SciShow Tangents - Crust with Ashley Roboto

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

From the planet Earth to the humble pizza pie, some of the most important things in the whole universe have crusts! Including, most likely, the ears that are listening to this! Twitch streamer and friend of the show Ashley Roboto stops by to pick at the crusty scabs of knowledge with us!Can’t get enough AshleyRoboto? Follow her @AshleyRoboto and check out her Twitch stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/ashleyrobotoSciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter!And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy your very own, genuine SciShow Tangents sticker!A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

Hello and welcome to SciShow Tangents, the lightly competitive science knowledge showcase. I'm your host, Hank Green, and joining me this week, as always, is science expert, Sari Riley. Hello. And our resident everyman, Sam Schultz. Hello. And we have a very special guest this week. It's Twitch streamer, artist, and chaos gremlin, Ashley Roboto. Hello. Hello, hello. You asked specifically for a cursed topic for this episode of SciShow Tangents, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about a thought that I have sometimes. I don't know why I have it, but probably the most cursed object to be given by a stranger would be a nuclear bomb. What would you do if a stranger gave you a straight up atom bomb? What would you do? I don't know. I'm like, what's the thing? What's my first step

if I'm given the most powerful weapon ever devised by humankind? I wasn't expecting to join this and be given a question about half a step into war crimes. Look, it's not a war. You didn't do any war crime. You just, you were handed a package. But what if I do the wrong thing? You know, like in the Marvel movies when they all just like turn to dust, I feel like my level of anxiety would just go from zero to like a thousand so fast. I would just from the feet up just disappear into dust to the ether.

I'm very worried about calling the FBI and being like, now, I don't want you guys to panic. Yeah, you might get in big trouble. Yeah. yeah you might get in big trouble yeah yeah well it's more like i'm gonna i'm gonna put it down over there and i'm gonna be here watching it and i and i've got my hands up this is my address come over can i ask some clarifying questions where are you when you get it you're walking down the street in public it's a place it's a place where you're often walking down the street it's a place in public that you go frequently grocery store coffee shop so is this like a case where someone has been watching you and waiting to deliver this atom bomb specifically to you or is this just somebody who is just trying to trying to just do this to

someone they're trying to get rid of it they're like oh wow like i this is this package is too hot for me i thought i got in over my head and then they need you and also does it have a clear mechanism to trigger it or do you not really know how it works no you have no idea how it works oh shoot you know it's an atom bomb you don't know how it works you know it's you're not worried it's going to go off automatically. Oh, well then I would drive it to the ocean and I would go into the ocean and drop it. Thank you. It's not going to blow up right when I drop it in the water.

I'm not going to blow it up. I'll just push it in the ocean. You're going to hide it? You think somebody will find it eventually? Yeah. I don't think so. I think somebody will find it eventually? Yeah. I don't think so. I think somebody will find it eventually. It's a big, long time between now and the end of the earth.

That's true. The ocean might dry up. Gosh. What about if I bring it to the Marianas Trench and I drop it in the – that seems more likely for someone to find it, actually, because somebody would explore it and be like, aha. I'm also not confident in your ability to get there with an atom bomb. Well, okay. I'd have to ask you where it is first, and then I'd have to ask for a ride over there.

You get a call from Sam. Yeah. What's the fastest way to the Marianas Trench? Don't ask any questions, please. That's going to be written down as, like, red flag questions to receive from Sam in the future. Just put it somewhere. Like the moment you Google that, you're on the list.

Yeah, you're on the list somewhere. What are you trying to get rid of, kiddo? Sari, what would you do with it? Well, if movies are anything to go off of, the moment someone hands me the atom bomb, there are like three separate groups that are out to kill me and steal it from me already yeah pretty yeah yeah so like the person didn't want it because it actively put them in danger i would probably you know probably go to the most deserted area i could just like minimize the damage no like a desert like a like a flat maybe the ocean you have to go in the shore

ron people go to beaches to relax not desert area okay go to the worst beach in the whole world and go yeah no but i think i would go for land not water would you detonate it oh no i don't think i could be fast enough who yeah i guess the the question is, like, who's the person? I mean, I know somebody who works at the White House. I could, like, text Rob. Yeah, we should ask Rob. Can you tell Joe Biden that I have a nuclear bomb? I feel like Joe Biden would not be the best person in this scenario.

