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- Just A Minute: Volume 14
Just A Minute: Volume 14
Plus: More awesome science gifts including new bundles!
Welcome back to the MinuteEarth newsletter! The holidays are coming, and we’ve got a ridiculous video to help you celebrate, along with a whole heckuva lot of fun and gift ideas.
EXPLODING TURKEYS FTW!
MinuteFood
The REAL Problem with deep frying frozen turkeys
For your viewing pleasure, Kate collaborated with her local fire department to explode a ton of turkeys and finally answer all of your pressing deep fried frozen turkey questions. Holy fireballs!
Creative Corner ✨
Lizah made the perfect first course for all your holiday meals: Toad Bread.

Ok, Lizah also made fish-shaped baguette bags for carrying bread around. (Note, this bread - unlike the bread above - does not necessarily need to be toad bread.)

Josh (our newest team member over at MinutePhysics!) recently returned from Scotland where he screened his amazing LEGO-based stop-motion film Loch Ness 1303 for the first time in country. What’s that? You haven’t seen it yet? OK, grab some popcorn and your family and click that link above.

New MinuteEarth Gift Bundles
We’re currently running our biggest sale of the year over at our DFTBA shop, and we’ve updated our gift guide! We’ve bundled together some of our most popular merch from MinuteEarth, MinutePhysics and MinuteFood in order to offer bigger discounts on your favorite items. Check everything out below.
Attention nature lovers: this bundle includes our super popular dog and cat posters, our beautiful pollinators Tee, and our shiny stickers featuring bioluminescent creatures of the deep. |
If you love food, you’ll love this combo! Our fruit ripening magnet, food origins poster, brassica sticker set, and non-non-stick pan fan club shirt, all in one. |
Own the coolest nerdy t-shirts on the planet, with this bundle of physics tees featuring tidal locking, harmony & dissonance, and eclipses on other planets. |
“Cats or dogs? Why not both!
|
This set of four black metal plated enamel pins tell a story about the unique circle of life in the Serengeti. Each pin comes with a bonus card detailing that animals role in the wild. And once you use your pins, the background artwork of all four fit together to create a scene that you can continue to admire or display. |
🧠 For the Forever Curious
These gifts feed restless minds and spark new fascinations.
“Vsauce’s ridiculous compendium of wonders is probably the most delightful subscription box out there. I really love it.” - David [Plus, if you use the code “MINUTECURIOSITY”, you’ll get $15 off a quarterly or annual plan. And if you get the annual plan they’ll throw in some free Denary Dice.] |
“I use CGP Grey’s notepad to keep my life in order. I am a compulsive notebook user, and this pad is always handy for scratching down thoughts, lists, or really anything I don't want to forget, but don't know what to do with right now. It's pricey, but the paper quality is luxurious.” -Cameron |
what if? is a book that’s so good, we had to help make an entire YouTube channel about it. And our friends at xkcd released the Special 10th anniversary edition, which answers even more silly questions about physics and space with serious scientific answers. It’s the best. |
“Emily Calandrelli (now the 100th woman to go into space!) just released this fun book with hands-on science experiments you can do with your children (or with your inner child, no one can stop you).” - Lizah |
“Our friend Grady from Practical Engineering wrote this lovely field guide you can use to better understand all the human-made stuff around us. It’s totally changed the way I look at the world.” - David |
“This is a gorgeously illustrated book about how one might rebuild civilization from scratch, detailing many of humanity’s discoveries and inventions. I feel like I’ll never stop learning from this!” - Sarah |
What if your t-shirt was more than just a t-shirt? MinuteEarth Tee Club lets you show off your love of science while supporting your favorite educational YouTube creators. Every three months (four times a year), we’ll send you a new science-y t-shirt featuring original hand-drawn artwork by the illustrators at MinuteEarth. |
Toby Hendy - the genius behind Tibees - believes that math is super fun, and that shines through in this great book. She takes you on a journey, first through through a 2-Dimensional world and eventually through a 4-Dimensional one, as she uses theoretical math to show how things change as you go. |
The story of the ingenious breakthroughs behind ten of the most important inventions ever, containing biographies of more than 50 different inventors. All on a big beautifully illustrated board book that’s relatively cheap! |
🧩 For the Builders & Tinkerers
Hands-on fun for anyone who loves taking things apart, putting them back together, or just seeing how the world works.
