SciShow Tangents - Tangents

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

The day has arrived- this is our very last episode of Tangents ever! So of course, we had to talk about a topic that's near and dear to our hearts forever: Tangents. Ride down memory lane with us and returning original host Stefan Chin as we reminisce, try to remember what we've learned, and still learn new stuff in an episode that's the true encapsulation of everything we love about this show. SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen[This or That: SciShow or Tangents or Both]Eyedrops to deliver a drug called pilocarpinehttps://nerdfighteria.info/v/ekmb6KQahuk/African crested rat with toxin-loaded furhttps://www.livescience.com/crested-rats-have-poison-fur.htmlhttps://www.npr.org/2020/11/27/938878618/for-rats-that-coat-themselves-in-poison-these-rodents-are-surprisingly-cuddlyhttps://nerdfighteria.info/v/CQAVcAJQsEM/Spleen cells creating splenunculi https://nerdfighteria.info/v/3xXyBCckWsMhttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/13/505349283/meet-the-spleen-the-strange-little-organ-that-can-multiplyhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27226272/Car transmission failures due to endangered species acthttps://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/17/archives/transmission-problems-in-cars-linked-to-ban-on-whale-killing.htmlhttps://magazine.washington.edu/feature/the-innovation-file-solving-a-whale-of-a-problem/https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-the-jojoba-plant-saved-the-sperm-whale-1716719552https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/15/archives/oil-from-a-shrub-found-in-desert-may-save-the-sperm-whale.htmlhttps://www.lubesngreases.com/magazine/whale-oil-biobased-and-bygone/[The Gauntlet]Preventing snails from growing external shellshttps://www.wired.com/2010/10/snails-slugs-shell-evolution/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101011090229.htmhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1525-142X.2010.00433.xFemale mouse pee compound that decreases pain and increases stress in maleshttps://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi9366https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/953803Niagara falls 1969 projecthttps://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-geology/american-dry-falls/https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/niagara-falls-june-1969-dewatering.htmlhttps://m.ammoth.us/blog/2010/03/absent-rivers-ephemeral-parks/Wolf puppies acting like domesticated dogshttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/824375https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(19)30557-7Ethyl mercaptan-sniffing animalshttps://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/0894.pdfhttps://bedfordaudubon.org/2016/01/07/turkey-vulture-and-black-vulture/https://www.birdnote.org/podcasts/birdnote-daily/turkey-vultures-and-gas-pipelinesIka-tako computer virushttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/japanese-virushttps://www.computerworld.com/article/1343317/hacker-s-p2p-virus-replaces-files-with-sea-creature-manga.htmlFrogs that don’t have middle ears but can still hearhttps://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1302218110https://phys.org/news/2013-09-frogs-ears-mouth.htmlhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3023005/[Ask the Science Couch]Mathematical uses for tangentshttps://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/classes/calciii/TangentNormalVectors.aspxhttp://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htmhttps://science.nasa.gov/learn/basics-of-space-flight/chapter4-1/https://www.nasa.gov/ames-engineering/spaceflight-division/flight-dynamics/trajectory-design/https://willkempartschool.com/compostional-mistakes-in-drawing/[Butt One More Thing]Young turquoise killifish gut microbes made old fish live longerhttps://www.nature.com/news/young-poo-makes-aged-fish-lhttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120980v2

You're listening to a Complexly podcast. Hello and welcome to SciShow Champ. I couldn't. I just said it wrong. Come on, man. I goofed it. It's a slightly competitive science knowledge. I said some petitives.

You said some petitives. It's a good thing it's over. These guys never podcasted before in his life. I don't know how to do it. You know, honestly, it's an intensely competitive science knowledge showcase. And joining this week, as always, is our science expert, Sari Riley. Hello.

And Forbes 30 under 30 education luminary. I can't leave that off. Yeah, this is the last time I'll ever hear it in my life. Everyone else will have forgotten about it. It's not even true anymore, but you know. Once a 30 under 30, you're always a 30 under 30. I get a cling to that for the rest of my life, Sam. I've peaked now.

And also our resident every man and SciShow Tangents 30 under 40 under 40. Just really cool guy, Illuminary, it's Sam Schultz. What's up? And joining us this week, back from the dead. It's back, it's our OG Tangents host and current super awesome SciShow host Sigh, oh fuck, Stephens

Jen! I'm under 50, let's go. I'm gonna come over there and rough you up Hank. I'm not that old yet. Yeah. Are you getting to 40 Stephens? Almost. Soon. We're not that far apart. I'll tell you, here's what I'll tell you Stephens, get ready for, and you already have this,

but get ready for your eyes to get even worse. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Eyes worse and just random like, oh, my shoulder, what happened? I don't know. Well, if you keep on using all those weights that are back behind your kitchen table, then you'll be okay. Yeah, that's how you protect. Stefan strong now. Stefan strong.

Wow. I'm gonna go get my protein shake. You guys have a question for you for this, our final episode of SciShow Tangents. Tell me about the last time that you experienced some intense or even mild nostalgia. I will tell you mine while you think about yours. I was driving down the street the other day and I drove past my professor's house from. I was driving down the street the other day and I drove past

my professor's house from when I was in grad school. He was like, he was the one of the guys who ran my department. His house was super cool and I house sat at it once and while I drove past this house and I looked at it and I had this like, because I've only been in the house one time and I was in it for like a week during which time like Catherine and I took care of some cats and I was in it for like a week during which time, like Catherine and I took care of some cats and I like just sort of sat around and read science fiction books from his bookshelf and like punched his punching bag that he had in the garage. So like instantly transported me back to that moment in my life. And it was like a really good feeling

because like that was a good moment in my life. But also I could tell that like his life was a big hard mess because he was, you know, taking over some responsibilities from somebody who had retired and he had to do his normal course load and he was just and he had a kid who was, you know, ten years old and it was just like a lot. He was dealing with a lot of stuff. He'd just gotten two kittens.

Oh, it is. I think it was just messy. And I was like in the simplest time of my life where I'm like, all I have to do is like write papers and hang out with my new friends in Missoula, Montana. And now I'm in his messy spot where my life's complicated. And I have a kid and there's always like surprise responsibilities I suddenly have to take care of.

And he is like traveling all over the world, like hiking, and his child is out of the house and he is like, I'll see him sometimes and be like, how you doing buddy? And he's like, oh, so good. And it just like made me feel like, oh, I'm in, I'm just like, it's part of, I'm in, in a life that has us like waves. And I'm at this part of the wave and he was at that part of the wave and I was at a different part and we're all just like waving and chilling out.

And I like remembering what my, like what it felt like to be that person was like, I think like weirdly nice and productive. Do any like weird kids come over and punch your punching bag or whatever you were doing? You know, kinda. Like I've got people are over at the house taking care of Orin, you know? Baby kit babysitters.

Mm-hmm. And they don't punch a punching bag because I don't have one of those. But they, I assume that they... Yeah, what do I have? Play with my marble tracks. Oh, yes. Play some of my board games. That could be fun.

Yeah. Well, today my wife's shirt smelled like a fruit roll-up. That was... That made me think about... Took you right back. That made me think about being at lunch. And we went, I went to West Elementary. We were the Buffalo's or the Bison or something like that.