Joe Biden is very low on my list of people I would want to tell. Well, I mean, he knows who to talk to, though. Joe, don't be mad, Joe, but I have something. Well, I think we got that well and truly taken care of. Every week here on Tangents, we get together to try to one-up a maze and delight each other with science facts while also trying to stay on topic. Our panelists are playing for glory and for Hank Bucks, which we will be awarding as we play. And at the end of the episode, one of them will be crowned the winner. And because we have a guest this week, we will have two games and I will be playing along with our panelists. Now, as always,

we introduce this week's topic with the traditional science poem, This Week from Ashley. Crest, crest is always a must, whether on a pizza or underfoot, we can trust. Reliable and strong, protecting a gooey center within, be it on a floating space rock or in a little pie tin.

Crust crust is always around, in our mouths, on our bodies, or just underground. So give it respect it deserves. Let it take up some brain cell reserves. Wow. Crust's nice because it is is both that really delicious part of a pastry and also the the stuff we walk around all the time which makes makes me think for the first time that the earth might be a really just a gigantic goober of a crunch ball i just

it's got a gooey center right it's got a gooey middle and it's got a hard center yeah okay it's like three layered so it's like it's got a cake pop kind it's got like a little prize in the middle of it yeah it's got like one of those like hard chocolate balls with like the like nicer like caramel outside it and then it's got the chocolate on the outside yeah maybe uh maybe some kind of malted material in the middle there. It's like a treasure on the inside because it's made entirely of valuable metal. True. There you go.

It is really the prize. To get to. Sari, what is a crust? You know, so when you Google like science crust, then you're going to get Earth's crust, most likely. A lot of geologists have dominated the market of Google results for crust science, which is the outermost shell of a planet like Earth. We've got continental crust, which is the stuff on land where I would dispose of the atomic bomb. where I would dispose of the atomic bomb. We've got oceanic crust,

and that's where Sam would dispose of it, which is anything that's covered by water. There are various thicknesses. But really, when it comes down to crust, much like Ashley's poem, it's really like anything kind of dry and flaky and deposited some like a hard outer layer on something so pie crust you've got bread crust you've got like scabs are kind of like skin crusts there's cryptobiotic crusts yeah what's that what's that it's like uh it's like i don't know i don't know it's like

it's like you just said it to sound smart yeah you know that's like algae and stuff and lichen yeah it's like living things inside of the soil and they hold the soil in place and then if you step on it you crush the structure that took a long time to exist and it takes forever to rebuild back up no um it's like a lattice between dirt uh made out of living things i just was in places once and they were like don't step on the cryptobiotic crust yeah they've spent a long time trying to grow there so there's biotic crust cryptobiotic crust there's also mineral crusts like when you let salt water evaporate or if you sweat a lot go for a long run you're sweating then you get a little crusty like so many i think this is why

this topic is a little cursed because crust is is like a little something that was gooey turned hard and you're not sure if it's good or not you're not sure what happens when you punch through that crust it's always a surprise good or bad though isn't it yeah i think a crust is anything that hides a little surprise inside that's beautiful thank you fun all right that's not that's not that's that's not cursed anymore that's lovely i want to pump yeah and do we know anything about the word so crust we we actually talked about a similar root word when it came to crystal. So crystal comes from like the root word krus, K-R-E-U-S, which means like a crust of ice, a thin layer of ice. which means any sort of shell or rind or bark or crust to refer to like the hard outer part of bread, but is also the same root word for crustaceans, which are just animals. Sure, that makes sense.

They have a little shell or crust. Yeah, the crustiest animals. Oh my God, the Krusty Krab. The Krusty Krab makes so much more sense all of a sudden. What's the Krusty Krab? It's SpongeBob Krab makes so much more sense all of a sudden. What's the Krusty Krab? Is that a SpongeBob thing? It's SpongeBob. Come on.

I'm old. That's like the oldest thing you've ever said. I know you haven't gotten our Pokemon references, but not knowing the Krusty Krab. And that's even an old guy thing at this point. So what does that say about you? Ancient. That's correct. So lobsters are just like Pop-Tarts.

Yeah, lobsters are like Pop-Tarts. Croutons are like Pop-Tarts. This sounds like it's going to be as a hot dog and sandwich thing again. I can already feel it. Well, now I'm like, does an orange have a crust? Like, how crunchy does it have to be? It has to be pretty dry, I think. All right, well, I'll just dry it out first then.

Yeah, I've seen some pretty dry orange peels. Like a really old orange has a crust, but a freshie, that's not a crust yet. Those Latin guys, they got almost all the words right, except they added one little extra bit to all of them. Crusta. Just cut off the uh, you know? Seems like they're always doing that kind of stuff. You know. They're working harder, not smarter over there.

