Gross Science

Hi, I'm Anna. I host a YouTube series for NOVA, PBS Digital Studios, and WGBH on the slimy, smelly, creepy world of science. Here I post about all things bizarre and beautiful. youtube.com/grossscienceshow

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The virus rabies may have contributed to legends of werewolves, vampires, and zombies.

It’s a horrible disease that’s preventable with modern medicine. But it still infects—and kills—around 60,000 people a year across the globe.

Explore the history of the disease, and what it does to the body in this week’s Gross Science.

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Frogs in the US are showing up with strange numbers of back legs—up to 10! In this week’s episode, I explore why. It’s a truly bizarre story.

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I ate a lot of bugs... and they were (mostly) pretty tasty!

Despite many people’s cultural aversion to eating bugs, there are tons of environmental, economic, and health reasons to eat insects and arachnids. Learn all about them in this week’s video—and watch me cook and eat ants, grasshoppers, scorpions, and larvae!

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OMG. Watch this giant snail slurp up an earthworm like spaghetti! 

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Got extra borax leftover from your last experiment making SLIME? Use it to grow your own crystals!

I was on vacation with my family last week, and decided to do this fun experiment. It turned out great! Definitely an activity kids should do with parental supervision, though—you’ll be using the stove quite a bit, and borax can be irritating.

Check out my tutorial here!

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Around 4 million American households with children are exposed to high levels of lead. Clearly, lead poisoning is still a huge problem in the US today, and not just in places you may have heard of like Flint, Michigan.

Lead poisoning can cause permanent damage to our brains—and it’s especially dangerous for children. But how does lead harm our brains? And is there anything we can do to stop it?

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Honeybees have to sip nectar from around 2 million flowers to make 1 lb of honey. But flowers sometimes offer more than just nectar to their pollinators—some provide caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol, as well. And as it turns out, bees love these added substances.

In this week’s episode, I explore what these drugs do to bees, and how they may benefit the plants that produce them.

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A brown garden snail named Jeremy has been born with a shell that spirals counterclockwise. This is a one in a hundred thousand to a one in a million occurrence—most brown garden snails have shells that spiral the other way.

Jeremy’s entire body is flipped left to right—which means this snail is actually unable to mate because Jeremy’s genitals are on the opposite side of the body as usual.

But you can help! These snails are found all over the world (in fact, in some places they’re invasive) so go out and see if you can find another counterclockwise spiraling snail! In doing so, you might help scientists solve a mystery about how our bodies develop.

To learn more, check out this week’s video!

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Guys! Jeremy the snail has found a mate! TWO keen snail observers—one in the UK and one in Spain—spotted brown garden snails with shells spiraling counterclockwise: http://bit.ly/2eADoS4

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People! There’s a new update on this story!

Remember how snail enthusiasts found two mates for Jeremy? Well, they’ve mated and laid eggs...only, not with Jeremy. The two lefty mates had babies with each other instead. Pretty cool for science, but sad for Jeremy, the loneliest snail in the world.

So far, none of the offspring have had left-coiling shells. But for far more on this story, check out this article from @npr.

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Mother’s Day is coming up, so meet the frog that gave birth by projectile vomiting up its babies!

Sadly, this frog went extinct in the 80s... But today, some scientists are trying to bring it back from extinction.

Find out why—and how!—in this week’s episode :D

SPOILER ALERT! Start at :32 if you’re still catching up on Game of Thrones. The link below will take you past the spoiler :)

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What does it actually mean to be “clean”? Does it mean removing dirt? Sterilizing our skin? Or... something else entirely. 

As new research reveals the power of microbes to influence our health, scientists are rethinking hygiene. So, are things like hand washing really that important? Find out in this episode of Gross Science—and many thanks to Clean My Space for collaborating on this video!

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brilliant ted talk. thank you xoxoxo

Thank you so much!!!

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Ooooooh man! A few months ago I gave a talk at TEDxMidAtlantic, and the video is now LIVE! It was totally exhilarating—and, not gonna lie, pretty nerve-wracking too (I had to pee, like, 12 times before going on-stage.) But I’m so proud of the results.

So, watch and laugh at me while I nerd out about gross stuff. xoxo

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Today I learned that when insects shed their exoskeletons they also shed part of their guts!

For lots more on insect guts and poop, check out this article from Live Science.

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I just wanted to say I love your stuff. Thanks for being on tumblr. It makes keeping up with your videos so much easier.

Thanks so much! This made my day :D

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This is probably the strangest plant in the world.

Its name is Hydnora africana, and it’s a parasite that attracts pollinators by smelling like rotting flesh.

But that’s not even the weirdest thing about this plant. Its story gets SO MUCH CRAZIER.

Check out this week’s video to learn all about it.

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Can FEAR be contagious?

Turns out, we may spread it through our sweat...

...and even through social media.

How? Find out in this week’s episode, and subscribe!

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Just how much snot do we produce every day? And what REALLY causes nasal congestion? Explore the sticky, slimy world of snot with me in this week’s Gross Science.

And if you want even MORE snot science, check out this video from Reactions. They’ll tell you what the different colors of snot me, and what all those cold medicines actually do.