And there was a Bison head in my lunchroomroom big one. So I thought about all that stuff that pizza the stinky stinky pizza Rectangle pizza pizza then then when you were feeling fancy You'd spend a couple bucks on a slice of like Domino's pizza the little window. So that's pretty good Those were you know, those are fine times for me. I suppose. I always had the best snacks in my lunchbox. I don't know why my mom liked to give me gummies. Gummies mean something different to me now. Yeah, well, yeah, that's true. Adults have taken gummies. It's true.

Robbed them from children. I was like, what? I still buy the fruit snacks from Costco? I don't know what you're talking about. Stefan's too innocent. Hank's story made me think of when I, every time I go back to California to visit my parents and I'm like, I'm just right back there. I'm just sitting around playing video games. What's for dinner, mom? Watch the Star Trek Voyager.

I feel like I've had nostalgia and lots of reflection because I'm in the same place that I was before. I've like sandwiched complexly with being a student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then leaving as far away as I could find, which was Montana, and then swearing that I would never, ever, ever come back because I had such a bad time and I was so tired and exhausted. But then Sylvia wanted to become a librarian. So I came back and it has been bizarre to be back in the same city that I thought I would never live in again. And I go through waves of like, am I just stuck here?

Am I cursed? Am I like, have I grown at all? And then going like, I've done a lot with my life since then. Do you walk by the old places and go, oh my God, that's that place where that thing happened? Yeah, I do. And I go, man, that was my dorm room.

I remember that. I remember those dining halls. I remember, man, that was my dorm room. I remember that. I remember those dining halls. I remember these classrooms. But I remember them in like echoes rather than like important detail of it. Yeah. Yeah. It is weird to go on campus here because I went to school here for a while and just be like, I used to sit in there and it was so miserable.

I had to do math problems. I didn't like it. Yeah. It's like I cried here. I sat there, and that was college. This is where I cry-shat. Right there. You know, there's a certain amount of college that can sometimes result in a cry-shoot. Cry-shoot?

Hank, are you okay? Yeah, I don't know. It's weird. I have miles to go before I rest as well. This is not the last thing I have to do today. Oh, no. Every week here, well, let's be honest with ourselves. For the last eight years, every week or so here on Tangents, we have gotten together to try to one-up amaze and delight each other with science facts while also trying to stay on topic.

Our panelists for the final time are playing for glory, and maybe not, who knows? We may come back and surprise you with Project for Awesome episodes or something. Playing for glory on Hank Bucks, which I'll be awarding as we play. And at the end of the episode, we'll have a winner. And the one who wins this episode wins the whole show.

Yeah, maybe. We've been doing this for eight years. Eight years. Oh my God. That's the age of my child. Ah. The day has arrived. This is our final episode of SciShow Tangents.

We have, of course, deeply enjoyed exploring surprising science, amateur poetry, buts, lightly competitive games, buts, the messy process of learning, and of course also buts. SciShow Tangents has brought a lot of joy to us. I hope that it has brought a lot of joy to you. It would not be this special project that it is without you, our wonderful Tangents community. So, without further ado, we are going to introduce this week's topic with our last traditional science poem this week from all of us. Tangents is gone, it won't continue on. Tangents is gone, it won't continue on. Tangents is gone, it won't continue miss the facts about farts, poop, and drool.

And facts not about drool. When a podcast ends, we don't have a script. Don't have a script. Let's go out with science and maybe some quips You know I've had a lot of fun goofing with these three But now we're done so say goodbye with me Tangence is gone, it won't continue on But the science catch out with the free sign on the lawn

Rocks and space and beasts, we've learned about all of these The science may go on, but tangents won't because it's gone Tangents is gone, it won't continue on Tangents is gone, it won't continue on Hey there, do you remember when I went on and on? Went on and on I wrote down too many facts and I just couldn't stop Just couldn't stop

But I like looking back at all the laughs we shared Laughs we shared The laughs we shared And also all the facts about derrières About derrières Now this may be the last time we are in your feed So let me just remind you that a banana's an ovary Did you know corals synchronize their spawn? And did you know even dogs can catch a yawn? These years have been a dream and we won't take down the fiend

Mantis shrimp can punch through prawns And some crabs have sea anemone pom poms You majors too hard Hank. This could be hard. Glue and profit trees, we learned about all of these Oh science may go on, but tangent won't be because it's gone Tangent's gone, tangent's gone Thoughts and fish and heat, we learned about all of these Oh science may go on, but but attention's more because it's gone. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. I think ZenCaster really is the way that the future for recording studios. It wasn't that bad.

It was all right. The last verse was pretty. I just had to. Well, how are you? Can I make a request as a man as a man which Can I say can I send you something afterward that is where I try harder than I just tried I know one has to listen to me your rhymes are too hard your rhymes are too hard Hank I can do it. Yeah, they were pretty hard. Yeah yours yours took a little bit more work than Sam's did Pretty hard. Yeah, yours took a little bit more work than Sam's did.

Yeah, but... But I like them. I think it's good. Yeah. Okay. Let me send you something tomorrow. That would be fantastic. It's almost like that would have been better and more enjoyable for everyone. Yeah. Stefan, can I ask you a question?

Uh, yeah? Did you miss us? It feels to me like you never even left. Podcast wise? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was on the fence about whether I wanted to leave. I didn't, like I didn't, there was in spirit, I didn't really want to leave. I just needed to leave for my own mental health, I think, at that time.

The contract negotiations broke down. We were playing hardball. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, we missed Stefan. There's a few things that we just lost when Stefan left. There were certain slant rhymes that we never got again. We got to hear one in this song, though.

A fair number of dirty jokes that could have happened. Yeah, the really out-of-pocket statements. Yeah. My specialty. Things that really you got to take a beat and think about. What did he mean by that? Yeah. The other every man perspective, I think, but like a completely different one because there isn't one every man.

It messed up a lot of our games too, Stefan. So there was that also. Well, I'm so sorry. I threw a wrench in things. I forgot to say at the end of the science poem that, of course, the topic for this episode of tangents is tangents. Oh, yeah, right. Well, yes. And we're going to dive into that.

But first, we're going to take a short break and then we'll be back to define tangents. Welcome back. Sarri, what is slash are tangents? Well, there are lots of meanings of the word. I feel like we should start with etymology first in this case. So in Latin, the word tangeray, I believe is how you say it, means to touch. And then the math nerds got their hands on that. And around 1594, I have two separate dates for this 1583 1594 ish. The mathematicians were studying geometry and defined tangent. That is later than I would have expected. Or use the word tangent to describe it because it's possible that the mathematical concepts.

So there's two mathematical concepts that are tangent as far as I can understand. So in trigonometry, when you are calculating angles of right triangles, then you have sine, cosine, and tangent, which are, describe the relationship between the sides of the triangle relative to the angles of the triangle. But then you also have a tangent line, or a point of tangency, which is like, if you have a circle, like in our logo,

and then lines that only point, and then lines that only touch at one point in the curve. As you can see behind me right now. Yes. So those lines are tangent to the circle, but you can also have a tangent plane, which is basically the same thing, but you add another dimension to the space. You can have tangent circles, which are circles that are basically smooching at one point. Can you have an internal tangent circle? Yeah, you can have internal and external tangency

in geometry. So geometry, you're using tangent to describe a very specific arrangement of shapes or things. And who cares and why? It turns out it's useful. It's a big part of calculus. Okay. The tangents. That's kind of where I fell off the math thing.

