Fun and science

How to get your kids thinking critically… it's something I've thought about a lot.

One thing I hooked on to was a new type of v-jay-o where science and popular culture meet—Because Science with Kyle Hill.

Check him out on Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, the usual places with the handle Becausescience.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvG04Y09q0HExnIjdgaqcDQ

Kyle recently broke free of Nerdist News to launch his own Becausescience channel, but a vast treasure trove is available on the old Nerdist Youtube channel. In the show he's been putting out videos on the physics of light sabres and the sad and painful truth about what would happen if you beamed Captain Kirk down to the surface of a planet and back, and much more.

In a live stream he talked a bit about his life and how he came to his current job combining bite-sized popular culture ideas with actual science. He started out studying as an engineer and went on to work in a science communication job but found it was too focused on debunking bad science for his liking—he thought he could change more hearts and minds by bringing together superheroes and science.

I think the fit is a good one. He makes compelling videos that while the actual maths and science may be way over most people's heads (he consults with rocket scientists, mathematicians or physicists to get things right), because the subjects of the videos are so well known, (Batman, Darth Vader, Thor etc) they are entertaining to watch and you find after a while the basic methods of breaking a problem into chunks, using the data you can see, and analysing things using the scientific method, sinks in, even to a 7 year old.

In one video for example he discusses insect-type Pokemon. Here he explores the science of scale and anatomy looking at creatures which according to calculations based on their size in comparison with humans on the cartoon, are sometimes as large as horses, and explains that they would need to be living in the Carboniferous and early Permian periods to survive.

The science behind this assertion is to do with oxygen concentration in the air. He explains that only the very high oxygen concentration at the time would enable them to breathe at that size due to the method by which insects absorb oxygen through their skin. After the oxygen is taken in through their breathing holes called spiracles, it needs to travel a massive distance to their brains and other vital organs, and if the oxygen percentage is too low, life is not sustainable.

Not totally leaving his debunking behind he occasionally opines about misconceptions over chemtrails and talks of the sad dystopian future we are all headed to if we don't put the breaks on climate change.

To extend the talk of the science behind Pokemon, we checked out Christopher Stoll's ‘Pokenatomy' (An Unofficial guide) and it stated that insect-type pokemon ‘Butterfree' weighed 30kgs with a wingspan of 3m which fits Kyles estimation of approximate size of these beasts. The book is an anatomy book of Pokemon, with beautifully illustrated fascinating cross-sections and fun facts. I found it entertaining and it worked as a tongue-in-cheek introduction to species classification and basic biological mechanisms.

Enjoy!