STEAM Saturday
Peeing on Your Produce
July 2, 2022
In this edition, we see massive wind turbines, a hammerhead worm in Tennessee, bone loss in space, and… yes… fertilizing your crops with urine.
IFLScience – New Massive Offshore Wind Turbine Can Power A Home For 2 Days With A Single Spin (Jun 29, 2022)
A new offshore wind farm will utilize some absolutely massive turbines to produce power – so massive that just one spin will power the average home for two full days. The turbines have recently been improved from the best in the world to even more so, and the development will be the US’ first utility-scale wind farm.
Tennessee Valley Authority – Watch for Hammerhead Worms in Your Garden (Jul 1, 2022)
A 12 to 15-inch slimy flatworm with a weird half-moon head, and toxic skin sounds like we are describing a new variation of a Demogorgon from Stranger Things. Believe it or not, this creature is not just found in the Upside-Down, but in Knoxville, TN!
ScienceAlert – A Large-Scale Experiment Used Human Pee to Fertilize Crops. Here’s What Happened (Jun 23, 2022)
These days, peeing on your food plants may be considered a gross and wacky gardening hack, despite the practice having been proven beneficial for thousands of years. But our modern squeamishness has meant gardeners and farmers alike must resort to expensive fertilizers to provide their crops with the much-needed nutrients found free in our pee.
ScienceNews – Six months in space leads to a decade’s worth of long-term bone loss (Jun 30, 2022)
During space missions lasting six months or longer, astronauts can experience bone loss equivalent to two decades of aging. A year of recovery in Earth’s gravity rebuilds about half of that lost bone strength, researchers reported June 30 in Scientific Reports.
Science Daily – Ice Age wolf DNA reveals dogs trace ancestry to two separate wolf populations (Jun 29, 2022)
The Francis Crick Institute: An international group of geneticists and archaeologists has found that the ancestry of dogs can be traced to at least two populations of ancient wolves. The work moves us a step closer to uncovering the mystery of where dogs underwent domestication, one of the biggest unanswered questions about human prehistory.
The Science & Entertainment Exchange – The Science & Entertainment Exchange is a program of the National Academy of Sciences that provides entertainment industry professionals with access to top scientists and engineers to help bring the reality of cutting-edge science to creative and engaging storylines.
Jhnny Harris – Johnny Harris makes videos about maps… and other things.
[Note: This video is about human reproduction and male birth control. YouTube has limited it to age-verified accounts.]
Jerry Rig Everything – Zack Nelson has used his love of repairing, simple explanations, and brief tutorials to help millions of people with repairs of their own. Outside of YouTube, his ‘to-the-point’ style of teaching has created instructional and informational videos for manufacturers and factories around the world.
Today I Found Out – Today I Found Out is a place to learn something new and interesting every day, brought to the internet by a host of various scientific contributors.
Practical Engineering – Grady Hillhouse is a civil engineer in San Antonio, Texas. His channel aims to increase exposure and interest in the field of engineering by highlighting the connection between the world around us and the energy, passion, and thought that goes into making it a nicer place to live.
Nick Zammeti – A woodturner and artist based in the United Kingdom, Nick Zammeti thrives in funky and creative projects fueled by a healthy love of pop culture, especially Back to the Future.
Shop Time – Peter Brown is a geek with a full set of power tools, and he uses that knowledge to experiment, craft, and have fun.
laymonsterms – Denise Lhamon is an artist who presents history for short attention spans. She also takes commissions as Candy Cane Studios.
Art Deco – All things art and art history, digital art exhibitions and art analysis and discussion!
8-bit Music Theory – This YouTuber loves music, video games, and analyzing and talking about music from video games. He promises that if you are a big nerd, you’ll love it too!
Smarter Every Day – Mechanical engineer and aerospace engineer Destin Sandlin explores the world using science in this series. He was one of three YouTube personalities chosen to conduct a one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama after his final State of the Union address. His secondary channel provides additional details and interviews to supplement his primary channel’s videos.
Mark Rober – An engineer and inventor, Mark Rober presents popular science concepts and do-it-yourself gadgets in easy-to-understand terms. He was previously a NASA engineer (where he worked on the Curiosity rover) and a product designer at Apple’s Special Projects Group (where he authored patents involving virtual reality in self-driving cars). One of his best-known series involves the development of a glitter bomb to combat porch pirates and internet scammers.
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Thanks for stopping by. I hope that something inspired you to get out there and explore the universe.
STEAM Saturday is a celebration of curiosity and imagination through science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, the very building blocks of the universe around us.
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