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The Two Coolest Things we Know About Sharks

2024-08-30 · collab / interview · Hank, Sofishtication · 8:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Projects) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: guest or collab, self promotion, fundraising ask

Hank, who wants to dissect what makes a great fact, starts asking science communicators for their best fact: SciShow's first resident, shark scientist Jaida Elcock, explains the whale shark as a harmless omnivorous filter feeder, then Hank gives his best shark fact, that sharks' skin is covered in teeth, as evidence that evolution converges and reuses mechanisms; Hank closes with Learnathon plugs.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — SciShow's new residency for science communicators and its first resident, Jaida Elcock

  • ★★ Hank says SciShow recently started a residency for newer science communicators: four or five months paid on the editorial team pitching, writing and editing scripts, then flown to Missoula to host those episodes. — 00:00:00 · SciShow, Missoula, Montana
  • ★★ Hank says the first resident, Jaida Elcock, recently finished her residency; everyone loved working with her and he loved hanging out with her. — 00:00:00 · SciShow

00:00:29 — What makes a good fact versus a great fact; Hank starts asking science communicators for their best fact

  • ★★ Hank, obsessed with what makes a good fact after some 20 years of writing facts by feel, says a fact can be dissected like a punchline to see why it works on people. — 00:00:29

  • ★★★ Hank says a good fact need only be interesting, but a great fact also uncovers something true about the world or the learner: something complex, hard to grasp, or that changes how you see the world. — 00:00:58

    “A great fact is both interesting and it uncovers something true about the world”

  • ★★ Hank says that, lucky to spend time with many science communicators, he wants to start asking people for their best fact, beginning with Jaida's, followed by his own best shark fact. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Jaida's best fact: the whale shark, the largest fish, is a filter feeder and an omnivore; knowledge eases fear of sharks

  • ★★ Hank notes that Jaida is a shark scientist; she wears thresher shark earrings because thresher sharks are her favorite. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says people are shocked that the largest fish on the planet is a shark, the whale shark; the largest recorded was around 61 feet long. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says the average whale shark is closer to about 35 feet long. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says people have a very healthy fear of sharks, which she understands, but the fear must not get in the way of respect for them. — 00:01:56
  • ★ Hank admits an unhealthy fear of sharks too: in a lake he wonders whether there is a shark. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says bull sharks swim in fresh water, and one has been found so far up the Mississippi that it was in Illinois. — 00:02:31 · Montana
  • ★★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says the whale shark is a filter feeder whose teeth are no more than a couple of centimeters long and which cannot swallow anything bigger than a grapefruit. — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says whale sharks eat zooplankton (correcting herself from phytoplankton) and also sargassum seaweed, making them the second shark species identified as omnivorous, after the bonnethead. — 00:03:00
  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says the bonnethead, the smallest hammerhead species, eats and digests seagrass for nutrients; scientists had thought both sharks ate plants only incidentally. — 00:03:00
  • ★★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says the more you know about something the less you typically fear it: sharks seem mysterious after Jaws, but learning that some physically cannot swallow you eases the fear. — 00:03:00

00:03:44 — Hank's best shark fact: sharks' skin is covered in teeth (dermal denticles), plus Jaida's whale shark eyeball denticles; what it shows about evolution

  • ★★★ Hank's best shark fact begins: sharks are less related to bass than bass are to humans. — 00:03:44
  • ★★ Hank says bony fish share traits, including scales, as mammals share traits like hair and (Jaida adds) mammary glands; cartilaginous fish have no fish scales. — 00:04:43
  • ★★★ Hank says sharks instead have dermal denticles ('skin teeth'), which are called that not because they resemble teeth but because they are teeth. — 00:04:43
  • ★★★ Hank says that, as our nails, skin and hair share keratin, sharks used the same biochemical mechanisms to make skin teeth with dentine inside and enamel outside, chemically like our teeth. — 00:05:17
  • ★★ Hank says sharks replace their skin teeth as they replace mouth teeth, and make more as they grow to fill the gaps. — 00:05:46
  • ★★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says whale sharks have dermal denticles on their eyeballs, discovered around 2020 when someone first looked at a whale shark eye under a microscope. (hedged) — 00:05:46
  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida hypothesizes the eye denticles protect the eyes from pathogens and parasites. (speculative) — 00:05:46
  • ★★★ Hank says his fact shows, first, that evolution can solve the same problem in different ways: denticles and scales are both protective skin structures reached by different routes. — 00:06:15
  • ★★★ Hank says it shows, second, that evolution reuses mechanisms: like keratin in skin and hair, skin teeth reuse the machinery for a specific structure to serve a different purpose. — 00:06:15

00:07:02 — Sharks are the coolest; thanks to Jaida; Complexly's investment in science communicators and the Learnathon shirt

  • ★★ Sofishtication: Jaida says sharks are the coolest: there are so many filling so many niches, from the tropics to the Arctic, fast and slow, big and small. — 00:07:02
  • ★★ Hank says there used to be a shark that could eat an orca in five bites and a person in half a bite; Jaida, naming the megalodon, wishes it were still alive. — 00:07:02
  • ★★ Hank thanks Jaida for letting Complexly experiment on her and says Complexly tries to do new things and to invest in the next generation of science communicators. — 00:07:02 · Complexly

  • ★★ Hank says Complexly takes the responsibility of making educational content very seriously; as his shirt says, good information is worth it. — 00:07:02 · Complexly

    “good information is worth it”

  • ★★★ Hank tells viewers they can get his shirt by supporting Complexly during the Learnathon. — 00:07:02 · Complexly

00:07:50 — Learnathon trivia night, sign-off, and a note that Jaida has started a YouTube channel

  • ★★ Hank says he is hosting a trivia night on the Learnathon's last day, open to those who donate $15; details at complexly.com/learn. — 00:07:50 · Complexly
  • ★ Hank reports the video was filmed over three different days and it is now Friday, when he must upload it. — 00:07:50
  • ★★ Hank corrects himself: Jaida does have a YouTube channel, newly started, with a video of the two of them answering fish questions, linked in the description or end screen. — 00:07:50 · YouTube

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: dermal denticle · shark · Sofishtication · whale shark

Also: Projects: Complexly · SciShow

Works: Jaws

Organizations: YouTube

Concepts: Bass (fish) · bonnethead · bull shark · Chondrichthyes · convergent evolution · evolution · fear · filter feeder · keratin · killer whale · mammal · megalodon · omnivore · Osteichthyes · phytoplankton · Sargassum · thresher shark · zooplankton

Places: Arctic · Illinois · Mississippi River · Missoula, Montana · Montana

Also centred on shark: Twitter Games and Truth or Fail

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