AsapSCIENCE is a YouTube channel run by Mitchell "Mitch" Moffit and Gregory "Greg" Brown, which breaks down popular science myths and discusses various hot topics related to science and health. They also write song parodies of both classical and pop music to give their lyrics a scientific twist.
This channel can be found here.
This YouTube channel provides examples of:
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General
- Edutainment Show: The YouTube channel is dedicated to educating viewers about popular science.
Science Videos
- Big Eater: Alluded to in "This Is 200 Calories", which discusses how much a 200-calorie serving size of various foods would contain. With low-calorie foods like broccoli and celery, it would require the consumption of enormous amounts of each food to obtain 200 calories.
- Cuteness Proximity: "Why Are Babies So Cute?" deconstructs this scientifically. It explains that human babies being considered particularly aesthetically pleasing is an evolutionary adaptation to urge parents to care for and protect them while they are still completely dependent on others for survival. It also discusses what traits are scientifically considered adorable and how the mental reaction to cuteness is brought about.
- Chicken-and-Egg Paradox: Extensively discussed literally in "Which Came First – The Chicken or the Egg?", regarding the nomenclature ambiguity of a 'chicken egg' and how evolution, including that of chickens, must occur over many, many generations. Their final conclusion is that the egg came first, because centuries ago, two "proto-chickens" would have mated and, due to genetic mutations, produced the first chicken which hatched from an egg.
- Don't Try This at Home: "Weird Ways to Burn 200 Calories" discusses that drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water a day for three days can burn off 200 calories, but adds a disclaimer not to drink all 3 days' worth of water in one day due to it being dangerous, i.e. risking water poisoning.
- One-Gender Race: Played with. "We were all female" explains that all human life began with zygotes that developed into embryos with female phenotypic/physical trait, and the SRY gene on the Y chromosome only activates about 5–6 weeks into embryonic development to allow for the development of the male phenotype.
- A Weighty Aesop: The conclusion for "This Is 200 Calories" is that calories are not always the benchmark to which nutrition should be measured, and that one should strive to have a healthy and balanced diet.
Songs
- Anthropomorphic Personification:
- "Mitosis vs Meiosis Rap Battle!" has Greg and Mitch play the personifications of mitosis and meiosis, respectively.
- "SCIENCE WARS" has Mitch playing Physics and Biology and Greg playing Chemistry and Math, making allusions to concepts from their own fields and declaring that "together [they] will find the answers to life".
- Battle Rapping: The "Mitosis vs Meiosis Rap Battle!" features Mitosis and Meiosis going up against each other, boasting their own benefits while dissing at the other's disadvantages. They decide to become friends and hang out after concluding that both processes consist of mostly interphase, involve metaphase, and end with cytokinesis.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: "The Science Love Song" compares their prospective romantic relationship with a scientific experiment and "a research endeavour", where they'd get back together and try again before deciding if the relationship is going to work out in the end.If at first we don't succeed, we'll try two more times
So our failure's a statistically significant try - Changing Chorus: Played for Laughs in "The Science Love Song", where the chorus ends with the line, "We can write the conclusion together"; Greg tacks on the line "With twenty annotations and bibliography" in the second and last iteration of the chorus to drive home the scientific experiment and journal article metaphor.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In "SCIENCE WARS", Math wears a black shirt and sings his verse to the "Imperial March", but is a critical component of science and is shown to get along well with the other sciences.
- The Diss Track: "Science STYLE" is directed at anyone who dismisses the work of scientists and "makes fun of nerds", by stating how science is omnipresent in one's everyday life and how the nerdy scientists they make fun of are smart, attractive, and about to revolutionize human society and culture with their contributions.You know those iPhone apps that help you flirt?
Well, it was the STEM field majors who designed it all first - Everybody Hates Mathematics: Spoofed and averted in "SCIENCE WARS", where Math's verse is set to the "Imperial March", a villainous leitmotif, but is presented as a stern, disciplined force on which all science is built on.
- Finger Wag: In "Science STYLE", Mitch wags his finger with a disapproving expression when condemning the target audience for "making fun of nerds".
- Green Means Natural: In "SCIENCE WARS", Biology wears a green T-shirt and is portrayed as being In Harmony with Nature from studying it extensively.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: In "The Science Love Song", Mitch praises that his love interest's lab coat and goggles go straight to his heart… only to correct himself in that the brain is in charge of emotions and feelings, not the heart.
- In Harmony with Nature: "SCIENCE WARS" characterizes Biology as this, having his verse sung to a soothing melody, advocating for "symbiosis and not division"note , and praising that evolution has brought about "all species singing one song".
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine:
- Alluded to in "The Science Love Song", where Mitch states that his love interest's lab coat and goggles go straight to his heart.
- The song "Science STYLE" contains the line "Even with our lab coats and goggles, we'll make you thirst".
- Literal Metaphor: Subverted in "The Science Love Song", where the singers say they'd steal their love interest's heart "just like the movies", but won't do so because their love interest would die.
- Mouthful of Pi: "The Pi Song", listing the first 100 digits of pi, ends with the line "Learning random digits so that you can brag to your friends". Its succeeding version with 200 digits, "The Pi Song 2.0", also includes this line after the first 100 digits.
- Nerds Are Sexy:
- "The Science Love Song" is targeted towards the singers' scientist love interest, making various references to scientific concepts and academia, as well as mentioning the love interest is "a-cute" and "smart" in their lab coat and goggles.
- "Science STYLE" contains the lines "Even with our lab coats and goggles, we'll make you thirst" (in the chorus) and "People are sexy when they show they're smart" (in the second verse).
- Precision F-Strike: The bridge of "Science STYLE" ends with Greg telling the target audience to "Don't be f*#%ing dumb" and appreciate the science and works of scientists around oneself.
- Pun: "The Science Love Song" is filled with scientific metaphors and ends with the line "'Cause you matter to me."
- Science Is Good: The song "Science STYLE" states that science is omnipresent in everyday life and condemns those who mindlessly follow trends and make fun of nerds, while uplifting scientists as intelligent, attractive pioneers and revolutionaries.See, I heard– (OH!)
That you've been out and about
Making fun of nerds
(Making fun of nerds)
See, that's simply a mistake; know why?
Soon, they'll innovate and change our lives
And be remembered for all of time - Shout-Out: All verses of "SCIENCE WARS" are written to songs from the Star Wars. The Physics verse also contains the line "May the mass times acceleration be with you".
- Silly Love Songs: "The Science Love Song" is filled with a Hurricane of Puns and metaphors comparing the singer and their love interest's relationship to a scientific research project.
- Spurned into Suicide: In the second verse of "The Science Love Song", Greg declares that he'd "give up H2O for H2SO4"note if he and his love interest broke up.
- Technicolor Science: Chemistry's verse in "SCIENCE WARS" has the sciences hold up various test tubes and flasks of colourful liquid.
- Visual Pun: Math's verse of "SCIENCE WARS" ends with the line "No gadgets; just your logic and your time and pi", as Physics holds up a pie with the symbol of pi (π) written on it.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: In "SCIENCE WARS", Chemistry makes a diss towards the other scientific fields, calling them "basic" in contrast to him being "the central science", but still gets along with them, united in their pursuit of "the answers to life".
- Word-Salad Humor: While "The Pi Song" is an intensive tune set to "In the Hall of the Mountain King", "The Pi Song 2.0" extension is set to "The Blue Danube Waltz" and features lines such as "9-8-2-1-4, so many more; 8-0-8-6-5, let's all high-five; 13-2-8-2, well, look at you; 3-0-6 and your bag of tricks".
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