Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles It's AumSum Time Can you guess the title of my next video? Hurry up. Write your guess in the comments section below. How do snowflakes form? My snowman makes them!! You wish!! A snowflake begins to form when a supercooled water droplet in the sky freezes onto a dust particle. Pollen forming a tiny ice crystal. However, when water freezes, its molecules arrange themselves in a hexagonal pattern. Thus giving the crystal a hexagonal shape. Now, as the ice crystal keeps falling, it comes in contact with more water. As a result, the water starts freezing on the six corners of the ice crystal. Causing branches to grow on the corners and thus, giving us a beautiful snowflake. Also, as the atmospheric conditions are the same on all sides of the snowflake, the branches grow identically. Thus making the snowflake symmetrical. But since every snowflake follows a different path to the ground, it encounters different atmospheric conditions. Hence, it is said that no two snowflakes are the same. They all tend to be unique. Why are bees dying? Maybe because of mosquito nets!! Naahhh!! Honeybees are extremely important for the environment. Besides providing honey, honeybees pollinate crops, giving us 70 to 75% of the fruits, vegetables and nuts that we eat. Dude!! Bees are sooo necessary!! Absolutely!! However, in the last few years, honeybees have started to disappear. Millions of honeybee hives or colonies have died. This condition is known as colony collapse disorder or CCD. According to a prevailing research, a number of reasons are responsible for this disorder. One of them is pesticides like neonicotinoids. They kill crop eating insects and pests. However, neonicotinoids affect honeybee's central nervous system. Hence, it cannot navigate its way to the hive. It gets lost and eventually dies. Along with pesticides, Parasites like Varroa mites. Climate change and habitat loss are some factors that are contributing to the decline of bees. Why vultures don't get food poisoning? Coz they go to regular yoga practice!! Naahhh!! Vultures are generally scavengers. They eat decaying or rotting flesh of dead animals. But any decaying substance has many harmful microbes which if consumed can make an animal. A human sick or even cause food poisoning. However, vultures have a strong acid in their stomachs that protects them from harmful microbes. But, we also have acid in our stomachs, right?? Indeed!! But the acid in a vulture's stomach is much stronger than the acid in a human's stomach. It is so strong that the acid can even corrode certain metals. Thus, when a vulture eats decaying or rotting flesh, the strong acid in its stomach destroys. Most of the microbes that can cause food poisoning and other health problems, thus keeping the vulture safe. What is earwax? It is a wax used to make candles!! Ohh gross!! Not at all!! Earwax is used to lubricate and protect our ear canal, middle ear and inner ear. Ohh!! But how does it form?? Our ear canal consists of special glands. They produce an oily and waxy substance called cerumen. Cerumen moisturizes our ears. It traps dust and dead skin cells, keeping our ears clean. Besides this, cerumen also has antibacterial properties. When harmful microbes try to enter deeper into our ears, the cerumen traps and kills the microbes. These dead microbes, dust, oil and dead skin cells together form the earwax. Topic: Bad Conductors of Heat Why are two thin blankets warmer than one thick blanket? Coz two chocolates are better than one!! Naahhh!! To understand this, we need to first learn about bad conductors of heat. Bad conductors of heat are the materials which do not allow heat to easily flow through them. Air, wood and glass are some examples of bad conductors of heat. In these examples, is our train conductor included as well? Oh!! Just listen!! A thick blanket allows much of our body heat to escape into the atmosphere. However, when we use two blankets one on top of the other, air gets trapped between them. This air being a bad conductor of heat, does not allow our body heat to easily flow into the atmosphere. Thus keeping us warm.
B2 US snowflake heat acid vulture earwax poisoning Science of Snowflakes | #aumsum 11 4 AumSum posted on 2019/04/15 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary