Hey there - it’s Inés!
A year ago today I posted my very first video on this channel, and I recently hit the arbitrary
but also very substantial number of 20,000 YouTube subscribers - so I wanted to make
a video about it, turning the tables on you, so instead of me telling you about something
sciencey that I just found out, I wanted to tell you about some of the things you have
found out and told me about on my videos, a tribute to all of you who support me, comment
on my videos, tweet me fun science on twitter and send me amazing feedback!
So without further ado I present you some of the most excellent comments and suggestions
and a few overdue mistake corrections!
[Intro sequence]
1.
I’ll kick this off with my video on the four flaws in our eyes - one of you did spot
a slight argument flaw referent to blind spots in that video.
In that video, I talked about a pilot needing to continuously scan the horizon to avoid
missing oncoming objects in the anatomical blind spot, which is the one formed by the
optic nerve.
One of you pointed out that generally speaking a pilot will have the information from the
other eye to fill that information in.
However, this made me go back and research a bit further, and I learnt that there are
instances where something such as the windshield post of an aircraft could block out an object
through one eye, and for it to be concealed by the blindspot in the other - so you would
still need to scan horizontally.
The other reason to scan is due to our poorer peripheral vision which has a lower resolution,
which I actually talked about more in my 12-dot illusion video.
And if you’re flying at night you’ve got the problem of the night blind-spot, whereby
your central vision which requires more light is unable to see anything at night, so pilots
need to scan using their peripheral vision to make sure they don’t crash into any oncoming
objects.
I’ve left a link in the description if you want to read more about the precise instructions
pilots use when flying and I’ve also linked each video I’m referencing with each of
these points in case you haven’t watched them and you would like to watch the original.
2.
Next up is my video on pi approximation day, which coincides with my birthday and was all
about the history of approximating pi.
Luke Myers, who shares the same birthday as me (high five!), told me about Fabrice Bellard
who created the fastest binary computing algorithm to approximate pi, 43% faster than the one
it is based on, and is actually the algorithm used to check that other algorithms computing
digits of pi are generating the correct digits.
3.
At the end of my video on why do rainbows have seven colours, I asked you to come up
with a mnemonic like “richard of york gave battle in vain so you wouldn’t have to memorise
the colours of the rainbow again” that represented the number of colours YOU thought the rainbow
should have and there were many excellent suggestions - but I think my favourite was
Rhyming Yaks Get Better Violins and Regular Yoga Gives Bodies Vigour.
Nice one! :D
4.
In my video about Browns do better than smiths, which is all about how having a surname earlier
on in the alphabet is likely to give you some small advantages in life, I learnt from you
that Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of amazon dot com, chose the name amazon for that reason
- because back then websites were very likely to be listed alphabetically - so being at
the top ensured your discovery.
Also fun fact, he was originally going to call his website Cadabra, from abracadabra
- but after his lawyer misheard that as cadaver, he changed his mind about it.
5.
The 12-dot illusion video was actually inspired by the user “Yes I’m a Bit Geeky” on
twitter who tweeted the illusion to me and wondered how it worked - and it is questions
precisely like that one that inspire me to make new episodes - so thank you!
Other amazing things witnessed on twitter include cute animals and even requests for
bug IDs - all of which are always welcome.
6.
“now this may seem like the epitome of first world problems”.
E-pi-to-mee, not epi-tome. *sigh* It probably isn’t the first mispronunciation I’ve
made in my videos, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it is frustrating when it
happens.
However - I do appreciate it when you respectfully point it out to me.
Unlike Spanish, English is tricky when you learn some words through reading rather than
listening because their pronounciation isn’t always that straightforward.
7.
In that very same video I also quoted the wrong tax escalation, the seventeen point
five figure I cited was wrong, VAT in the UK now is 20%.
Oh, and I also learned that biscuits are something different in the US!
8.
In my video on mimicry I asked whether you were able to spot the real bee out of a sea
of flies - and 50% of you found it correctly, whereas 50% guessed incorrectly.
Hence, I learnt that hoverflies can still trick humans, though hopefully by the end
of the video you will be able to always tell apart your Dipterans from your Hymenopterans!
9.
I was very pleased with my Cyborg beetle video as it deals with hacking into insect flight,
until my friend Alex, who works on the same species of beetles, pointed out to me that
my claim of Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis being the largest species was wrong..., although
they are most likely one of the largest flower beetles that routinely fly.
As it turns out, I verified this claim in the worst way possible - by googling, and
finding some beetle sellers who deceptively and incorrectly label Mecynorrhina beetles
as goliath beetles…
And foolish me took it as fact given I’d already done my work decyphering the flight
papers.
Anyway - lesson learnt - don’t slack off on any of the research-ever!
10.
In November I made a two-way collaboration with the lovely Alie from Neurotransmissions
- and we made a video about Tourette’s on her channel.
Until I knew that my tics were due to Tourette’s, I had always been very self-conscious about
them, and whilst I’m much more accepting of them today, I do always notice myself ticcing
when I’m collaborating with others.
However, even though some of you do notice, none of you seem to mind - so I guess the
somewhat cheesy thing I learnt was that I am probably way more critical of myself and
my work than others are - so thanks for enjoying what I make and for accepting me the way I
am!
11.
Last year I also went to Naukas, which compelled me to launch a new series - Raw Curiosity.