Yeah. And then the figurative sense came a couple centuries later. The Oxford English Dictionary says 1787, and I think it's a metaphorical version of the geometrical term. So the sentence that they provide from 1787 is, if once this tangent flight of mine were over and I were returned to my wanted leisurely motion in my old circle. So we are all in circles and then we go off on tangents into the ether.

Flying off the side. This surprises me that a word would like such an esoteric mathematics word, would become such a normal part of language. But I guess that happens with esoteric words. That sentence is kind of a math, was it kind of a math joke or am I misunderstanding it? Originally, it seemed quite math, yes. Yeah, a metaphor, a nice math metaphor. It was definitely sort of like encompassing the full metaphor of the tangent,

rather than just being the meaning of the word tangent. How else could you call that though? The non-math version of it. There's no other word for it, is there? The diversion, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Diversion, yeah.

Another thing is a deviation, but that's also a math word. Oh, interesting. Oh yeah, right. What about like a digression? Oh sure. But that also sounds kind of mathy. It does sound a little bit mathy. What's like when you're like daydreaming almost? Is there like a digression? Oh, sure. But that also sounds kind of mathy. It does sound a little bit mathy. What's like when you're like daydreaming almost?

Is there like a word for that? Daydreaming? Yeah. Is there another word? You nailed it. I think I got it. Side shows sidetracked. Yeah, I guess then the definition

that wasn't in Oxford English Dictionary, but we should really petition them for it, was in 2018 or so, a very cool podcast with four friends. Yeah. We should get that picture, that promotional picture of the four of us with the skeleton in the background. Yeah. That still shows up sometimes on places. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. You got to crop Stefan out of it, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've never done that. For this episode you can leave him in. He can be like the family and back to the future where he's just fading away. He's just kind of fading away. His hand is gone. I like that.

So then we defined, in the way that we defined so many science words on this show, we also created a new definition of tangents, which means hanging out with your friends, but for work. But for work. Who named it? I wonder. I can't remember who named tangents. Me or Caitlin or Hiroko, that's my guess on who named it.

Yeah. We were trying to think of math and science words with double meanings, I think. I remember sitting in a room and we just like... Hell, it could have been you for all I know. You probably know that word better than any of us. I remember Hiroka asking me what it was so that she could make the logo. That rolls out Hiroka.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Hiroka, I've eliminated you from the conversation. Wow, you just put her on blast big time too. Look, ideas don't have to be owned by anybody. The thing... And then it's collaborative. It was definitely a collaborative process. Wow, you just put her on blast big time too. Look, ideas don't have to be owned by anybody. No. And then it's collaborative. It was definitely a collaborative process.

Yeah. Alright you guys, I feel like I know what a tangent is, and I feel like I know what SciShow Tangents is. That's for sure. Which means it's time to move on to the quiz portion of our show. Our first game is a little game called This or That. It's Tangents, Tangents, This or That. We cover a lot of science here, but you know what's also covered a lot of called This or That. It's tangents, tangents, this or that. We cover a lot of science here, but you know what's also covered a lot of science?

SciShow. Regular SciShow. And one of the big challenges of this lately competitive science game show is trying to make sure that we manage to cover things that you might not have learned on SciShow, which is hard because there are a lot of episodes of SciShow. So today, we're gonna play a game called SciShow Already Did That. I'm gonna present you the fact, and it's gonna be up to you to try and remember if that's something we talked about on SciShow Tangents or SciShow SciShow or both.

Oh no. I know. Oh, I was like, maybe I have an advantage here, but no, actually none at all. I know. Stefan and I have diverted, where I have a advantage here, but no, actually none at all. I know. Stefan and I have diver, where I have a gap in my knowledge of SciShow, the YouTube channel.

Here I'm our soup eel and Stefan's a mammal. Yeah. Yeah. We're all fish though. That's right. Fact number one or thing number one, eye drops. As we get older, the lenses in our eyes thicken, which makes them harder for us to focus on objects that are closer to us, which is a struggle specifically for

Hank Green. In 2021, the FDA approved an eye drop, and I am literally, I have to try and read this, called pilocarpine to treat this farsightedness after researchers found that using these drops could improve people's vision for around six hours. Is this from SciShow or Tangents or both? I actually know the answer to this one. Stefan, your name everywhere is Pelocrides. What is a pilo, pilocarp? I don't know. Apparently there's a, I think it's a genus of butterfly that is related to the name Pelocrides, but otherwise I just made that up. So there's no real knowledge behind that. Okay.

I mean, it wouldn't have necessarily had to have been a fact off. It could have been anywhere in the show. Yeah. It could have been anywhere in the show. If it was just a fact off, I'd say no, we wouldn't have covered that because that sounds kind of boring. So... Ha ha ha!

If it's kind of like some SciShow boring stuff. If it's kind of boring, then it to SciShow. If it's kind of like some SciShow boring stuff. If it's kind of boring, then it's SciShow. I'm going SciShow. Really? Yeah. I think you're stupid. What are you going to yell at me about? Oh, I think you're stupid, Stefan, actually.

Oh, I'm glad you're here. I have something to talk to you about, actually, Stefan, that you're stupid. Are you glad I'm back? I don't think that it's the kind of thing that... It seems too boring for a SciShow thing. It's gotta be a Tangents thing. It's the exact opposite reason. I just don't think it would be in...

That does not feel like the kind of thing that would be covered in a SciShow to me. I think it's like an old SciShow news back in the day and you were scraping the bottom of the barrel of a Eureka alert. I remember those days being like, what's new? What's new? Oh, I drops. So I also think boring and roasting SciShow, the YouTube channel. So Sam and Sari say it's SciShow. Stefan says it's tangents. Nobody says it's both. It is in fact a SciShow episode from 2022. Could eye drops replace your glasses? 2022?

That's a pretty good SciShow title. I shouldn't have heard this. I shouldn't have known that. So, presbiopia is the condition where people, as they get older, they sometimes get more farsighted and there are a few ways to deal with this. You got glasses, you got contact lenses, you got laser eye surgery,

but researchers have looked at a drug called Pylocarpeine that's delivered via eye drops and that has been used to treat glaucoma And one side effect is that it contracts the pupil which researchers hypothesize might actually improve vision So they tested 750 people with either the Pylocarpine drops or a placebo and they found that the drops helped improve vision for six hours After being used and apparently you guys think that's boring. Yeah, I stand by it Oh, you guys think that's boring. Yeah, I stand by it. Really?

It doesn't seem like it has a, I guess the twist is that you put eye drops instead of glasses. Yeah. Yeah, something has to explode or someone had to have been hurt somewhere along the way. Yeah, seems strange that you could change your vision with eye drops.

Next, we've got the African crested rat. It's around two feet long and covered in toxin loaded fur. In 2020, a study confirmed a theory that the toxins on the African crested rat's fur come from the bark of the poison arrow tree, which contains toxins that the rat can likely tolerate thanks to their four chambered stomach and gut bacteria. That's a true fact, but is it from Tangents or SciShow?