They just liked a little flair. Like abracadabra. You don't have an abracadab. You gotta have that little uh. Oh, you mean off? You beat me to it. I was about to dab too. Hank, do you know what dabbing is?

Yeah, apparently I know what that is. I mean, I know what SpongeBob is. I just don't know all the different bits and bobs of down under pineapple land. Bikini bottom. Bikini bottom. Bikini bottom. All right. Now I think I know roughly what a crust is, which means that it's going to be time to play my game.

Are you guys ready? Yes. It's a Tangents Crust Truth or Fail. So many things use or create crusts, as we've discussed. But some of those things just got to be too weird to be true. Or are they? Today, your crust truth-seeking skills will be put to the test in a game of Truth or Fail Express. I'm going to be telling you some kind of story about crust, and it's up to you to figure out whether or not that story is true.

If you're right, you get a point. Are you ready? Yes. Aye, aye, Captain. Thing number one. Fin whales. He doesn't get it. He doesn't know what that's from.

He doesn't get it. What is it? It's from SpongeBob again. SpongeBob again. SpongeBob thing? Okay. You just said, are you ready kids like just like

the guy at the beginning you know what just like Patsy the Pirate just like Patsy the Pirate aye aye captain that's the theme song

fin whales live under the sea and they're one of the loudest creatures in the ocean and their calls are so loud that scientists

were able to use their vibrations to decipher the composition of a region of the earth's crust is that true or false what i don't think that could be they're moving i don't think it's true i don't think you could triangulate they're moving where they're coming from because they're moving that's sam's opinion ashley i'm gonna be honest um it just sounds so cool and i love whales so much that i just hope it's true because if whales can just be loud and scream underwater and help scientists out that's pretty awesome so i'll say it's true you know that that brought me around to it i would love for anyone's screams to be useful to science, so I'm going to say it's true also. The calls of fin whales can get to around 189 decibels, which is enough decibels to make them detectable by seismometers that scientists use to find undersea quakes.

And recently, scientists realized that those calls could be an opportunity to study the composition of the crust beneath the ocean. So this is a true fact. We can use the vibrations to study sediments and rock, but we usually rely on tectonic activity. So you have to wait for something to happen, or you can blast, actually, air guns at it. But that can be bad for sea life, so you don't want to do that but between 2012 and 2013 four seismometers in the northeast pacific ocean were able to record six fin whale songs that were between 2.5 and 5 hours in length and the seismic waves coming back from the songs were strong enough to help scientists study the structure of the rock 8200 feet below the ocean's bottom so there we go. It's for real.

Where Spongebob's living. Hey. That's a long, that's like, what, Spongebob episodes are 15 minutes? That's like 20 Spongebob episodes. We're quite everything in Spongebob terms now for the rest of the episode. Fact number two, in the 1980s, an outbreak of conjunctivitis at an ostrich farm caused large dark crusts

to form on the eyelids and skin of ostrich chicks. Researchers found that the likely culprit was parsley that had gotten mixed into their food and was making the birds

more sensitive to light. What? What the heck? Oh. wait. Does parsley make us more sensitive to light? I don't think so, but we're not ostriches. I know like picking too many carrots or limes or something can make you more sensitive to light, I think, right?

Like you rub off some kind of chemical on you that can give you sunburns or something. Oh, lime yeah lime not carrots carrots are like uh if you eat carrots and your vision's better just because it has like a certain vitamin in it i think that's i don't know folk wisdom so much limes are you can get a burn from it because the acid in the limes reacts with your skin it's like a margarita sunburn or something like that yeah yeah okay but birds i feel like birds could be allergic to all kinds of stuff you know so and they shouldn't be partially who's putting partially in their food i'm gonna say this is true i'm gonna say it's false i don't know. It seems like a series of arbitrary things. Isn't it a weird thing to make up, though?

So weird. It feels almost like too weird. And also, my mom has a farm and she has chickens. And I have seen those chickens eat basically anything. And so, the thought of a bird just vibing out on a farm eating, like, parsley and then having a really bad time seems a little bit silly to me. I'm going to say it's false as well. a really bad time seems a little bit silly to me. I'm going to say it's false as well. Well, in 1988, researchers published a paper in the journal Avian Pathology that was titled Parsley-Induced Photosensitivity in Ostriches and Ducks. Chickens, just fine. Ostriches and

ducks, not so much. So close. It was based on a case of conjunctivitis that had affected young and adult ostriches at an ostrich farm in Israel, which had made the young ostriches all crusty. And it turned out that dry ground parsley from an earl dry vegetable factory had gotten mixed in with the hay that they feed to the ostriches, which, and when that was taken away from their diet, the symptoms cleared up.

So, yeah. Poor little guy. That's just a bunch of stuff that was just tacked on just like a mad lib style yeah it's real don't feed your ducks parsley but chickens chickens uh who knows chickens will eat anything i don't think that's entirely true please don't feed your chickens anything oh my god i just know they eat a lot of stuff all right our last fact in the 19th century a polish veterinarian developed a technique to treat horse wounds by applying a leather disc

to the wound folding the skin around it and then stitching the disc in place the technique was inspired in part by watching bakers fold the edges of their pie crust. I was like, where does crust come in? Oh, there it is. Okay. Sam does not look happy. Nobody looks happy. Just me. It was a weird image. It feels too extensive for

surgery. A horse wound, you've got to insert a leather disc, and then you crimp the edges and you're like that's the pie on my mind you it's the 19th century you don't need to that horse to live for you to keep your job as a veterinarian yeah you can just be like here's my new pie treatment it's all the rage i i don't think this is true it just is it just seems like it seems like something easy to make up too come on It's not true.

I don't think it's true either. No, there's no universe in which I think this is true and someone would let... I mean, I guess he could have done it, but did it work? Did we hear that part of it? I guess he could have done it. I don't think it would have worked. 19th century and i mean even how horses get treated nowadays i think it wouldn't surprise me if someone was like yeah we'll try it it's like throwing anything at the wall and see what sticks i think it might be true and i hate the fact that it could be and i really hope that it's not but you're going for true yeah going for true this one is false there is a method a method for human knee surgery that is called pie crusting though and it involves as a doctor describes quote repetitive puncturing with a spinal needle i don't know what that means beyond that there's obviously a lot of

poking going on or why the technique is called pie crusting. I guess you do poke holes when you've got the top of the crust so the air can get out or the hot water. I hope that's not why. And there was a type of surgery used in Polish veterinary medicine in the 16th and 19th century that involved inserting a leather disc under the skin.

So that was, it's the worst of both worlds, actually. This is true. It is a thing that did happen, but it didn't have anything to do with Pancrust. Fantastic. Or horses. Yeah. All right. That means that we are headed out with Ashley with one point and Sari and Sam both with two.

Next, we're going to take a short break. Then we will be back for the return of the gauntlet. All right, everybody. Now Sam has a game for us. But first, a trivia question to decide the order of play. In a paper titled The Physics of Baking Good Pizza, scientists took on the age-old question of just how to best make a pizza. They had been traveling in Rome where they learned from pizza makers that to make a margarita pizza, you need to bake it for two minutes

in a wood-fired brick oven heated to 625 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll need more time if you have more toppings. Of course, many of us do not have a wood-fired brick oven, which means that we don't have the dry heat, wood smoke, and slow heat release needed to get our crust just perfect. Luckily, the authors of the paper used thermodynamics to figure out how to mimic the brick oven conditions with an electric oven. According to them, the pizza should be in the oven for 170 seconds, but what should the temperature be?

And then whoever's closest will go in order for my devious game. So if it's 170 seconds... It's gonna be pretty toasty. I'm gonna say 475 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm going to say 475 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm going to say 400. I think lower.

I'm worried about it burning. But it's only in there for mere seconds. Yeah, it's 170 seconds. I was going to say 500. Okay. The answer is 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, dang it. That was my knee-jerk reaction.

Like, I cook my pizzas at 450, but it's definitely for longer than 170 seconds. So, like, it can't be. Yeah, but my pizzas are frozen when I put them in there. Well, I don't think that's the kind of pizza they're talking about. Yeah, I don't think so either. Okay, that means that Hank will go first. And then in second place, I guess, are you guys tied for how far away you were from the right answer? Yes.

So I'll have Sari go second and then Ashley go last because you went over. Classic Price is Right rules. Oh, Price is Right rules. Got you. I got you. Okay, here's my game. And it is called The Gauntlet. The ultimate game of science, knowledge science knowledge strategy and treachery and the gauntlet you and your opponents will face a series of seven

questions of decreasing difficulty i'll take turns asking you the questions in order from seven to one when asked a question you may choose to answer or to 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 seven is worth seven points, six is worth six points, and so on. If you answer incorrectly, the next person in order will have an opportunity to steal. If they answer correctly, they get the points, but if they answer incorrectly, they do not lose points. If you pass, your opponent gets asked the next question, which is slightly less difficult. If you pass, your opponent gets asked the next question, which is slightly less difficult.