“For the MinutePhysics-fans, you can’t go wrong with this old-but-gold gyroscope toy from Tedco!” - Josh |
“This is an amazing working sun-earth-moon model!” - Josh “I’ve had my eye on the Space Shuttle for a while… maybe this Christmas!” - Leo |
“The Physics of Harmony! If you add up the dissonance between all the overtones of two vibrating strings or pipes, you get a graph that (almost) perfectly matches the intervals of western music, like the octave, perfect fifth, perfect fourth, major third, etc. But mostly I think it’s a beautiful graph!” - Henry |
“We love putting together jigsaw puzzles and hanging them up at home when they’re done. (We’re currently working on a Great Pyramid of Giza one).” - Leo |
“These gorgeous, weird, and wonderful concoctions are awesome for kids and adults alike - they're soothing to play with and fun to experiment with. A great stocking stuffer!” - Kate |
“My daughter has had this kit for about 2 years or more and she still loves doing the activities and experiments.” - Melissa |
📚 Wondrous Stories
A collection of books and tales where imagination meets science, history, and delightfully nerdy humor.
“Written by my friends Rik and Jordan, this comic book is about the history of ancient Egypt through the eyes of pets. I was briefly obsessed with ancient Egypt when I was a teenager (as seems a common experience for teenage girls) and I would have loved this at that time.” - Lizah |
Maddie Moate’s awesome kid’s book about some science behind your favorite Christmas traditions. |
“Celebrate your love of trigonometry with this new book from our favourite mathematician: Matt Parker!” - Josh |
“I have this coffee table book and it’s definitely an eye-catcher. Also, it has a ton of cool facts!” - Leo |
A ten book series chock full of animals, science, mystery and adventure. Great for reading along with kids, and super reasonably priced - only about $6.50 per book. |
🌍 For the Explorers
Gifts that celebrate discovery: from world maps to tiny adventures right at home.
“I freaking love these stickers - so shiny and interesting and educational! They look so nice on a laptop or a water bottle.” - David |
“One of the most useful and beautiful maps of the US that you can find. I’ve had a large version of this on my dining room wall for over a decade, and we look at it constantly: any time someone is visiting, or traveling, or if there’s a natural disaster, some place is in the news... it has such a great mix of human and natural geography and makes you want to explore. Get a big one - you won’t regret it! (unfortunately it’s limited to the US)” - Henry |
“These unique, beautiful spinning globes combine power from ambient light and torque from the earth’s magnetic field to create soothing rotations.” - Sarah |
“I feel like we keep taking photos but then forget about them in our phone’s ever-expanding gallery, so I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing this camera on vacations and to friends’ and family gatherings — and keeping the photos in an album at home (preferably somewhere you can actually see them from time to time).” - Leo |
“I met the artist who designed this shirt recently, and bought this one from her. But really any of the designs on her site are hilarious nerd fodder.” - Cameron |
“An excellent other-worldly puzzle game that ties your mind in knots, forcing you to think both inside and outside the box at the same time.” - Jasper |
🍳 For Kitchen Experimenters
Tasty tools and edible experiments for curious cooks of every age.
“Cute, interesting, super useful, and always nearby on your fridge whenever you need to decide what to do with your fruit!” - Sarah |
“As far as coffee mugs go, you can't go wrong with one this meta.” - Cameron |
“Kitchen nerds unite! Share your feelings about the proper way to cook with this ridiculously cool shirt from the MinuteFood collection.” - Arcadi |
“This itty-bitty baking set seems totally frivolous (and it is!) but it's also SO FUN for kids to use, and the resulting itty-bitty food is surprisingly tasty.” - Kate |
“We had a subscription for my daughter for a while and loved these cooking and baking kits. We still use the recipes and the cooking tools.” - Melissa |
“My daughter loves cooking and this knife set works really well for learning and safety.” - Melissa |
“Of course I love the theme of this book, but it is also a fantastic standalone cookbook. It taught me how to make my own mead!” - Cameron |
“Once you know the trivia - all these veggies are the exact same species!?! - then it’s time to spread the good news with the brassica lovers in your life.” - Ever |
“This is the best instant-read thermometer out there, and we use it on a daily basis in our house!” - Kate |
“When we switched to an induction range in our house, we had to get a new stock pot, and this one is great. We use it for soups, curries, tomato sauce, dal, applesauce, and more.” - Henry |









































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