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talks about his career choices

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Welcome to the TSFA Applied Science transition site. Whether you are moving on to a science based career pathway or not, you’ll find some interesting and useful resources to help develop your skills and knowledge of science. You will also find some information to help introduce you to the range of careers linked to chemistry.

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Real-life stories from real-life chemical scientists. Find out what jobs in chemistry can involve and the qualifications that will get you there.

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It wasn't long ago that the idea of the meat on our plates coming from vast stainless steel bioreactors, rather than farmed animals, seemed like science fiction. The notion has gone through numerous rebrands since its early positing as 'vat meat', which triggered unappealing visions of high-tech Spam.

'Lab meat' came next, as scientists perfected the recipe in small beakers in laboratories. Then came the more appetising-sounding 'cultured meat', as investment from high-profile individuals rocketed and producers positioned these products as having been brewed, just like beer. Now, 'cultured meat' has evolved to 'cultivated meat', which is the preferred term used by CEOs in the industry.

Whatever you choose to call it, with the future of global food security in question, and farmed meat a key culprit in climate breakdown, slaughter-free meat is starting to look increasingly like the future of food.

How is lab-grown meat made?

Rather than being part of a living, breathing, eating and drinking animal, cultivated meat is grown in anything from a test tube to a stainless steel bioreactor. The process is borrowed from research into regenerative medicine, and in fact Prof Mark Post of Maastricht University, who cultured the world's first burger in 2013, was previously working on repairing human heart tissue.

Cells are acquired from an animal by harmless biopsy, then placed in a warm, sterile vessel with a solution called a growth medium, containing nutrients including salts, proteins and carbohydrates. Every 24 hours or so, the cells will have doubled.

How different is cultivated meat from the real thing?

Cellular farming doesn't grow cuts of meat, with bone and skin, or fat marbled through it like a succulent ribeye steak. Muscle cells require different conditions and nutrients to fat cells, so they must be made separately. When the pure meat or fat is harvested, it is a formless paste of cells. This is why the first cultivated meat products served up have been chicken nuggets or burgers.

The flavours, however, are of real meat. As they are produced in a sterile environment, there is less risk of contamination from disease and chemicals. This is in contrast to conventional agriculture where, says San-Francisco based Josh Tetrick, CEO of GOOD Meat, "you have a live animal slaughtered on the floor. If you look at the Salmonella, E. coli, faecal contamination that's part of animal agriculture, it looks much better from a cultivated meat perspective than it does from a conventional meat perspective."

Is lab-grown meat as nutritious as regular meat?

A spokesperson for UPSIDE Foods, a San Francisco-based leader in the cultivated meat arena, says that the nutrient profile will be similar, but it will also be possible to enhance or even personalise it.

"We are exploring ways to improve the nutrient profiles of our products. Whether that's less saturated fat and cholesterol, or more vitamins or healthy fats," they said. "For instance, imagine if we could produce a steak with the fatty acid profile of salmon? Or what if consumers could customise the nutrient profile in their products to meet their dietary needs?"

As there are so few cultivated meat products on the market requiring food labelling, we'll have to wait to get a better understanding of the nutritional value.

When can people buy it?

People in Singapore already can. Tetrick's company, GOOD Meat, has been producing and selling its chicken in Singapore since December 2020 at special events, both in an upscale hotel restaurant and the legendary Mr Loo's hawker stall.

Breaded chicken and shredded chicken have both gone down well. Tetrick says the company has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval in the US, but no timescale has been given.

Other producers say that Western countries are still ironing out the details of how regulatory approval will work, but say they'll be ready to scale up as soon as approval is given in the coming years.

Is it better for the environment?

The truth is, we can't know until mass production is happening. Modelling the potential impacts of a fast-moving biotech industry that's still in development is subject to many ifs and buts. One 2019 study from the University of Oxford warned that the energy used to make cultivated meat could release more greenhouse gases than traditional farming.

Pelle Sinke, researcher at Netherlands-based sustainability consultancy CE Delft, who was not involved in the research, says the part of the study that assumed use of electricity generated by a large proportion of fossil fuels highlighted the importance of renewable energy for cultivated meat production.

"In some scenarios, cultivated meat had a higher global warming effect, and in some scenarios a lower effect, depending on consumption levels, expected energy use for cultivated meat and the beef cattle system it was compared to," he says.

Sinke adds that the study doesn't, however, take into account the lower land use of cultivated meat. "[There's] the possibility to use that land for plant-based protein production, nature and extra renewable energy production, which in turn influences the CO ₂ emissions of cultivated meat," he says.