After we've gone through all the questions, the past questions are asked again and cannot be skipped a second time. And a warning, questions and answers to later questions may contain clues to the answers of earlier ones. Now prepare to enter the gauntlet. Eyes and pies edition. Oh. All right. Question one pies. Eyes and pies edition. Oh. All right.

Question one for Hank. Right? Yeah. In what is widely considered to be the first written tale of the Sandman, 1816's Der Sandmann, this impish little fellow throws sand into the eyes of children who won't go to sleep, causing the children's eyes to fall out. He would then steal the eyes away to the moon, where he would do what with them?

What would the Sandman do with the children's eyes? I couldn't have told you anything. I couldn't have told you any single thing in that story. Like, everything was a twist. Including the thing I'm supposed to know. Pass. Obviously. I'm not going to lose points making a guess about what the Sandman does with children's eyes on the moon.

Well, you'll know before the end of the game. That was question seven, by the way. I said question one. Thank you, Faith. Question six is for Sari. The history of pies is a little complicated since there are a whole lot of words we use for food inside a pastry crust. But some historians say that the first known pie recipe comes from a Sumerian tablet dating to before 2000 BCE. What kind of pie is it a recipe for?

I guess for the sake of it, a meat pie. Okay. More specific. No! Oh, no. That's got to be fine. Like a goat meat? Think of all the... Oh, I'm so sorry. You're losing six points. Okay, it was meat. Okay. Ashley, your question.

Question five. Part of the reason eye crusties form mostly in our sleep is because the skin cells, oil, and other junk that make up eye crusties are washed away by our blinking and tears throughout the day. Thanks, tear ducts. Another thing that tear ducts help us do is cry. Weirdly enough, humans seem to be the only animals that cry. But in 2022, a paper was published that suggested that there's another animal that produces extra tears when experiencing emotions. What animal is it? Is it cows?

I'm so sorry. You lose five points. Oh, my gosh. I think I was supposed to give you a chance to steal the pie question. It's true. But, I mean, it can be the same answer. I mean, it can be the same answer. It's not cows for either answer.

So you lose four points. And then now, Hank, do you want to steal what the answer is to the question previous about crying animals? Is it elephants? It is not elephants. Oh, that was my other guess. Now I have nothing. Hank does not lose points for that, though. I think it's Hank's turn again.

So, pie crust. Such a pleasant word, invoking warmth and wholesomeness. But pie crusts weren't always called pie crusts. Around the 16th century, they went by this other, more macabre name. What was it? You want me to just guess the sad name of pie crusts? Yeah. Is it something to do with children's eyes in the moon? No, it's not. It didn't have anything to do with that.

Does it have the word skin in it? No, it does not have the word skin in it. Think about a pie. Think about a pie. Oh, okay. You pass. Sarah, would you like a chance to steal this? Yeah, I don't lose a point. Oh, okay. You pass. Sarah, would you like a chance to steal this? Yeah, I don't lose a point, right?

No. I think I know this. I think, is it a pie coffin? It is a pie coffin. That's it. Wow. Coffin, which actually just meant box in ye olde English, so not really that creepy back then. box in ye olde English, so not really that creepy back then.

The word coffin was used back when pie crusts had the slightly more practical job of keeping savory foods sealed up and safe instead of just being a fun way to eat some hot fruit. Okay, Sari, now your question again. Back on the topic of eye crusties. They go by many names. Sleepies, eye boogers, sleep sand. But what is the actual clinical term for eye gunk? Isn't it, I don't know how to say it, room, R-H-E-U-M? I also don't know how to say it, but it is room. Room.

Dang, look at you. I also wouldn't have got that. And it's generally harmless unless you have a whole lot of it, then you should go to the doctor, but you should clean it off and maybe do your dog a solid and clean their eye bugs off too because they can't reach them ashley i don't know why i put this question number two but who allegedly was served the first cherry pie ever made that should have been like maybe number five or six. Yeah, was it the hot rock band Warrant? No, that was just for me and Tuna. Yeah, it wasn't for me.

