Ever wonder why we yawn, why we hiccup or have twitchy eyes? Fact is, our bodies do a lot of weird things, but most of them are completely involuntary. In this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart, Dr. Joe Hanson takes a closer look at these crazy, involuntary behaviors.
They say everyone has a doppelgänger–a look-alike– but is that really true? Or is this just a strange side effect of how our brains process faces. In this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart, host Dr. Joe Hanson introduces us to a young lady who found her own look-alike, and discusses how we actually recognize faces.
Everything alive today is a descendant of Earth’s fifth mass extinction, when a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula, wiping out 75 percent of our planet’s plants and animals 66 million years ago. This time around, we are the “asteroid.” Says Dr. Joe Hanson, “Now we’re erasing species faster than we can name them.” He explains in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart.
Nature appears to follow the rules of mathematics. Geometric patterns are everywhere, but nature appears to have a particular affinity for hexagons. Six-sided shapes are the most common geometric formation in the natural world, but is this just a coincidence or is there a more scientific explanation? Host Dr. Joe Hanson and mathematician Kelsey Houston-Edwards give us some answers on It’s Okay To Be Smart.
Our Sun holds 99.8 percent of all the mass in the solar system and it exerts twice the gravitational pull on the Moon than the Earth does. So why is it that the Moon orbits Earth and not the Sun? Around everything in space is a volume where the gravity of the thing in the middle beats out the gravity from something farther away, even if it is more massive. This phenomenon is called the Hill Sphere, where the Earth’s gravity dominates. Science writer and educator Dr. Joe Hanson explains further in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart.
The most important social network on Earth, dating back 450 million years, lies right beneath our feet. It’s called the Wood-Wide Web, a massive and intricate network of fungi that exchange water, nutrients, and chemical signals with the plants they’re living in a symbiotic relationship with. This network of fungi is essential to the health and function of forests. Host Joe Hanson explains in It’s Okay to be Smart.
Chances are, we will encounter our own double–or doppelganger–in our lifetime. But do we really share exact facial features with others? “Science tells us that, technically, doppelgangers don’t exist,” says Joe Hanson, host of It’s Okay To Be Smart. “Every face that’s ever been is unique. But science also tells us that we are really good at fooling ourselves.” He explains further in this fascinating episode.
Most of us figured out early that winter is when it’s coldest, summer is when it’s hottest and spring and fall are in between. But contrary to the official calendar dates of winter, the coldest quarter usually begins around December 8, weeks before the official date, and ends March 9. And the official summer dates on the calendar miss out on some of our warmest months. So what gives? Video blog host Joe Hanson erases the question marks in this edition of It’s Okay to be Smart.
In 100 million years, extraterrestrial explorers will find Earth an extraordinary planet to explore. Although homo sapiens might well be extinct, they’d find high amounts of water, higher-than-expected levels of oxygen and a planet that is oddly green. Although homo sapiens survived on Earth for only about 200,000 years, future explorers will realize we left a huge mark.
“Today, scientists are more certain than ever that we’ve changed the Earth to such an extent, that geologists digging in the distant future would classify this as a totally new epoch–The Anthropocene,” says video blog host Joe Hanson. “But when would it begin? What would they find there?” Hanson solves the mysteries in this edition of It’s Okay to be Smart.
Every so often, the waters of the eastern Pacific off the coast of South America get extraordinarily warm, producing trillions of joules of energy that wreak havoc with our weather. The phenomenon, of course, has come to be known as El Nino. Regions like the southwestern U.S., Mexico and South America are slammed with sometimes catastrophic rain, while other areas suffer through record drought. The phenomenon seemingly appears every two to seven years, but meteorologists still are handcuffed when it comes to accurately predicting its cycle. Host Joe Hanson takes a crack at explaining El Nino and why it remains so difficult to predict in this edition of “It’s Okay to be Smart” from PBS Digital Studios.