His own team has also been investigating the environmental impact and he says that while cultivated meat is no silver bullet to solve all the world's problems, "it certainly has a lot of potential because it directly offers a more sustainable alternative to conventional meats. It is a more efficient way of converting crops into meat, and therefore much less land is needed to produce these crops.

"But it does use more energy. For a lower carbon footprint than conventional meats, it is crucial that renewable energy sources are used in its production, including in the supply chain - importantly for the production of nutrients and other ingredients needed for the culture medium."

All of the companies contacted for this article - Mosa Meat, GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods - understand that building sustainable energy into production is essential.

What challenges need to be overcome?

A vegan growth medium

Until recently, in order to kick-start cell division, about 20 per cent of the growth medium had to be foetal bovine serum, drawn from the blood of a cow foetus. Not only is the serum prohibitively expensive, but it's also distinctly not vegetarian.

But all the major players now claim to have developed an alternative. In early 2022, Post and his team published an academic paper about their foetal bovine serum alternative. The process uses genetically modifying yeast to produce the necessary proteins. This technology, called precision fermentation, is similar to how medical insulin is made (we have a lot more than beer and bread to thank yeast for!). Post says that there is a whole new burgeoning industry for producing vast vats of productive microorganisms.

Tetrick admits, however, that there are still challenges with scaling up the alternatives, and that his chicken in Singapore is produced with foetal bovine serum. "[It's] not because we want to, but because it was included when we initially submitted our application, because we hadn't solved it when we submitted," he says. "We're awaiting regulatory approval to produce without it."

Mass production

Tetrick says that scale is the next great hurdle to clear. You need to be churning out "a minimum of 15 million pounds [6.8 million kilos] per year at a facility, which is sort of a rule of thumb for national distribution across the US or Western Europe."

This will necessitate bioreactors that hold at least 200,000 litres, which has never been done in cell culture. "People eat it every week in Singapore... right now the largest size that we're [producing in] is 1,200 litres, which is very small, relative to what is required. In my mind, this is the single biggest limiting step of the entire industry."

Only when produced at scale can the price come down and compete with cheap, intensively farmed meat. Meanwhile, GOOD Meat's Singapore operation is currently running at a loss, selling hawker stall dishes for four Singapore dollars (around £2.50). When launched in the West, all the products will start off at expensive restaurants - adding cachet to their launches - and can only trickle down to affordable supermarket prices with economies of scale.

Texture

Yes, much of the world's meat consumption consists of burgers, nuggets and sausages. But what if we want a juicy, cultivated steak? How do we turn meaty mush into a choice cut? It's a fast-moving picture, but GOOD Meat's current solution for their chicken products is to pair it with more structured vegetable proteins.

Its offering in Singapore is 73 per cent chicken. "[And then the rest] is binders and fillers," says Tetrick. "We're trying to optimise it for the sensory and consumer experience: taste, texture, flavour profile, cost."

Cellular agriculture trailblazers argue that it's cheap burgers and chicken that are using up the majority of the one-third of the planet that's currently dedicated to growing farm-animal feed, so these products are both the most urgent and easiest to get to market. To achieve the texture of steak, says Tetrick, scaffold technology will be necessary, as a way of building structure inside the vessel. This scaffold will most likely be made using vegan collagen.

Ethically, can everyone eat it?

Now that the foetal bovine serum is out of the way, vegetarians could, ethically speaking, eat this meat - if they have an appetite for it.

The religious element is a little trickier. For meat to be permissible under Islamic and Jewish laws, there are strict rules on how animals are slaughtered and how the meat is prepared. Cultivated meat is set to trigger lively debates among religious leaders around the world (interpretations of scriptures vary geographically), and has already started doing so in some zones.

Would cultivating meat from kosher or halal meat cells solve the problem? In Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, the influential Muslim organisation Nahdlatul Ulama has reportedly given a statement putting cultivated meat in "the category of carcass which is legally unclean and forbidden to be consumed."

In contrast, the Muslim-majority country Qatar is heavily investing in the technology, and building a production plant with GOOD Meat.

Meanwhile, in the London Beth Din (Court of the Chief Rabbi), there's excitement at the prospect of a meat that could be a neutral food, under kosher law. Foods in milk or meat categories must be kept separate, so to have a neutral meat could provide a convenient loophole. And it could eventually provide cheaper kosher meat, which traditionally tends to be expensive.

As Rabbi Conway says: "This is an extraordinary breakthrough and potentially a very exciting development for the kosher consumer. If the meat was available on a commercial scale, we would need full details of the manufacturing process and the ingredients used to rule whether it was kosher, but potentially this could make life easier and cheaper for kosher consumers."

What would happen to farmers and their animals if cultivated meat takes off?