Yeah, you got all your SpongeBob references, but where's your 80s hairband trivia? Oh, I got it. It took-huh. Oh, I got it. It took me a second, but I got it. I mean, the reference to the 80s hairband, not the answer to this question. Oh, no. Okay. Hank, who do you think had the first cherry pie ever made?

Well, it's got to be George Washington, the first president of the United States of America. I was going to guess the president. It wasn't George Washington, no. But also, Hank, here's another question for you. Now, to bring eyes and pies together, the history of pie may have started with the humble and delicious chicken pie, but we've done some weird stuff to pies since then. Stargazy pie is a type of Cornish pie usually served around Christmas time from out the top of which pop several fish heads,

their dead eyes gazing up at the sky. What kind of fish are traditionally used in this pie? This pie is from England. It is from England, Cornish, wherever Cornish is. Yeah. I don't even know if it is. It's from the United Kingdom anyway. Uh-oh.

I don't know which of the kingdoms the corn cornwall is in um cod mackerel that's a that's a solid guess and you guys too sarah what do you think what kind of fish are we talking that was wrong that was wrong both are wrong haddock I feel like that's a very British fish. Haddock? That is a very British fish. They're always talking about haddock over there. Yeah. Over on their little trivia game shows that

I watch. Nope. That's not right either. So now we gotta go back up to the top. And I'll just tell you the answers this time when you get them wrong. So, it is widely considered to be the first written tale of the Sandman 1816's Dursan. What does he do with their eyeballs? And this is a question for Sari, I believe. He

takes them to the moon and he uh, he buries them for later. A little secret. That would be a nice nice compare to what he actually does, which is feed them to his children. So his children live on the moon.

Yeah. In a nest. I mean, everybody's got it somewhere. So yeah, the abstract idea that you wake up with sand in your eyes because a guy comes around and sprinkles sand in your eyes while you sleep predates any narrative stories about the Sandman. But in the first recognized written story, he was a nasty little guy. And I was written story. He was a nasty little guy. And in 1841, Hans Christian Andersen wrote another story about the Sandman, where he's a nice little guy who just helps you dream and doesn't steal any of your eyeballs. Yeah.

Okay. The history of pies. And this next one is for Ashley. The history of pie is a little complicated. There are a lot of words for pie. What was the first pie? What kind of pie was it? Chicken.

It was chicken. You heard my clue. Did you hear my clue? I was like, I hope that comes back to me, baby. Because that was going to be, I said cow ready for the other one, but I'm like, it's probably chicken pie because those are pretty classic. God bless a chicken. Yes. Thank you, chickens.

Hank, question five. What is the other animal that cries? I'm going to get this wrong wrong again. You've done a SciShowshow about this i think recently that makes it worse i didn't feel like i've heard about it but yeah is it human children they're not the same species as us right come on it's dogs yeah it's dogs oh no it's dogs yeah the study measured the wetness of dogs eyes right after being reunited with their owners after several months apart and found a dramatic increase in tear production. And humans were also found to have more positive and nurturing emotions towards dogs with watery eyes.

Isn't that sweet? It is. So they do. Well, no, maybe they just evolved to look like they're crying so that we'll be nice to them. Yeah, that's probably really what it is. But, you know, Husseri was the first person to ever eat cherry pie. Okay. Yeah, you should have swapped this one with animal criers.

Probably. My guess is Mark Antony and Cleopatra. They seem wealthy there. I don't know. That would be beautiful, but it was Queen Elizabeth I sometime in the 16th century, which also seems to mark the transition from the more solemn

and utilitarian coffin type of savory pie to experimentation with more fun and fruity dessert pies. But also, I gotta think somebody ate a cherry pie before the 16th century. Because cherries are just crying out to be made into pies. In my opinion.

And finally, Ashley, what kind of fish are in this pie that their heads are sticking out of it? We've heard haddock, we've heard cod, we've heard whatever Sari said. Mackerel. I said cod and mackerel. True.

I'm gonna say halibut? No. It is sardines. There's little sardines sticking their little heads out on top of this pie. Those aren't very dramatic heads. No, and I feel like there's a lot of bones in sardines. Isn't there? I feel like that would be.

I'm not really sure if you're supposed to eat them or not. Yeah, you're supposed to eat them. You are supposed to eat the heads? I assume so. That's why they put them on there. They're salty. You guys have never eaten a sardine? No, I used to love sardines when I was a kid, but then somewhere along the way, I lost my taste for them.

