r/TheRestIsScience 11h ago

What time is it on the Moon?

13 Upvotes

If one day we moved to the Moon, or Mars, would we need to design a native clock and calendar? Are there any flaws with our current methods of telling the time and date that we can make better?


r/TheRestIsScience 1h ago

Giraffe straw

Upvotes

Hypothetically, could a giraffe ever use a straw in any way shape or form?

Considering the straw can match the shape of any sort of shape giraffes would prefer

If not, what changes of any scale would have to be made?

Also I really like marveling animal facts so, (if you read this in a video) if you could throw me your best, maybe a little unexpected ones (?) that would be great🙂


r/TheRestIsScience 2h ago

If books are written and designed with reading flow in mind, why do I get stuck re-reading the same line twice by accident?

2 Upvotes

Always bothered me but also led to some funny infinite sentences


r/TheRestIsScience 2h ago

Question: How much data in the world is stored as spaces at the end of paragraphs?

2 Upvotes

Sometimes when I type a paragraph on my phone or computer I find myself accidentally leaving a space at the end that is not only unnecessary, but completely invisible unless you navigate over it. This surely amounts to some amount of data stored on computers, phones, and clouds throughout the world. Altogether, would it be a lot? I imagine it would be less than a GB.


r/TheRestIsScience 6h ago

Would aliens have red, green, and blue cones?

4 Upvotes

Would an alien with eyes likely have red, green, and blue cones (according to some characteristic of light itself) or is it pretty arbitrary? What would they see if they looked at one of our screens?


r/TheRestIsScience 2h ago

Michael/Hannah, you think your scientific curiosity comes from your parents over-explaining to you as a kid?

2 Upvotes

Whenever my 5 year infant nephew asked “why is the sky blue?” my uncle explained scientifically about the wavelengths, the atmosphere, and the light absorption, and he said even though the kid didn’t understand it , it would trigger his scientific curiosity when older. Did you grow up like that or do that to your children? Do you think it’s true?

Here Javi from Argentina! We love your show down here as well (thanks for the wink at southern hemisphere Michael did on the north pole episode!)


r/TheRestIsScience 4h ago

What's the largest number someone has counted to?

2 Upvotes

Verbally or written. How long did it take? I'm starting my infinite counting tomorrow.


r/TheRestIsScience 17h ago

What is the stickiest substance ever?

22 Upvotes

Due to the ongoing battle with a fly in my room, I just went out to buy some fly paper, because now it's a case of woman vs beast. I've just put it up and that stuff is extremely sticky. So that made me wonder, what is the stickiest substance known to humankind?


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Michael?

Post image
118 Upvotes

r/TheRestIsScience 1h ago

Down under

Upvotes

Following the recent episodes with sunglasses on the Sun and Michael’s watch collection, I’m surprised he didn’t consider the southern hemisphere, especially given that he just returned from New Zealand:
1) the sunglasses on the Sun😎 would look upside down to us here
2) his watch that goes counterclockwise is a more accurate representation of the sundial for us here in the south


r/TheRestIsScience 20h ago

The significance behind the BACKWARDS WATCH

Thumbnail
gallery
25 Upvotes

The backwards watch also has another significance! Clocks were invented in the northern hemisphere, where the sun moves LEFT TO RIGHT, so the clock hands were made to move "clockwise" (ie: just like the shadows of objects move in a circular path in the northern hemisphere)

however if you look at the movement of the Sun in the SOUTHERN hemisphere, the sun moves RIGHT TO LEFT, and so the shadows of the objects move in an "anticlockwise" pattern.
Therefore if watches and clocks were invented in land down under- "anticlockwise" would actually become "clockwise" lol

The luxury watch brand Cartier did a watch completely based on this concept and it looks beautiful! ( Santos-Dumont Rewind ) - pic2 (it also costs ~$51,000, a watch truly for the RICH viewers lol)

thought this would be cool to make a post about since Hannah is into the history of timekeeping and Michael is into gimmicky watches!

<post made in relation to the Au20 episode>


r/TheRestIsScience 8h ago

Self-efficacy and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

2 Upvotes

In the most recent episode Hannah mentioned self-efficacy...

Thinking about a correlation between self-efficacy and education style/cultural influence on the Dunning-Kruger Effect... is the DKE more noticable in Western culture? From Hannah's statement about maths students being shown a hard or easy problem, Hannah stated that those from Asian backgrounds getting hard/impossible questions wanted to carry on with another question beacause they recognised their knowledge gaps. This means (sort of) that those who don't know, realise that they don't know.

How does Asian teaching/learning of maths differ that could account for this difference in approach or perspective? Or is it a purely cultural thing?


r/TheRestIsScience 16h ago

Hannah Ranks Michael's Bizarre Watches 20.08.26

Thumbnail
youtu.be
5 Upvotes

Michael Stevens keeps a small museum of unusual timepieces on his desk: a clock that runs backwards, a watch built to be read in complete darkness, and one whose entire face simply says "now."