There's no way that we both didn't do that. That's free content. LAUGHS Yeah. I'm trying to think, yes, that was my first instinct too, is that we both did it. Every show Complexity's ever made has probably talked about the Savarkin Crescent.

I'm almost certain that the YouTube channel, because we did a lot of toxin videos, We both did it. Every show Complexity's ever made has probably talked about the South African crescent. I'm almost certain that the YouTube channel, because we did a lot of toxin videos. I say we back in the day, back in my day, we did a lot of toxin related videos. But I don't know if it would have come up on Tangents. Like what episode would it have come up on? I don't know, man. You've been here for everyone. I'm pretty sure most of them.

How many do I remember? Very few. It You've been here for everyone. I'm pretty much not. I'm pretty much for most of them. How many do I remember? Very few. It's wild. It's wild. But I'm going to say both. I'm going to, yeah. Oh, interesting. I'll just toss my hat in for both.

Well, shoot. Now I think you guys are smart. We were smart last time. You know you got the last one right, and I was wrong last time. Yeah. Um, to be honest, I kind of think the fact is wrong.

Like how can a rat have four stomachs? That doesn't make any sense. That's a big boy. Oh boy. I'm just going to say both. There's no chance for me to get ahead on this, but. Yeah. You should have, you should have done a little,

just something, Stefan. You should have tried to make some risks cause it was just tangents. Oh, wow. Oh, hey, Seisho. Here's an episode for you. We talked about it in our season four episode on poisons. And this rat has been quite difficult to observe,

but dogs have died after attacking one of these rats, which supported a theory that the rat has poisonous fur. And biologists proposed that the rat's toxins in the fur are these cardinal... Cardinal... Uh. This is why we have to stop doing tangents. these... Cardenolides... This is why we have to stop doing tangents. You've aged, so... Cardenolides...

Cardenolides. Cardenolides? Cardenolides. Maybe? Which are toxic compounds that are found on this tree. The idea was that they would chew the bark from the tree and then apply their spit to the fur to make it poisonous. And in 2020, researchers were able to capture 25 of them and keep them in a temporary captivity where they observed them chewing bark and

loading up their fur with spit, confirming the theory. I cannot believe SciShow did not do that. They did. They did. You're wrong. All right. How about this one then, Sam? The spleen is a small organ above your stomach. And one of its main jobs is to store blood and help make new white blood cells. And when the spleen is damaged, sometimes spleen cells will land in other parts of the body and grow into smaller spleens called spleenuncuri. Is that from tangents or size show or both? I'm so sure it's from

that we talked about it on Tangents. I think I remember Hank presenting it to us. I'd say both. I'm gonna go with both again. Both? Sam's a both boy. Interesting. I'm both boy. The fact that I could say splenunculi makes it clear that it's definitely I've definitely said it. It's been in your head

coming out of your mouth before. I thought I wasn't doing this. Yeah. I know we talked about mini brains at some point. Ah, brainunculi. Oh, you're doubting that splenunculi have been on the show. I'm doubting that splenunculi have been on the show because I can't say it.

I guess that means Hank could have done a game about it and I had nothing to do with it. I'm going to guess it's just SciShow. You're not notoriously good at pronouncing things, Sarah. Wow. That's why I'm quitting the show. I'm hearing all my beeps. It's all coming out now.

The truth. French, how many times have I messed up saying something in French, Sarah? Come on, like every episode probably. Oui oui, croissant! Okay. Oh, come on. You've been practicing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now I think less of Sari and the French. Yeah. Anyways, I'm going to say tangents. Okay, just tangents. Well, the answer is both, Sam. Oh, my gosh. Oh, come on. Yeah, yeah. Well, the answer is both! Sam! Oh my gosh. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we actually covered this on tangents first. We talked about splenunculi, or accessory spleens, in the season four episode about blood.

And SciShow went more in-depth on the topic in a video called, 20% of humans have extra spleens. Here's why. So they were copying from us. Yeah. In the tangents episode, we focused on the fact that people can end up with accessory spleens, here's why. So they were copying from us. Terrible. In the Tangents episode, we focused on the fact that people can end up with accessory spleens after being injured. But in the SciShow episode, we talk about how people

can also be born with extra spleens. In fact, about 10 to 30 people, in fact, that's more than that actually. Just 30. 10 to 30% of people are estimated to be born with an extra spleen. And around 26% of those people are estimated to have more than one extra spleen. And those accessory spleens are usually smaller, though they are able to help move blood along.

It's wild. It's just, it's like our bodies. There's no plan. It's just working. Do you ever think about that? Like if you were to cut yourself open, like what weird stuff would be inside? Because like, I haven't looked in there. No one's looked in there. But what extra organs, what missing pieces do I have? Bouncing balls. People never looked in you. Is that what you're saying? You specifically? Me specific. Like I think about myself.

I don't think about cutting open my friends. I think about what's inside my little body. Well, I'll tell you what, Sari. There's a couple of paths in which you find out all of that what's in there. And I'd not suggest taking them. Because they never told me anything was weird in my body, except for cancer.

They weren't like, oh, you got a bunch of spleens. That's just cool. But I think it's it's almost like way less weird that it happens than it is that can happen after injury. Like a spleen gets injured and it's like, I'm floating around in the body. Is this home? It's very weird. I take that back because there were, I did learn something at 30 years old about my body

that has been true about it, that I just didn't realize was weird. I have like bony growths, like underneath my tongue, those dental tori. They hurt when you're doing dental x-rays because they put in that little plastic thing. And I was like, damn, this must hurt for everyone so badly. And then I learned when Sylvie was looking in my mouth, as you do as a normal couple activity, that they're not normal. Not everyone has them. So that's one way of thinking.

That's like the worst pain of my life is getting those x-rays done. So I must have those too. That's like torture. It's not torture for everybody. It hurts so bad. It hurts so bad. I definitely, I don't. Though I can suck air out of my sinus

through the top of my mouth. Whoa. Wait, what? Huh? There's a little hole that connects the top of my mouth into my sinuses. You just have a chimney? What? It doesn't, it's not like always open. It, like if I am, if it's like cold out, it like...

It's like all the blood goes away and then it's just like I can just... And it makes a little like whistling noise. Oh, cool. It's too much going on in the head. Too much going on in the head. There's many channels up there. Alright, last one. We got car transmissions. In 1975, the number of failures in automatic car transmissions jumped to around 8 million per year,

due in part to the Endangered Species Act, which prevented the car industry from relying on their previous transmission oil of choice, sperm whale oil. Is that fact from Tangents or SciShow or both? 1975. This would have been a great fact-off fact, but it doesn't sound familiar to me at all. It sounds familiar to me. So I'm going to go with just SciShow. This does sound familiar to me. I feel like I've talked about... It would have been you who did it. This is a smart person fact for sure. Yeah, I found something weird at one point

when I was reading an article and was like, oh, this is perfect for tangents. I'm gonna say it was tangents. I'm gonna trust in our past selves that we found this weird fact and surfaced it. What's a weird fact? Do I go different or do I go, no, I'm just gonna, I think it is sangents, tangents, I show,

I show, that's the answer I want. Really? Locked it in. The answer is in fact, tangents. We talked about the bleak origins of car transmission oil in our season two episode about cars, not to be confused with our bonus Patreon episode featuring commentary about cars too. The movie cars. Sperm whale oil was really important to a number of industries because it can keep its

viscosity over a very wide range of temperatures and it doesn't oxidize very easily. But as sperm whale populations declined, the Endangered Species Act was passed in part to protect them. And initial attempts by the car industry to replace sperm whale oil did not go well. Eventually though, we were able to turn to synthetic jojoba oil derivatives to take over. What? So we were using sperm whale oil in cars until the 70s.