No, I never liked them. It just seems like it's a thing you have to do sometimes. It was never a thing that I was forced to do in my lifetime. I stayed away from them. You know what's hip right now? Tinned fish, though. So it's cool to do in my lifetime. I stayed away from them. You know what's hip right now? Tinned fish, though. So it's cool to eat tinned fish.

Why? I don't know. Because it's cool. Why is anything cool? I like a canned tuna. Like, that's all. You're hip. But that's bone off.

Sarah's hip. Bone off. Yeah. Boneless tuna. Yeah. No bone. Like a boneless chicken wing, which is just a nugget. Oh, this is an argument.

Boneless chicken wings are just nuggets? Speaking of having things removed from you, the scores are Sari with negative eight. Me with negative six. And Ashley with a big honking nothing, which is a huge win. Yay! Winning for nothing. Let's go! And Ashley with a big honking nothing, which is a huge win. Yes. Yay!

Winning for nothing. Let's go. Never been so proud to have achieved nothing in my life. Does that get added to the existing scores? You know, I think we're going to go by vibes to figure out who won, I guess. Yeah, it gets added to the existing scores. It does. Yeah.

So you guys have. Which I think that means that you win, Sam, because you didn't have to go through this gauntlet. Yeah. So you got two points. Ashley came out with one point, came out of that gauntlet with a solid point still. But Sam was ahead. And now it's time to ask the science couch where we've got a listener question for our virtual couch of finely honed scientific minds. At Yellow Lime on Twitter asks, how does the crust know where to stop? How is burnt bread not all crust?

Interesting. That's a great question. I hadn't ever thought about it, but I would assume it's a temperature thing. That the outside just gets hotter for not very far. It seems cursed to slice into a thing of bread and it's all crust. That would be... Well, it might also be a moisture thing. So like the crust forms and holds the moisture inside.

And that outside doesn't have any moisture. So it's able to get hotter. It sacrifices itself so the inside can remain delicious bread. But Sarah probably knows the actual answer. I do, but you already got there. So I don't have much to add. It is heat and moisture. So you take a doughy loaf of bread and the crust forms as moisture evaporates from the surface. And so the uppermost layers of dough dry out and become rigid.

Gluten coagulates and like all the molecules, the bread molecules, as they desiccate, as they become drier, kind of like form this rigid, crusty structure. And then as the temperature continues to increase, then you start having some reactions between the sugars and amino acids causing the Maillard reactions, which are what caused the browning. So it doesn't just dry out. It becomes this like crispy golden brown. And if you keep eating it, then you get pyrolysis, which is burning where the char forms on the outside. So things burn away and you're left with this like carbon residue of blackness on the crust. And it is just thermodynamics, like more than anything. It's the amount of moisture, the amount of heat. And you can delay the crust from forming or form a thinner crust by adding humidity into the oven as you bake your bread because then it keeps everything moister. It makes it take longer for that outermost layer of dough to dry out and form that crust.

And then it traps all the nice moisture inside. all the nice moisture inside. And that is also why you need to rest your bread a little bit before you cut into it usually. Not only because it's really hot, but because there's all this steam trapped inside from the hot moisture of the bread and you need that to evaporate the water molecules to resettle the structure of the bread to be good. Otherwise, you'll cut into your hot bread and it'll be real mushy on the inside. But you don't want that. You want a nice crumb. You want a nice warm, fluffy, porous, but not damp

inside your bread. Damp crust. Love it. You guys believe in bread? Like, ugh, bread. Sorry all the non-bread people out there. God gosh. We figured it out so early, too. We were like, cavemen. We did bread and it was. God gosh. We figured it out so early too. We were like,

cavemen were like, hell yeah. Yeah, we did bread and it was like, alright, that piece is going to be trouble. No need to. Yeah. They're going places. No stopping them now. They can make bread. The bread trains are rolling and it won't stop. Yeah. And sometimes we need to slow the bread

train down maybe we all just take a little bit of a breath find ways to be satisfied without uh just everything changing so much every every six months sorry i'm what was that about bread there's a point in that monologue where it stopped being about bread and i I was thinking about Olive Garden breadsticks the entire time. I was thinking about a good baguette. Yeah. I was like, how many Olive Garden breadsticks could I eat in one sitting realistically? I think like seven.