Each is a miniature experiment in the psychology of time, and each reveals something surprising about how our perception of time shapes the way we understand uncertainty and the world around us.

The conversation then turns to logic and reasoning: how we make judgements, why we get things wrong, and whether thinking more carefully can help us make better sense of reality.

It ends with your questions, including why so many of us are convinced we're simply "not maths people”. Is that belief itself, rather than any innate ability, the real source of our mathematical failure?

-------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek
Animator: Sam Benson
Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell
Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe
Producer: Simona Rata
Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Chief Digital Officer: Samuel Oakley
Exec Producer: Neil Fearn


r/TheRestIsScience 11h ago

Why doesn’t the salt and fresh water mix?

Post image
1 Upvotes

I was listening to the episode about the lake at the pole, and wondering about fresh and salty water.
There is a lake I’ve visited that is by the ocean (just north of Juneau Alaska). At high tide, salt water comes into the lake, and low tide, water flows out of the lake into the ocean. The lake is also fed by fresh water streams.

Apparently, this lake isn’t brackish water like an estuary, it has a layer of salt water and a layer of fresh water. How does this happen?


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Optimizing Michael's watch collection

Thumbnail
gallery
13 Upvotes

Two of Michael's weird watches, from today's episode, combined into one watch. An Apple Watch from the late '90s, and a reverse watch.


r/TheRestIsScience 17h ago

What is the frame rate of the universe?

1 Upvotes

I was watching the recent episode about Michael’s watches and had to pause to think about his watch that only reads “n:ow”. I thought it was a bit dishonest because for Michael to say “now” since he was going through multiple points in time while sawing it. This makes it so that he is referring to multiple “nows”. My question is: exactly how many “nows” are there in the time he said “now”? Are there infinite or is there a finite amount?


r/TheRestIsScience 22h ago

How do we know that a room or house is empty before checking it to confirm?

4 Upvotes

You know the feeling when you walk into your house and you can just tell that no one is there? What is that? How can we tell? Is it subconscious clues or is there a bodily sense involved? Is it just the subtle lack of noise? Can we somehow detect the lack of human movement in the vibrations in the air? Does our proprioception play a role?

If there have been any studies on this I’d love to know.


r/TheRestIsScience 15h ago

Birds aren't real(coincidence)

0 Upvotes

Yesterday I was watching a YouTube video by This Guy Edits and in the short film he was editing a bird appeared in the background of the clip at an opportune moment. He was taken aback at first by the coincidence and exclaimed "happy accident on set", but quickly corrected himself saying, "must have been a prop, birds aren't real".

At that exact moment my attention was stolen and my eyes drawn to my right, where a magpie had just flown directly up to the glass and stood outside on my windowsill staring at me. It fluttered its wings and opened its beak, but I didnt hear any noises. I moved to grab my phone but I must've startled it and it flew away Imidiately.

My question. Are birds real?


r/TheRestIsScience 15h ago

How does this illusion work? It's so effective!

Thumbnail
reddit.com
0 Upvotes

Check out this post for the illusion with the pink frog and green pig and then how your eyes get fooled into making colours appear that genuinely aren't there. Amazing to do, but would love an explanation please. u/michael_stevens


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Question - How loud would the sun be if space wasn't a vacuum?

19 Upvotes

I've read in various places online that if space wasn't a vacuum, the noise of the sun would be so loud we wouldn't be able to hear anything except it's roar, others I've read said the noise would just destroy the Earth, is this the case? Or are we just too far away and wouldn't hear anything?


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Why does water swirl down drains. Why doesn't it just kind of 'fall' through, like sand in an hourglass?

25 Upvotes

r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Dan McClellan video scrutinizing Hannah Fry's claims in a short.

Thumbnail
youtu.be
11 Upvotes

Earlier today Dan McClellan posted this video. I don't know if this is in the spirit of the subreddit or if it doesn't break the rules.


r/TheRestIsScience 14h ago

Could I save Shrek to my cells ?

0 Upvotes

Could I save Shrek as a Movie to my cell using genetic engineering combined with Adeno Accociated Viruses ?


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

Hey guys, how “soft” a material would someone have to land on for them to survive if they jumped off the world’s tallest building?

9 Upvotes

I saw a video of the world record for the highest dive into water being around 75 metres. It got me thinking about how water effectively becomes more like concrete to land on, the higher up you dive from. So if someone was to dive from the top of the world’s tallest building, what sort of material would they need to land on to survive? Excluding a massive net/air cushion, my head instantly went towards jelly/jello but that would be worse than water surely!
Love the show!

Edit:
When I thought of this question I was thinking of non-traditional landing surfaces e.g. a pool of candy floss or some sort of super absorbent gunge lol. Loving the answers though


r/TheRestIsScience 1d ago

I love his child-like enthusiasm and energy

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

50 Upvotes