It’s a series that has thumbnails that look like this and are slightly less polished than
my usual sciencey episodes, but they allow me to hopefully add a little bit of extra
depth to this channel.
Anyway, at Naukas, there was a live interview with astronaut Pedro Duque who thought competition
was slightly better at propelling science than collaboration - so I quizzed you, and
most of you disagreed with Pedro and felt that collaboration, in most cases, was a stronger
driving source than competition, although of course, these aren’t necessarily mutually
exclusive!
12.
In my video about how lifetime monogamy leads to the evolution of superorganisms - aside
from observing people take this claim in wildly separate directions, from those who thought
I should burn in hell for speaking about evolution to those who thought I had a pseudoscientific
religious agenda by trying to make people only be monogamous, I also had a more serious
point brought to my attention.
I’d say it was more an issue of my own editing, basically, I gave the impression that queen
bees can live for several decades, which isn’t quite true, because I animated that particular
point using queen bees I had already illustrated, rather than with queen ants that I hadn’t
illustrated.
Usually it is obligate eusocial ant species who have extremely long-lived queens, on the
order of ten to thirty years.
Now don’t get me wrong, queen honey bees live for a very long time - but not quite
as long as ants.
Also, that video generated some very, very interesting questions and discussion, so I
intend to make a follow-up video on it at some point…
13.
My video on habits was a very interesting one to make because I ran a survey - meaning
your answers influenced the content of the video, a bit like this one too I suppose!
That being said, I didn’t really promote that survey properly on YouTube, so I think
only those who followed me on twitter and facebook filled it in.
However, it was nice to see that those who watched the video noted that the underlying
advice backed by science had applied to them - for instance, Will from the channel Political
Junkie said: “That point about holiday travel is spot on.
I lost a lot of weight after I first moved to Madrid because the new environment broke
my habit of taking my car through drive-ins and forced a new habit of walking to the local
supermarket”.
14.
In my video of Why Did Two Sexes Evolve, I fell into the fallacy of using theory and
hypothesis interchangeably, which several of you thankfully reminded me of.
In science, a theory is very different to a hypothesis, a hypothesis attempts to answer
a question by means of an explanation that is yet to be properly tested, whereas a theory
is an explanation that has already undergone extensive testing and is accepted as being
an accurate explanation for a phenomenon, such as for instance, the theory of evolution!
Anyway, should be pointed out, in that video I was just talking about hypotheses, no theories
- sorry!
Also, this video received one of my most favourite comments ever!
15.
The TRAPPIST video was a lot of fun to make, and quite a few of you pointed out a few aliens
on their evening stroll and dogs bounding around.
I think next time I travel to an exoplanet I’ll examine it a bit more closely before
claiming we can’t live there.
16.
You all seemed to really like the bat video - it was basically journal club in video form!
It was a critique of a study which claimed that bats were the fastest flying animals
using some very dubious methods, and some of you came up with some excellent suggestions
to improve the experimental design to track the bats.
Ossie bird suggested the use of GPS trackers, and the science channel Think About It actually
went ahead and found out the status quo of today’s technology in that regard!
17.
The glass battery video…
This one actually went slightly viral, which is definitely exciting but as with anything
that extends beyond the normal lovely circle who watches my stuff, it also brings out some
of the worst in people.
However, there were also some very valid critiques and discussions there too - the major one
being that glass is not a viscous liquid, but an amorphous solid.
“It should be noted that glass in this instance is a viscous liquid” (lol nope) Point taken.
Thank you to everyone who came along to the first livestream ever on Draw Curiosity.
I know it wasn’t the best, and I appreciate those of you who stuck through the technical
difficulties and poorer quality.
There were some great suggestions and feedback to conduct it better next time, including
potentially recording it on my good camera as I livestream, to then repost as a higher
quality video.
19.
I conducted a poll in my recent memory video -that is, if you remember, because it’s
all about how you can’t trust your memory.
Anyway, if you haven’t watched it, I would recommend watching that first before this
bit because it will spoil a bit of the video for you…
I’ll give you a couple of seconds to go, I’ll just wait here…
Ok - well, in that video I asked whether people could pick out the person who was whispering
at the start, and a whopping 40% of people did not even remember they had seen that clip,
and one in ten picked out the wrong person.
So in a way, it proves the point I was making!
20.
And finally…
I want to just show some of the wonderful puns as seen in my comment section - they
always give me a chuckle, so hopefully they will make you smile too.
Or groan, but preferably smile!
Whew!
- I know we’ve done 20 things, but I wanted to add something a little extra at the end.
I really appreciated that many of you showed support and a positive response towards me
thinking of patreon.
I think patreon will probably have to happen soon as my PhD funding approaches its end.
However, I also wanted to mention that I recently attended VidCon Europe, and I now have a producer
which is particularly exciting.
It means I will be able to fund a few episodes through sponsorships - and as a heads up the
next episode on this channel will be sponsored.
I know many of you already watch YouTube channels who regularly integrate sponsorships into
their content and don’t mind, but I also know others may have mixed feelings towards
that.
So I wanted to reassure you that these sponsors are carefully chosen and will not change my
content other than adding a brief 30 seconds to my video.
And most importantly, they help me to increase the quality and quantity of what I produce
and help me break even, and directly support me and my work as a science communicator,
which means a lot to me.
Anyway - thank you very much for making it to the end of this mammoth video, for your
support, for your lovely comments and input, annnnd I’ll see you in the next one, bye!