Just A Minute: Volume 17

Hello and welcome to our new newsletter!
This is MinuteEarth’s guide to the best science content from our studio and beyond. Every edition includes stuff we’re working on, along with other cool new science-related stories we want you to know about - plus some original games just for subscribers! Make sure to subscribe below so you never miss a minute 🙂.

We're currently working on a video about how many people we'd need to repopulate a post-apocalyptic Earth. (And weirdly, that involves a discussion about ferrets.) Here's a peek from Arcadi. I love how the red outline on the death ray makes it feel super molten.

Here are some videos our team has released on our various channels over the last few weeks!

MinuteEarth

Why Don't Blue Whales Eat Fish?
The most massive animals on land and in the sea almost all eat the tiniest things. We dig into why blue whales stick with the all-krill buffet. (As a bonus, our games are also megafauna-themed this week!)

MinuteFood

Why all freezers smell the same
Open any freezer in the world and it sort of smells like an old person. Kate explains why.

MinutePhysics

Is Perfect Prediction Possible?
Henry takes on Veritasium's Newcomb's Paradox video with his own spin on whether free will and perfect prediction can coexist. (For the full conversation between Henry and Derek, head to the MinutePhysics Patreon.)

Could you power a house with the radioactivity from bananas?
Bananas are a tiny bit radioactive, which sounds like a great free energy source right up until you do the math. Randall does the math.

• So all big whales mostly eat tiny krill, except for the sperm whale, which can eat giant squid. We made a short about the incredible way the sperm whale hunts those squid down and catches them.

• Josh celebrated his birthday with a Super Mario cake.

  

• Arcadi gave a talk in Granada about starch gelatinization and cooked pasta live on stage. It’s in Spanish, but even if you don’t speak the language, it’s still fun. Watch it here.

  

• Josh's stop-motion LEGO short Loch Ness 1303 won Best Animation Short Film at the Liverpool Indie Awards! 🏆 Watch the full film here.

• Our beautiful Bioluminescent Sticker Sheet is now only $15!

  

• Our new Tee Club design is now available - show off your sweet hymenopteran dance moves to the world with the fun new shirt:

  

1. Frustrating, but worth knowing: the FDA has blocked publication of several of its own scientists' studies showing that COVID and shingles vaccines are safe. The studies were based on millions of patient records and found serious side effects to be very rare. NYT has the story.

2. Scientists in Arizona spotted tiny cone ants giving full-body spa treatments to much larger harvester ants, climbing right between their open jaws to lick them clean. It's basically the insect version of a cleaner fish at a reef station. Read more.

3. Wirecutter reviewed Safe Vision, a YouTube parental control app that flips the usual model: every channel starts blocked, and parents only unlock the ones they want their kids to see. Read the review.

4. Michelle Khare dropped her series on running 7 marathons in 7 days across all 7 continents. Watch episode 1.

5. Not really science, but I'm including it anyway: there's a new season of Taskmaster up on YouTube and it's a delight. Watch here.

6. Speaking of ultramarathons: Rachel Entrekin won the Cocodona 250 outright last week, finishing the 253-mile Arizona course in 56:09:48 and becoming the first woman to top the field of men and women in the race's five-year history. Read the recap. And there's some evidence this isn't a fluke. As races get really long, the performance gap between men and women tends to shrink. Here's the research.
   

by Matthew Goldenberg

Thanks for reading! More fun science content coming to your inbox soon.
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