Sticky Things

Sticky seems easy, right? You step on gum, it sticks to your shoe, You put glue on paper, it sticks to other paper. It just works! But it turns out stickiness is one of those sneaky, impossible-to-explain science things that involves physics and atoms and stuff!

Head to the link below 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! https://www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents

A big thank you to Patreon subscriber Eclectic Bunny for helping to make the show possible!

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: @slamschultz Hank: @hankgreen

If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Fact Off]

Exploding ant butts with toxic goo

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A_nAQosWmC5o_jepXNJ0oc3RacjLK5qe1groWg34bL4/edit?usp=sharing

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/animals-ants-borneo-exploding-defense?loggedin=true

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/science/exploding-ants.html

https://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=22661

Sticky rice mortar

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ar9001944

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11431-008-0317-0

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2010/may/revealing-the-ancient-chinese-secret-of-sticky-rice-mortar.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/amylopectin

[Ask the Science Couch]

Frog tongues

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/01/special-spit-is-the-secret-of-uniquely-sticky-frog-tongues-study-reveals

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332565/

Picture of finger: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332565/figure/RSIF20160764F1/

[Butt One More Thing]

Sucker-bum squid

https://australian.museum/blog-archive/science/sucker-bum-squid-and-other-intriguing-molluscs