That's why I think I remember it. Cause I think we made jokes about putting whale in your cars and then also just like this idea that our idea of what's historical is not actually historical. Like the energy industry is so weird and complex that once you start using something, it's so hard to switch to the next thing. It's true.

Unless everyone can agree that it's bad and whales are so lovable and endangered that people are like, okay, we can agree that this is bad. We should stop pouring them into our cars. Yeah, but we can't do the same thing with, like, gasoline in general. Because too many people find it convenient. And it doesn't come from a cute little guy. I wonder if by now, like, our transmission oil is actually better than sperm whale oil, or if we switched back, people would be like,

-"Ah, thank goodness." -"I kind of think everything about modern cars is better than 1975 cars." Yeah, that's a good point, Stefan. Thank goodness. I kind of think everything about modern cars is better than 1975 cars. Yeah, that's a good point, Stefan. I have a late-breaking fact check on Duboki. Whoa. Whoa. The African crested rat did appear in both SciShow and SciShow Tantrums. Whoa! Wow!

Let's go! Thank you to Nerd Criteria Wiki for the information. But that thing does have four stomachs apparently. I'm still hung up on that. Yeah. Well that changes the score not at all because all of you- Okay, it definitely does. I got a point! It doesn't change the ratio.

It doesn't change the ratios of the scores. It doesn't change who's winning. doesn't change the ratios of the scores. It doesn't change who's winning. But that means that Sam and Sari both have three points, Stefan has one, because he is stupider than all of us. Yes, yeah. True, true fact. And he's bad at French.

Next up, we're gonna take another short break, then it will be time for a second game. ["The Godlands Theme Song"] Welcome back! Let's get ready for round number two, our final epic attempt at the Gauntlet. Yeah. But Sari doesn't get to play. I don't get to play, so I'm probably going to lose. If you were presenting it, Hank, you'd be complaining the whole time. So this is for the best. I'm so glad. Not because I would be sad that I wasn't playing, just because I'd be confused. Sari gets it. So welcome to The Gauntlet, the ultimate game of science, knowledge, strategy, and treachery.

We couldn't end the last episode of Tangents any other way. It was created by Sam. So thank him or blame him. In The Gauntlet, you and your two opponents will face a series of seven questions of decreasing difficulty. I will take turns asking you the questions in order from 7 to 1. When you're asked a question, you may either answer or pass. If you choose to answer, a correct answer gets you the amount of points equal to the question's number, and an incorrect answer loses

you those points. So question 7 is 7 points, six is six points, and so on. If you answer incorrectly, your opponent will have the opportunity to steal. If they answer correctly, they get the points, but if they answer incorrectly, they do not lose points. So that's all if you choose to answer. If you choose not to answer, if you pass, your opponent gets asked the next question down,

which is slightly less difficult. We start the flowchart all over again. After we've gone through all seven questions, the unanswered questions are asked again and cannot be skipped a second time. On the second pass through the questions, no points are lost and there is no stealing. So you got one chance to answer them. And questions and answers to later questions may contain clues to the answers of earlier ones. That part's important, Stefan. That part's important. OK, you can't zone out. Yeah, you can't.

I always zone out around question like four. It's too much. Can I ask a point of order? Yeah. When this question is stolen, is it only does it only the next person in order who gets like one chance to steal the question? Same, you created the game. I think they both get to, I think you both got a crack at it. Okay, I think that makes sense. That makes sense.

It's a living game, Sarah. It's a living document. I didn't create it. I mean, I did create it, but I don't own it. Okay. Open source. Now, hold hands and prepare to enter the Gauntlet Tangents Edition. In other words, a bunch of random facts that I haven't used from previous episodes.

Will knowing that help you? Probably not because we've done so many topics. It might help me. Maybe. I've heard a lot of your ideas. Sam, I didn't even think about that. Because you send them to me sometimes. I'm proud to pitch you these ideas when you text me at midnight.

Shoot. Okay, well, we'll see. Question number seven. Snails and slugs are both gastropods, but snails have an external shell, and slugs have either a reduced shell, no shell, or an internal shell, which in itself is a shock to me. But in a paper published in 2010, scientists realized that they could basically turn the freshwater snail into a freshwater slug with an internal shell by exposing it to a specific metal during development.

What was that metal? Oh, you want us to just say a metal? Who goes first? It's me first, I think. Oh, OK. OK. Yeah. Sam first. I am going to pass. So Sam passed. So we're going to the next question with Hank. OK. Question number six. According to a study published in 2022, when male mice

smell the pee of pregnant or lactating female mice, certain compounds cause these lads to get stressed out and feel less pain. Turns out one of these chemicals could be technically purchased in a supermarket and that same like purchased version can cause significant pain reduction in male mice just the same as the urine. What is the smell? Ammonia. That is incorrect. Well, I mean, that seems like obvious now that I've, now that I know the answer. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? And also, pee smells like ammonia all the time anyway. Yeah.

So, let me see. If you answer incorrectly, Stefan gets the opportunity to steal. Did I just lose six points? Yeah, you did. God, the god is not well balanced. Yes, it is. It's a perfect game. It really encourages passing, is all what I'll say. Yeah, it's. It's a perfect game. It really encourages passing is all what I'll say.

Yeah, it's treachery. But I don't risk anything by guessing. You don't risk anything. Yeah. What is the smell? But I don't have science knowledge is the problem. But just say one of the things. Vinegar. That's the other thing I was going to say. It's not vinegar. Oh, thank God.

OK. Do you want to give Sam a guess? Yes, we want to give Sam a guess. We want to give Sam a guess. It's not vinegar. Oh, thank God. Okay Yes, we want to give Sam a guess we want to give Sam again something you could get at the grocery store would be a Hydrogen peroxide, it's not that okay Like anything either maybe to a mouse it does maybe to a mouse. Okay, what other chemicals can you buy at the store? Yeah, well now you have to tell us the answer. No, we got to go through again because we go second round Yeah, you got a second try. Let's keep going then. Okay. Yeah, I can try. Okay. Okay. So question number five I believe that the rules are not yet settled

It's like the constitution goes to step in. We've talked about a couple of weird geological surveys here on tangents, but I don't think we've talked about the time the International Joint Commission that oversees the U S and Canada border waters studied the erosion of Niagara falls in 1969. Their goal was check on the structural integrity of the American falls portion Since the rock pile at the bottom of the waterfall was getting quite large What dramatic feat did they do to analyze this erosion? I? Mean, I know of a couple dramatic feats that happened at Niagara Falls, but I don't

Think that science was involved. I'm just gonna pass because I don't have other guesses that science was involved. I'm just gonna pass because I don't have other guesses. Question number four goes to Sam. In a study published in January 2020, researchers were conducting behavioral tests on 13 wolf puppies and found something unusually cute. What did three of these puppies do that made them super similar to domestic dogs? This is killing me because you did, you have every single one of these. You have run past me before. And I just can't. I know.

