat it in front of the microphone for people who don't like food noises. Yeah, no, don't make too many food noises.

First, you can leave us a review. That's very helpful and also lets us know what you like about the show. You can also leave ideas for upcoming topics in iTunes reviews, because we look there for those. 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.

I'm waiting for my second bite. Thank you for joining us. I've been Hank Green. I've waiting for my second bite. Thank you for joining us. I've been Hank Green. I've been Sari Riley. I've been Stefan Jin. And I'm Sam Schultz. The 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 Kaylin Hoffmeister and Sam Schultz,

who also edits a lot of these episodes along with Hiroko 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. Two radio astronomers were using a big antenna in 1964 and 1965 to receive signals from the Milky Way when they kept hearing a steady hiss.

They chalked it up to a lot of things, like pigeon poop from a nest inside the antenna. But after the poop was cleaned up and other signals were ruled out, they were still hearing that hiss, which was actually evidence of cosmic microwave background radiation that fills the universe because of the Big Bang. And they discovered it then?

Yeah. Whoa, and they thought it was pigeon poop? They thought it was poop. They thought it was poop. But it was the Big Bang. The odds only happened one time. Yeah. What a thrill it would have been.