"We envision that small-scale conventional farming will still be used for premium meat cuts and dairy products for years to come," says Post. "This protein transition will happen over decades, and innovations rarely completely replace existing practices. Cellular agriculture has the potential to create a more balanced and symbiotic relationship between small-scale farmers, consumers and the planet."

Post's team is already partnering with a farmer in the Netherlands, who keeps a free-roaming, high-quality herd of Limousins, raised not for slaughter, but for regular biopsies for Mosa Meat's burgers. "The same way that crop farming currently provides feed for animals, we also require feed for our cells, using the same type of nutrients a cow needs," says Post. "We will work with farmers to grow the crops needed to feed our beef cells."

UPSIDE Foods takes a similar view, while Tetrick says GOOD Meat is developing a beef line, culturing meat cells from a company called Toriyama, which is a high-end wagyu beef producer in Japan. "That's another interesting thing about cultivating meat - you can use these high-end meat sources and the cost to do it isn't any more," Tetrick says.

It's not just meat that can be cultivated

Dairy, without the cow

From milk to ice-cream to cream cheese, Perfect Day 's milk protein is already available in over 5,000 stores across the US. But instead of being made by cattle, it's produced by a fungus genetically programmed to create cow whey protein, using the same precision fermentation technology responsible for medical insulin. And the best bit: it's lactose free.

Egg whites, without the chicken

Precision fermentation is used by Every Company to make egg white, as well as a soluble version of the protein that even the fussiest palate would be hard-pressed to taste or see, making it an ideal additive for protein-boosting drinks and other products.

Bluefin tuna, but no fishing

As the name suggests, Finless Foods is creating animal-free fish. The company cultures bluefin tuna cells in what it calls a microbrewery-style production facility. I was lucky enough to attend an early prototype testing in 2017, and I can confirm that the fish croquettes tasted subtly of a sea in which the cells had never swum.

No-hunt exotic beasts

Start-up Primeval Foods sees the next logical step in culturing meat cells as a chance to taste exotic, off-limits animals such as lion and zebra. After launching in 2022, Primeval Foods is already promising imminent tastings in London and New York, and has so far released pack shots of tiger steak and zebra sushi rolls.

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What is lab-grown meat? How it's made, environmental impact and more

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It wasn't long ago that the idea of the meat on our plates coming from vast stainless steel bioreactors, rather than farmed animals, seemed like science fiction. The notion has gone through numerous rebrands since its early positing as 'vat meat', which triggered unappealing visions of high-tech Spam.

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The medical profession has taken a long time to accept that what we eat has a big impact not just on our bodies but also on our brains. In fact, one of the earliest studies looking at the impact of food on depression was carried out by Prof Felice Jacka, from the Food and Mood Centre in Melbourne, and she told me it was a real struggle to get patients and to get funding.

For Jacka's study, 67 patients with moderate or severe depression were randomly allocated to either a Mediterranean-style diet or 'social support'. Those allocated to the Mediterranean-style diet were asked to eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, fish and olive oil. They cut back on sweets, refined cereals, fried food, fast food, processed meats and sugary drinks.

Despite the relatively small number of people in the trial, after 12 weeks they saw significant differences between the two groups, with 32 per cent of those on the Med diet going into remission (able to reduce medication and no longer considered 'moderately depressed') compared with 8 per cent in the control group.

Those who stuck closest to the Mediterranean diet enjoyed the biggest improvement in mood. Since then, several other groups have made similar findings.
Read more from Michael Mosley:
So what's going on? Well, some of the components of the Med diet (such as oily fish and the olive oil) have a well-established anti-inflammatory effect, and there is mounting evidence that many cases of depression and anxiety may be linked to brain inflammation. But the foods that make up the Mediterranean diet also boost 'good' bacteria in your gut, and they, in turn, produce their own anti-inflammatory compounds. Foods which have a positive effect on our mood are called 'psychobiotics'.

As part of a new podcast series I've made for the BBC called Just One Thing, I interviewed Dr Kirsten Berding Harold, a researcher from University College Cork, who is part of a team who first coined the word, 'psychobiotics'.

In one of her most recent studies she asked a group of volunteers to eat what she calls, 'microbiota-friendly food', which included more wholegrains, fruits and vegetables, but also fermented foods like kefir (a form of fermented yoghurt), which are rich in probiotics.

Their mood and microbiota were tested at the beginning and end of the study, and there were some impressive changes. Not only did their microbiome change, but as Kirsten explained, "after four weeks on the diet they felt a lot less stressed and had an improved mood. So the preliminary results suggest that it really does help your mood and mental health to eat a diet that is microbiota friendly."