I only have so many ideas, Sam. And I'm really trying to give you the cream of the crop. What did they do that made them? I don't know. And I'm going to pass. I don't know. Question number three is for Hank. OK.

Getting easy. We should be able to do this. Not all smells that humans experiment with are sweet, like bananas. Sometimes they're stinky, like rotten eggs, like the gas ethyl mercaptan that's added to odorless gases like petroleum, butane, and propane so our noses can detect a leak. It turns out that ethyl mercaptan is also naturally produced by decaying animal carcasses. So with that in mind, humans have actually used an animal to help us detect leaks in natural gas pipelines.

What animal was it? I've already lost, Sari. Negative six is a deep hole to dig out from. Yeah, with Sam's positive three from the first game. I'm gonna pass. There's too many animals. There's a lot. There is a lot. Question number two for Stefan.

In 2010, a Japanese computer programmer released the Ika Taco virus, which infected between 20 and 50,000 computers. It was disguised as a music file, and when downloaded and played, it infected files on your computer, deleted them, and replaced them with images of something else. What was the replacement image? That makes me think there's some internet culture meme, do I want to risk two points

that I don't even have? I'd appreciate it if you did. Maybe I made these too hard. They're hard. Yeah. You got some question, clue, I think. Yeah, I know one. I got one. I got one of them too.

I hope I have. Oh, geez. I've picked up no additional information. That's me. I spaced out. I stopped listening. I'm like, these are too goddamn long. I'm just going to say it's a picture of Rick Astley.

No, boy, that would be great. It's not a picture of Rick Astley. So that's incorrect. But that means that Sam gets a chance to steal. What do you think? Is it a squid? It is a squid. Oh. Yeah. My very little knowledge of the Japanese language pervades, prevails, prevails. Yeah. So the Ika taco virus replaced files with drawings of squid, octopuses, and other sea

creatures. Oh, everybody should get that. That's fun. I couldn't find any pictures. According to articles, it was like a manga style illustration of those things because Ika in Japanese means squid and tako means octopus. Yes. So very straightforward name.

I thought it just meant squid taco. Question number one goes to Sam. Adult gardeners say shell frogs are only about eight millimeters long and they're one of the smallest frogs in the world They still communicate by croaking like many frogs But they don't have a middle ear structure with an eardrum or little bones to transfer vibrations to the inner ear What body part do these frogs use to detect sounds their butt? That's not right, it's not their butt And now Hank has a chance to steal.

Their eyes. Not their eyes, but no lose, no loss points. No loss points though. And Stefan, a chance to steal. I feel like I've, was this on SciShow and Tangents? This was not on Tangents, but it may have been on SciShow. Small Frog, like it's, it's like their ribs or something, or maybe they're, they're tibia. Can you just say bones?

Yeah. Can I just say bones? I don't have a lot of points. Let him have one point, Sari. Okay, I'll give, I'll give Stefan a pity point. Yeah. What bone is it? It is the mouth bone, their jaw bone.

Which is the bone that becomes the ear? But is not, they don't have an ear structure. So a team of researchers in 2013 believe that these tiny frogs largely receive sounds through their mouths because their mouth bones resonate at the main frequency of their croaking calls and the tissues between their mouths and their inner ear are less thick than other species of frogs that do have middle ears. So we think that that can help transmit vibrations. Okay, so now we're looping back around.

Okay, so question number seven. You got no risk, all reward here. Hank, snails and slugs are both gastropods, but snails have an external shell and slugs have either a reduced shell, no shell or an internal shell. There's a metal. There's a metal that turns a snail into a slug.

Yeah, there's a lot of metal, Sari. You gotta tell me if this is an alloy or an element. You gotta give me something. It is an element. Okay, I figured it was gonna be an element. You gotta give me something. It is an element. Okay, I figured it was gonna be an element. It's a transition metal. Okay. Which makes sense, you know,

transition between, that's not why they're called that. Just because. Ah! Ah! Ah! I'm gonna, let's just say, I don't know. Let's say, let's say nickel. Where's nickel?

Oh, you were so close. You were so, it was platinum. Oh wow. That's cool. That's not that close, is it? It's in the same column. Yeah. Column.

See, where was the fricking clue? This game is rigged. There wasn't a clue for that one as far as I know. Sometimes there are not clues. Sometimes there ain't clues. Oh, I know this one. Oh shit, it's not my question. Okay. No, it's not my question. OK, no, it's not.

I mean, OK. Next question is for Stefan. No. OK. I thought it was for me. No, it's not. That was yours just now. I just did mine.

And he doesn't even know the answer, and I do. OK, according to a study published in 2022, when male mice smell the pee of pregnant or lactating female mice, there's a study published in 2022, would male mice smell the pee of pregnant or lactating female mice? There's a compound in there that gets them less stressed out. That smell is also found in the supermarket. And there was a clue for this one, Stefan.

What is it? Stefan is a living clue for this one in a way, I would say, right? That is true. Oh, bananas? Yeah! Points, points, points, points! Yeah, so banana oil, or more specifically amyl acetate, is found in a variety of fruits

and used artificially as an odorant or flavorant, but it also serves lots of different purposes across animals, including being a communication chemical between female and male mice. Congratulations, Stephanie. Like five-year long callback to just you. Yeah. Okay. So question number five is for Sam. We've talked about weird geological surveys, but in 1969, the International Joint Commission that oversees US and Canada border waters

did something to study the American Falls portion of Niagara Falls. What dramatic feat did they do to analyze the erosion? Oh, did they walk over it on a tightrope? They did not. If it's a bear, I'm gonna be pissed. They dewatered or dammed up the falls. They were called the dry falls for half a year.

Half a year? Half a year, yeah. They were just a waterless rock face that the US Army Corps of Engineers could putter around and drill test cores, remove unwanted vegetation. Also, like a couple, at least one dead body, which is less cool. Holy cow, wow. But they, and then they stabilize the rock structure behind the rushing water, and tourists could also explore the dry nat riverbed.

I would not, I would not walk on that riverbed, no way. You ain't catching me out there. But I would need a high hefty payday. Why, what's wrong with it? I don't get it. Because who knows what that thing could fail, and suddenly it was just a torrent of water I would need a high hefty payday. Why? What's wrong with it? I don't get it. Because who knows what that thing could fail and suddenly it was just a torrent of water that drives me down and then I become one of the dead bodies at the bottom.

It was the 60s. People weren't thinking about that kind of thing back then. Life didn't hold value. Next one is for Hank. In a study published in January 2020, researchers were conducting behavioral tests on 13 wolf puppies and found something unusually cute. What did three of these puppies do that made them super similar to domestic dogs? Did you give me a hint? Was there a hint that I missed?