I'm thinking about like GPT-7. I'm like, we are so screwed. Yeah. Ask that to invent some bread for you. See what that does. Oh my god. Thanks for your question. If you want to ask the Science Couch your question, you can follow us on Twitter at SciShow Tangents, where we will tweet out

topics for upcoming episodes every week. Or you can join the SciShow Tangents Patreon and ask us on our Discord. Thank you to at BearStravaganza and at Ariel Winona on Twitter and everybody else who asked us your questions for this episode. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a delight to have you on the show. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me again for another time for me to harass you guys.

We're going to see more of what you do. Well, I'm Ashley Roboto everywhere on the internet, but I mostly stream four days a week over on my Twitch channel. So if you like my shenanigans and want to hang out, that's where you can find me for the most part. And I'd love to have you. You're one of the scariest people I follow on Twitter because sometimes I'll see a picture of you and your hands will be feet and your feet will be hands.

And then I will go, what the hell? What's that all about? Yeah, you like my heat? Hank, have you ever seen a heat photo of mine? I just Googled this. I'm both sorry, but also you're welcome, because it's one of my favorite things to do. Yeah, you're really changing the game. Thanks.

Look, it started out with, I just didn't want to, you know, no feet for free on the internet, right? And then it was like, oh, people hate this. I love it. And so it's like the like the shagging fruit or whatever yeah uh-huh he's like you wanted to look at you wanted to see my feet yeah well here instead um unfortunately you do have a wiki feet and none of them are heat pictures. Yeah, I need to make a WikiFeet account right now so that I can get those heat up there. Yeah, take down the feet and put up the heat. Post my heat pics.

You'll get banned from WikiFeet, Hank. Is that what you want? What do they want? How are they going to prove that's not my real feet if we take away the old ones? What are you going to say? There's no photo evidence. But you do have near almost perfect ratings. star beautiful feet on wiki oh thank you i was just looking at this the other day i'm like look do i have a wiki feet yes but are my feet perfect almost also yes it's hard to

be mad in that situation yeah oh god if you would give me like two stars then i'd be like we'd have to fight but like god i guess if you're gonna give me writing then i'll take it no i'm gonna do the good ones if you like this show and you want to help us out it's real easy to do that first you can go to patreon.com slash size show tangents become a patron and get access to things like our newsletter and our bonus episodes and a special thanks to our patron, Les Aker. Don't forget, also, once we hit 700 patrons, we will do a Minions movie commentary. So go subscribe! It's at patreon.com slash scishowtangents, and if you're already a patron, spread the word. We have to see the bits.

Keep forgetting that line's in the show flow. Second, you can leave us a review wherever you listen. That's very helpful. It helps us know what you like about the show. And finally, if you want to show your love for SciShow Tangents, you can just tell people about us. Thank you for joining us. I've been Hank Green. Are we switching the order? Sam, you're first in the show.

I'm first. People aren't going to like this, but I've been Sam Schultz. I've been Sari Riley. And I've been Ashley Roboto. SciShow Tangents is created by all of us and produced by Sam Schultz. I've been Sari Riley. And I've been Ashley Urbano. SciShow Tangents is created by all of us and produced by Sam Schultz. Our associate producer is Faith Schmidt. Our editor is Seth Glicksman. Our story

editor is Alex Billow. Our social media organizer is Julia Buzz-Bazio. Our editorial assistant is Deboki Trappervati. Our sound designs by Joseph Tuna-Medish. Our executive producers are Nicole Sweeney and me, Hank Green. And we couldn't make 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.

Bat guano contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Historically, this crusty poop has been mined by humans to use as fertilizer, craft into gunpowder, or just to study with Batsy. One bat and bird guano deposit in Chile at the Pabellón de Pica... Oh God, Pabellón de Pica Mountain, I looked up how to pronounce that earlier, is especially cool because as this poop decomposes, it reacts with rocks in the cave. These poopy chemical reactions have created at least nine never-before-seen organic mineral crusts, including bright blue boharite and spiky purple chenobite. These minerals won Mineral of the Year in 2020 and 2015, respectively. Mineral of the Year. You can win Mineral of the Year.

Yeah. I mean, you can't. We can't. No. Okay. Maybe if you want to go to Chile and study back guano, you can also win Mineral of the Year, Hank. Well, no, I can't. The mineral wins Mineral of the Year.

You could lay down in the cave and grow something weird new on you. And then people would say. That is the thing I need to do. I need to get encrusted with some mineral that's never existed before and is bright purple. You need to get so crusty we can't separate the hank from the crust and then you'll win. Yeah, it's great. And not at all

like a sci-fi horror movie waiting to happen. I think it's more achievable for me personally than like an EGOT to become general of the year. Oh...