Further support for this theory comes from another recent study by researchers from the University of Surrey. They asked 64 young women to consume either a daily placebo or a capsule containing a prebiotic, a fibre that encourages the growth of 'good bacteria', for a month. At the end of the trial it was those who got the prebiotic capsules who reported the biggest improvements in anxiety levels and who also had better gut health.

More good reasons to improve your diet!

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Dr Michael Mosley: What to eat to beat stress and improve your mood

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The medical profession has taken a long time to accept that what we eat has a big impact not just on our bodies but also on our brains.

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The Magic of Chemistry - with Andrew Szydlo

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

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Summer Science Exhibition 2022

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The Royal Society's popular Summer Science Exhibition went totally digital for 2021.

With a packed programme of inspiring talks, fun science from home activities and exciting digital content, there is something for all ages.

Nineteen research groups from across the UK demonstrate their research through innovative digital experiences, from escape rooms and quizzes to virtual tours and digital games.

You can explore all the cutting-edge research through our interactive Summer Science hub, with four exciting zones:

Zone 1: View from above
Blast off to the view from above zone to discover where galaxies come from, how we can track carbon from space, whether there has ever been life on Mars or simply marvel at how the iconic images from Hubble have changed the way we view our Universe forever.

Zone 2: Urban landscape
Explore the urban landscape zone to find out how microbes can turn rubbish into riches, test whether you can tell a landmine from a bottle top, design your own aeroplane based on a birds' wing, test your eye control with the latest in robot simulations or discover how our air could be fresh again.

Zone 3: Under the skin
Delve under the skin in our zone dedicated to bodily research. Explore how tumours are made of different types of cells, why humans are smelly or how researchers are learning to grow new body parts from stem cells. Try your hand at creating 3D-printed personalised pills or ask yourself if you would connect your brain to the internet.

Zone 4: Forces of nature
Bring the outdoors in and explore the forces of nature zone. Do you know what a bee's favourite flower is, or what the last day of the dinosaurs looked like? Discover what happens when we have too much water and take a forward look as we see how nature can help us to tackle the climate emergency and help us build a more sustainable future.

In addition to the zones there is a programme of short, online lightning lectures as well as interactive workshops and family shows. The Big Summer Science Quiz returns with science-themed rounds from well-known faces, so get your team together!

Catch up on YouTube.

Take part in Summer Science on demand

History of the Summer Science Exhibition

For more than three decades, every year in July the Royal Society has opened the doors to its building in central London and welcomed thousands of visitors to meet the researchers behind some of the leading science in the UK.

More than 700 researchers from across the country take part, talking to visitors about their work and demonstrating the scientific principles and discoveries with hands-on interactives and talks. As the UK's national academy of science, the Royal Society is committed to demonstrating the importance of science to everyone, and the Summer Science Exhibition is our flagship public engagement event.

Its history dates back to 1778 when the President at the time, Joseph Banks, started 'conversaziones' (later known as the Soirees). An opportunity for Fellows of the Royal Society to show their latest research and breakthroughs, they have since developed into the annual public Summer Science Exhibition.

For 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Science Exhibition will run an online only programme of content.

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Summer Science 2021 - On-Demand Science Events | Royal Society

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Online escape rooms, virtual tours and interactive digital exhibits are at this year's Summer Science Exhibition! Join us on-demand.

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Interesting science articles - BBC Focus

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Interesting science articles - BBC Focus

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There are a range of articles in this magazine including new science discoveries, your questions answered and wonderful photographs. There is something for every science discipline

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Get the latest science news, future tech, and wonders of the natural world from the UK's no.1 science and technology monthly magazine (formerly BBC Focus).

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These short science clips cover many topics from physics, chemistry and biology

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I have always been fascinated by YouTube. Think about it - you land on YouTube and before you know it, hours have passed; we have all been there! It doesn't matter if you're looking for cat videos, exotic recipes, or everyday science applications. YouTube has it all, provided you know where and how to look. And personally, I believe that nothing on YouTube can demonstrate endless possibilities better than the world of science.

That's right! There are some great science-oriented YouTube channels out there, all of which specially cater to anyone that is interested in the wonders of science. What better way to explore the latest research updates, talks by subject matter experts, and the enthralling mysteries of the world we live in, than through visually engaging videos!

Now, given your packed schedules, I understand that you couldn't possibly have the time to browse through YouTube hoping to stumble upon relevant channels. So, in this post, I've put together a list of the 20 most fascinating science YouTube channels for you! This list has something for everyone - whether you're fascinated by physics, captivated by chemistry, or astounded by the wonders of astronomy.