There's not a hint for this one. Okay. What are the dogs? Did they just wag their tails a bunch? They did not wag their tails a bunch, unfortunately. They played fetch. Oh! With who? With the scientists. They were conducting dog behavior tests on an eight-week-old wolf puppies, and three

of them spontaneously played fetch with a ball that was tossed by the researcher. And three out of 13 wolf puppies isn't a majority, but it does show that responding to this kind of social communication with humans isn't unique to domesticated dogs. And we may have selected for existing genetic and behavioral variations. I've seen cats fetch. My brother-in-law's cat would, like, they'd throw a little, like, cat toy up the stairs. The cat would go get it and bring it back over and over and over again. Yeah. What the heck?

Kids do it. Children. They'll play fetch with you. Okay. Last question is for Stefan. I know this one too. God damn it. Not all smells that human experiment with are sweet like bananas. There's your hint. I realized I put both hints in this question. So it was a good one. I guess Sometimes they're stinky like rotten eggs like the gas ethyl mercaptan That's added to odorless gases like petroleum butane and propane so our noses can detect a leak But humans have actually used an animal to help us detect leaks in natural gas pipelines because ethyl mercaptan is also Naturally produced by decaying animal carcasses. What animal was used to help detect gas leaks?

And so this one also had no clue. There's no clue. Do I have one clue in the whole game, Harry? I had two clues, but they were both in question three. What was the other clue? It's in the answer. Ah Okay, so so it's not frogs and it's not squid. No. Yeah, I guess that's in itself a clue. It's not my And it's not squid. No. Yeah, I guess that's in itself a clue. It's not mice, it's not squid. No mice, no snails. It's probably not dogs.

Like dogs would be the obvious one. So it can't be dogs is too obvious. For some reason, I want to say possums. That would be great. They love stinky stuff. Can I take a guess? Can I take a guess? Yeah.

After Sam's guess? Is it spiders? Wow. It's not spiders. No, I can just swear. It's not possums, not spiders. Interesting guess. Is it spiders? It's not spiders. Whoa. It's not possums, not spiders. Interesting guess. Is it vultures? It is vultures.

Oh. Because they smell so stinky. Give them the points. Give them the points. No. Give them half points. It's not going to do it for me, bud. Yeah.

So the answer is turkey vultures. And it says, these birds don't play fetch, but they do soar through the skies trying to sniff out rotting dead animals to eat. So they're pretty good at detecting ethyl mercaptan odor molecules and have been found flying circles around leaks and natural gas pipelines looking for a tasty treat. This is convenient for humans who want to patch those leaks and might otherwise have trouble tracking them down. And with that, we're out of questions

and you've survived the gauntlet. Wow. I think that was our closest to actually done going the gauntlet. Yeah. Sarah, you're so smart. Those were the ideas you didn't use and they're also good. I have a whole spread.

I have like hundreds of ideas. I combed through to get guessable ones, but I don't know what to do with them now because I don't. I got some ideas. Well, would you believe that after all of that, Sari has three points and and honestly, considering how I played could have won I have negative six or negative three if Sam isn't a buzzkill Sam has five and Stefan Stefan chin somehow winning not just this episode But every episode of SciShow

Somehow the chin coin is back The chin coin We're back baby Let's go Somehow, the Chincone is back! The Chincone. We're back, baby! The Chincone. Let's go! You should have invested in the coin! We didn't know.

It's time for the pump and dump of the century. You called him stupid! Oh, look who's winning now! Now look who's stupid. But here are our actual show final winners. So there's no data for season one and season two. I don't know why, but there isn't. I don't know why.

Too far away with a total of 52 points. 17 in season five, 19 in season four, 16 in season three. Sam, that's 52. Whereas our guests have won a total of 21. I've won two. Team Tangents has won two. There's been 12 total ties. But winning the most episodes of Tangents of all time

is Sari Reilly with 55, just three more than Sam. The true winner. Da da da da. And shout out to Sari for keeping track of all of that. I would wonder why she didn't keep track of season one and two. Interesting, because I wonder if maybe you had... Because I lost so badly. The result could be a little different, but...

No, I just got too lazy. I started keeping track in season three, and then I was like, someday I'll listen back to all the tangents and then with what time? All right, let's sing again. Tangents on, it won't continue on. Now it is time to ask the science couch.

We got a question for our couch of finely honed scientific minds. Sam, what do we got? At ruffles and rage on Instagram asked for the last time? What are the coolest most significant uses of tangents? parenthetically the mathematical kind question mark in Quote yeah, no, I'm glad that Sari did some research on this one because gosh dang it. I guess just calculus just calculus. I'm thinking of humans that need to use calculus. So what are those kind of humans?

All of the rocket science probably. Yeah, I would think space and satellites or something would be the big one. Very important for satellites. Probably orbit is a kind of tangent. That vector of the speed that you have to have, that's your speed vector is the tangent to the orbit. What's like a good earthbound one though? Something with planes maybe or?

A good earthbound tangent. Well, any centripetal force situation. Oh, a roller coaster. Centrifuges got sort of the, probably got tangents involved in their math. But yeah, Sarah, what do we got? So think the common phrase in the way that like the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell has pervaded our culture.

It's everywhere. The idea behind a tangent is that it's the instantaneous rate of change. So at a point on a curve, it's instantaneous rate of change. But that is a little bit paradoxical because you need two points to calculate a rate of change. Yeah, but that's what calculus is all about. That was the innovation. Yeah, that's the innovation is that is the best approximation of the slope of the curve at one given point.

So like a snapshot of velocity, the best approximation of velocity at a point in a curve. And so that's useful in space, like you were saying for orbital dynamics, because when you have a satellite orbiting the earth and you wanna shoot it off into space, you need to know what its velocity is approximately at any given point so that you know how much force to use to send it off in whatever direction.

On Earth, the common physics experiment is usually a roller coaster, anything engineered that has a curve where you want to understand at any point on that curve what forces are acting on an object, like a roller coaster cart, for example. And that's a lot of like the calculus problems that people have in their textbooks is like,

okay, at this point, calculate the velocity of the cart. It's also useful in technical drawings. So like looking at how you're gonna join surfaces together, there are a lot of tangents lines involved in constructing objects with rounded edges because you're going to have one point where the curve is going to curve. Then I don't know if this counts really as mathematical sciencey,

but bringing it back to the arts, I don't know if you ever heard about this in your art classes, but there's aesthetic uses of tangent lines or avoiding them where you like, if you have a still life with like a lemon and an orange, it looks weird if you let the table edge be a tangent line to your fruit object. And so you want to like avoid that if you want to have a better sense of perspective. Right. It's like a nice thing to have in logo design and a bad thing to have in like

illustration and stuff like that, like just depending on what you want. But yeah, just keeping track of like where invisibly like a line in one part of a design would hit another part is not something most people think about, but it might make it look nicer if if that is lined up in some way. Yeah. I mean, I'd add that like math on its own is just like there's lots of weird, beautiful math that math people get up to that I don't get,

but I bet it's all full of tangents. And anytime there's curves and forces, like suspension bridges probably got tangents in there because there's curves and forces. And there are a lot of curved things. Not a lot of things in this world act in straight lines. And that is why I think tangents are so useful because so much of engineering is trying to approximate our imperfect world into slightly more calculatable things. And a tangent line or

plane or whatnot is a helpful approximation in those situations when you're trying to figure out what forces are acting on a thing and what forces will break a thing and how to send a probe to Mars. Gotta probe that Mars. Gotta probe that Mars. Okay, normally this would be the spot where we answer a bonus science couch question for our listeners on Patreon, but it is the last so show. It's the last shy show.

