Just A Minute: Volume 01

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 bee sex. Well, I guess it’s more about honey bee genetics, but we also touch on the fact that bee sex isn’t super great for male bees. Mostly I wanted to post this particular sketch because it shows off how our illustrator Arcadi is able to convey a range of emotions with just a few well-placed squiggles. 

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

MinuteEarth

Why Monkeys Can Only Count To Four
There’s an island in the Caribbean where I used to perform magic tricks for monkeys. And it was super cool because it suggested that they have the ability to count! (but only up to four)

MinuteFood

The TRUTH about dishwashers
Over at MinuteFood, Kate continues her deep dive into dishwashers with a video investigating an age-old question: Is it actually better to hand wash your dishes?

xkcd’s What If?

What if you drained the oceans?
You might know about our newest channel where we turn XKCD’s best What If? questions into videos. In this episode, we answer the question: How quickly would the oceans drain if a circular portal appeared at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean?

• Lizah made a silly post based on the epic handshake meme:

• Sarah made a zombie ant for a fun TV project we’re working on. (I can’t get over that middle set of legs!)

• MinuteFood officially launched its merch store! Click the button below to check it out. We have to warn you - the characters are CUTE.

1. Every elephant has its own name, according to this article in the New York Times. The researchers used machine learning to comb through a library of recorded pachyderm rumbles to suggest particular acoustic signatures, and then tested them out by playing them back to the herd to see who perked up.

2. Speaking of talking to animals with AI, our friend Joe over at Be Smart made a video investigating how we might talk to whales.

3. The hilarious and insightful Tom Lum shared his first full-length video on last week, and you won’t want to miss it.

4. Over on Twitter, Neil Renic posted something that helps explain why each of our videos takes hundreds of hours to make:
   

   

by Matthew Goldenberg

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