29: What's in a Scientific Name, How Many Cells are in a Human, and What the British Museum Stole
Let's Learn Everything!1 Dec 2022

29: What's in a Scientific Name, How Many Cells are in a Human, and What the British Museum Stole

What is the science of scientific naming, and could it actually be life saving? How many cells are in a human body, and why is it important to know? And how exactly did the British Museum... "acquire" all these artifacts?

Watch Tom's PowerPoint Comedy Show!

Support us with a Max Fun Membership!

Join our Discord!

We also learn about: what does tom smell like? naming is hard for computer science, naming is a science, reading 12 million paper titles by hand, single use acronyms, polynomial naming, Ranunculus mother of dragons, the dino hip mixup, smooth transitions, the fermium wars, we all know what happened to element 102, berkelium californium americium, should we name elements after living people, Ella is the only true Swiftie, half of all exoplanets are named Kepler, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, why? she’s a millipede, Ella will get an answer, humans have 1 cell technically, c elegans has exactly 1031 cells, don’t embarrass yourself by saying how many cells are in a mouse, we enter the wheels and doors debate, Ella sperm fact rick rolls us, the number of kinds of cells, tom is bad at math, every time a scientist questions a number an angel gets its wings, Livers Georg, Ella is heartbroken we don’t have a number, what’s the point of counting cells? the British Museum keeps 99% of things in the disney vault, offering a replica of the rosetta stone instead, Britain legally cannot return items without government approval, all the stuff we never knew about Moai statues, what does queen Victoria need with a Moai statue, her majesty declares finders keepers, actualy these stolen things mean as much to Britain now, most Britains want the items returned, there is so much to learn from this!

Sources:

Judith Winston's Review of Binomial Nomenclature
The Growth of Acronyms in the Scientific Literature
The Long and Short of Abbreviations (UA Medical Acronym)
Dinosaur Hip Naming Mixup
How Many Named Species are Valid?
Review of the Transfermium Wars
IUPAC 1994 Naming Decision
Naming Exoplanets
A Flu by Any Other Name
Nature on WHO Naming
Taylor Swift's Millipede

---

Number of Bacteria In Your Body
Sperm
Types Of Cells In The Human Body
An Estimation Of The Number Of Cells In The Human Body

---

Human Remains in the British Museum
British Museum: Rosetta Stone
British Museum: Moai of rapa Nui (Easter Island Statues)
CNN: British Museum Discusses fate of Easter Island Statues
British Museum: Benin Bronzes
The Guardian: British museum ‘Has Head in sand’ Over Return of Artefacts
British Museum: The Parthenon Sculptures
British Museum: Maqdala Collection
YouGuv: Should Britain Return Historical Artefacts to Their Country of Origin?
Culture war: the case against repatriating museum artifacts
NYT: Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiques From the Met
CNN: Manhattan DA returns 58 antiquities to Italy, including 21 seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Avsnitt(130)

102: The Vitamin Saga & The Evolution of Fairies

102: The Vitamin Saga & The Evolution of Fairies

Why are there so many vitamins, what even IS a vitamin?? Well Tom finally understands, and takes us on a tour through their infuriating past. And how did the cheerful fairy we know and love today, evo...

26 Mars 1h 55min

101: Why is the Sky Blue & Speech Disfluency

101: Why is the Sky Blue & Speech Disfluency

For episode 101, we're challenging ourselves to make a technically family friendly, swear free episode! Why is the sky blue? Well it turns out it took a lot of science to understand why! And what is s...

12 Mars 1h 46min

Out Sick Recast: SciShow Tangents w/ Tom!

Out Sick Recast: SciShow Tangents w/ Tom!

Tom & Ella are out sick! So enjoy this recast of when Tom was healthy and on SciShow Tangents! OR enjoy our 2 hours on the Project 4 Awesome livestream, basically a video podcast! OR check out all our...

26 Feb 53min

100: Everything

100: Everything

You asked, and we finally answered, today we are Finally, actually learning everything! Something that is definitely possible and easy to do. Caroline covers infinity, which can include basically anyt...

12 Feb 2h 17min

99.5: Iszi Lawrence, Getting to Ancient Egyptian Heaven, and Storytelling

99.5: Iszi Lawrence, Getting to Ancient Egyptian Heaven, and Storytelling

The author, historian, and person of many fascinations Iszi Lawrence teaches us how to get into ancient Egyptian heaven! Plus we learn about a bit of everything else from dinosaurs to medieval almond ...

29 Jan 1h 14min

Recast: Escape This Podcast - Oceananigans

Recast: Escape This Podcast - Oceananigans

While we take some time to rest and plan out the new year, enjoy our episode of Escape This Podcast as the three of us use cleverness and chaos to solve this escape room!Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00...

15 Jan 1h 51min

New Year Q&A 2026

New Year Q&A 2026

It's the new year! Which means it's time to learn about the most interesting thing... ourselves?? We answer YOUR questions with OUR answers, so learn a bit more about us, science, and the show!Links w...

1 Jan 1h 48min

99: The HaLearnDays! 2025

99: The HaLearnDays! 2025

The HaLearnDays are here!! And with it come learning, laughs, and fun facts from us and friends of the show, as well as a few surprise new friends!Images we Talk About:Bat CarryingBristol Stool ChartL...

18 Dec 20251h 47min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

p3-dystopia
dumma-manniskor
allt-du-velat-veta
svd-nyhetsartiklar
det-morka-psyket
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
doden-hjarnan-kemisten
sexet
rss-ufo-bortom-rimligt-tvivel-2
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
rss-vetenskapsradion
medicinvetarna
bildningspodden
har-vi-akt-till-mars-an
dumforklarat
rss-spraket
hacka-livet
vetenskapsradion
4health-med-anna-sparre