It's the last show so everyone, everybody gets the bonus science couch question. What do we got? Suzy Kida on Instagram asked, how long does it take on average to find a fact for? Fact off also creating a gauntlet. Oh boy I don't know how long it takes to create a gauntlet. Okay, so here's the secret of the gauntlet It's so easy. The hardest part was coming up with the with the rules. Wow, I'm Which I honestly worked really hard on and it is a good game, Hank. I don't care what you say.

It's a great game. People are going to be playing it for years to come. But a gauntlet is nice because you don't have to have a story. You just have to have a list of facts that are guessable. And then the fun part for me, something not everybody does as well, is putting the clues in. Okay. Okay. So that game is...

That's some work. That game, I mean, I probably have worked for an hour and a half on a gauntlet or something like that. Okay. Fact off, and back in the early days, producer Caitlin Hoffmeister had a rule that it shouldn't take us more than like 40 minutes or something like that. It's fucking hard, is what I would say. Especially it just depends on the topic, really. Yeah, you just got to dig until you find some gold.

Sometimes that took a while. I was going to say a lot of the time I could remember back in the day taking a few hours to find the thing that was interesting I mean, a few hours to find the thing that was like interesting enough and then another few hours to refine it. I think the most I ever spent was 12 hours on one. That was on a truth or fail or truth or lie or whatever. Because that one you had to create three separate things. Oh, I forgot we used to do that. That was extra hard.

Yeah. Yes, I forgot. We really that extra hard. Yeah. Yes. I forgot. We really shot ourselves in the foot with that one. There's a lot of mistakes we made. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I probably have thought a thunk on one for like 12 hours too, and not like

straight up working on it for 12 hours, but definitely like, like slept on it. Yeah. But eventually panic just kicks in and you're like searching every possible thing. Or you can find a way to be like, well, this kind of is a bullshit, like about the topic, sort of. But Sari is so good at finding like, like often Sari would say something that wasn't even like part of what I searched for remotely. Right. Like the Google results would not, would not. Yeah, not. I don't know how you did it. But I feel like Google has gotten worse over the course of the existence of

tangents. That's probably true. I don't know what that's about, but like I'm just on Wikipedia now. Let's go down these rabbit holes internal to this instead of being lied to on websites. Yeah. How long did it take you, Siri? So I have data. Oh no. I started logging my hours. Nerd. Oh yeah, because you get paid for this.

That's right. Because I got paid, yeah. You're not on salary. I was not on salary. So after I left Complexly, I was not on salary, so I had to track my hours. Yeah. And so I've logged 720 hours

between halfway through season three and now. So estimating that as like half of tangents, maybe like 1400 hours overall, which means somewhere between, and this checks out, like four to 10 hours per episode, depending on what I'm doing and how much research I've got to do.

A combination of like game, poem. Definition. Definition. Definition, etymology, but fact. Writing a poem is brutal. Like, ask the science couch. Yeah. Weeks where I'd have a poem, I was just like, fuck. God, it was hard.

Poem I had to leave to the last hour, otherwise I'd overthink it. I gotta just. Oh, interesting. It's weird, sometimes like the poem takes me like eight minutes and sometimes it's like I'm just grinding away. I guess that's how creativity works. That's how poetry is.

But there's nothing better than being so frustrated about trying to find a fact and then you find the thing and you're just like, that's it. This is it. This is gonna blow their minds. I'm so proud to present this to my friend. And then I'm like, that was not very good. Yeah, yeah, that was a weak fact.

Well then, and then Sam brings a better one, and that is where it really stings, where I'm like, oh, this is the juicy one, and then Sam's got... But then Sam's is about butts, and it's like, well, that's it. Or sometimes the better one was one you sent me. Yeah. But that's the thing. Sometimes I would send you facts and I would be like, like in my head, canonically, there's like Sam Fax, Hank Fax, Stephen Fax, Sari Fax.

That makes sense. So there are some stories that you can tell way better than I can. Yeah, that makes sense. And so I didn't choose to do it because I couldn't find the hook of the story. But the way that you tell stories is different than the way I tell stories. And I think that's a very beautiful thing about the show, too. That's the longest running creative partnership I've ever had. Yeah.

I do think maybe the most satisfying moment was when Siri sent me a fact and then I beat her in the fact off with it. Yeah. I don't remember which one it was, but I was like, I didn't do any of this work. Here you are. Well, everyone, the Tangents Patreon is going to be closing at the end of this month, but never fear all of our bonus episodes, crew chats and movie commentaries will live on in perpetuity for everyone to access.

Starting on April 8th, we're going to be posting a backlog of Patreon episodes to our main podcast feed and to the YouTube channel when there's bonus video content to post. The bonus episodes will come out twice a week in the same order they were originally posted to Patreon. Along with the bonus episodes, we'll also be posting some special compilations to the YouTube channel and the podcast feed for those times when you just need a giant megadose of tangents. All of our patrons, you're the best. We're so grateful for the support that you've shown for the show over the years. And a final super grateful shout out to patron Les Aker for their years of support. And if you haven't heard by now, at long last, we are also publishing an ebook of over 200

of our traditional science poems as a special memento to remember the show by. All of our parody song lyrics, horrible slant rhymes, and basically children's books will live on. The ebook is available for preorder at Complexly.store. Final version will be delivered on March 21st. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be so good. Thank you to Sarah Malek on Patreon, at Vienna.

I'm tired on Twitter, and everybody else who asked your questions for this episode and for any episode of SciShow Tangents. Finally, if you wanna show your love for SciShow Tangents, you can always, please, just tell people about us. Thank you for joining us. I've been Hank Green.

I've been Sari Reilly. I've been Sam Schultz. And I've been Stefan Chin. SciShow Tangents is created by all of us and produced by Jess Stempert. Our associate producer is Eve Schmidt. Our editor is Seth Lixman. Our social media organizer is Julia Buzz Bezayo. Our editorial assistant is Deboki Chakrabarti.

Our sound design is by Joseph Tuna-Medish. Our executive producers are Nicole Sweeney and me, Hank Green. And we couldn't have made 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. Do you miss me? Oh, okay. Every day, Stefan.

Every single day of my life. Turquoise killifish only live a few months at most, even in captivity, which makes them a great test subject for studying aging. And in a 2017 pre-print study, which means that that hasn't been peer reviewed yet, researchers basically fed poop from spry six-week-old fish to middle-aged 9.6-week-old fish to see what would happen. And this kind of- To see what would happen.

I like that they're only three weeks different and that's like a significant difference in their age But this is kind of microbiome transplant made the older killifish act more spry Even as they continued to age and they live 37 percent longer on average than fish that didn't know the youth Oh, no, I guess you know, maybe if we just had more poop facts, maybe tangents could live forever. Or it says here, maybe that's just a load of crap. What? We should have fed the podcast more YouTube.

Each shit. Yes. One, two, three, that's poop.