Feathers

It may be well-known that hope is the thing with feathers, but how much is known about feathers themselves? Turns out, plenty! From shrub grouses to shuttlecocks and all the pea-babies (diminutive for peacocks, definitely for sure) in between, come soar on the delightfully complex wings of knowledge with us! SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter! A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley and Glenn Trewitt for helping to make the show possible! And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch! Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen [Truth or Fail] Dermestid beetles on dino feather in amber https://www.science.org/content/article/feathered-dinosaurs-discovered https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/986124 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lice-filled-dinosaur-feathers-found-trapped-100-million-year-old-amber-180973727/ https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/dermestid-beetles-feasted-on-dinosaur-feathers Badminton shuttlecock dino-birdie https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/liaoning-diorama/a-feathered-tyrant https://australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/fact-sheets/dilong-paradoxus/ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030468 Roboduck with dino feathers https://www.audubon.org/news/new-aquatic-dinosaur-find-strange-and-startling-avian-hodgepodge https://www.newscientist.com/article/2414147-dinosaurs-evolved-feathers-to-scare-prey-suggests-robot-experiment/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/robo-dinosaur-scares-grasshoppers-to-shed-light-on-why-dinos-evolved-feathers/ [Trivia Question] Speed of peacock tail feather shaking to signal interest to mates https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0152759 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207247 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/12/peacock-crests-are-vibration-sensors/578656/ https://gizmodo.com/the-physics-of-peacock-tail-feathers-is-even-more-dazzl-1772653586 [Fact Off] Turning waste chicken feathers into a flavorless, edible meat paste https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/animals-slaughtered-for-meat?time=latest https://phys.org/news/2017-09-bird-feathers-food.html https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=9055668&fileOId=9055675 https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/lund-team-turns-chicken-feathers-into-food/ https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/chicken-feathers-can-help-generate-clean-energy-say-researchers/2-1-1539841?zephr_sso_ott=oZW4Dr Male sandgrouse belly feathers soak up water to carry back to their babies https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2022.0878 https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/69/4/323/5229138 https://ebird.org/species/namsan1 [Ask the Science Couch] Feather growth and development (and altricial vs. precocial baby birds) https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/feathers-article/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380223/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6917565/ [Butt One More Thing] Fright molt: losing tail feathers as an antipredator adaptation https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/17/6/1046/319763