For each YouTube channel, I've included the kind of topics it covers and also one of its videos. This should help you quickly decide which channels are most suited to you. I hope you enjoy reading this article and find interesting YouTube channels you can subscribe to!

Embodying the core of science communication, the YouTube channel showcases videos that capture the latest in "scientific news, commentary and cutting-edge research." The channel hosts more than 500 interesting videos, categorized into playlists covering fields like archaeology, heath and disease, and genetics. Each video - functioning as a visual abstract for a paper published in Science - explains the premise of the paper and highlights its key findings in a creative, visually engaging manner.

YouTube channel is surely one of the most fun science-related YouTube channels! Populated with over 250 vibrant and engaging videos, AsapSCIENCE provides a "weekly dose of fun and interesting science." Every week, AsapSCIENCE shares a video that is focussed on answering a question pertaining to broad topics like health, nature, food, and much more. If the idea of merging science and music fascinates you, then be sure to explore the channel's

Ever considered breaking down complex physics concepts using animated videos? Seems like an inconceivable feat, right? Well, not for Henry Reich, physicist and creator of minutephysics. With over 200 videos, this YouTube channel has been inspired by the Einstein quote - If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Tackling concepts such as relativity of simultaneity, black holes, and quantum mechanics, the channel offers quick, entertaining explanations of old and new problems in physics using an engaging animated video format. If you're a physics enthusiast, minutephysics is definitely worth your time.

Founded by Information Designer Philipp Dettmer, Kurzgesagt (which literally means "in a nutshell" in German) showcases videos that explain science with "optimistic nihilism." Kurzgesagt is made up of a small, passionate team that is driven to "make science look beautiful." They believe that no topic can be boring if you are a stellar storyteller. With close to 80 videos, this Munich-based YouTube channel paints colourful yet informative stories on topics such as genetic engineering, nuclear energy and biology.

was created by Dr. Derek Muller, PhD in Physics Education Research and science communicator. Explained best by Dr. Muller himself, the Veritasium YouTube channel provides "science and engineering videos featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science." Showcasing more than 240 videos, the channel breathes life into topics such as inertia, schlieren imaging, and misconceptions about the universe.

Simply put, the Numberphile YouTube channel features riveting videos about numbers. Created by video journalist and film-maker Brady Haran, Numberphile is one of 17 other channels either created by Brady or on which he is a contributor. With over 450 videos, Numberphile showcases insightful commentary by prolific mathematicians and other experts in the field of mathematics such as Hannah Fry, Cédric Villani, and Dr. Holly Krieger. Each of these hosts holds a mathematical lens over topics such as perfect numbers, marriage, crime, sports, and origami.

If you are a history buff and love museums and exploring the beginnings of authentic artifacts, then you simply have to swing by The Brain Scoop YouTube channel. Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum, Chicago, is the writer, producer, co-creator, and host of this channel. In her own words, thebrainscoop was created to give a behind-the-scenes peek of The Field Museum which houses a collection of close to 40 million artifacts and specimens. Through her YouTube channel, Emily aims to "share the work of scientists and the value of research collections with the world." With close to 200 videos, the channel will take you through the fascinating world of fossils, meteors, the "Rare Book Room" at the Field Museum, and much more!

Created by science communicator Dianna Cowern, the Physics Girl YouTube channel provides videos about physics, astronomy, and other science-related topics. What started as a post-college personal project now caters to the needs of varying groups including educators and physics nerds. Housing more than a 100 interesting videos, the channel features DIY (Do It Yourself) demonstrations, expert interviews, physics applied to everyday life situations, and much more! Cleverly explained by Dianna herself, the channel has "physics videos for every atom and eve."

The MinuteEarth YouTube channel was created by a group of scientists, writers, and illustrators, all of whom are passionate about sharing their curiosity with the world. Determined to expand "the world of online stick-figure science explanations," Henry Reich (creator or minuteephysics) along with his associates Emily Elert, Alex Reich, Peter Reich, Ever Salazar, Kate Yoshida, and David Goldenberg started the channel in 2013. Housing over 150 videos, MinuteEarth addresses several mysteries of the world and science such as why do rivers curve, what are brain waves, and why syrup is sticky.

Annually celebrated, the World Science Festival was created by the World Science Foundation, a non-profit organization. The World Science Festival YouTube channel showcases the gathering of "great minds in science and the arts." Their goal is to enable a broader audience to engage with scientific discoveries. With a rich archive of more than 950 videos, the channel covers topics such as neuroscience, self-taught robots, hidden dimensions, and more!

The Talk Nerdy To Me YouTube channel is an original HuffPost Science video series. According to the channel's creators, it is meant to boldly go "where scientists ... have gone before." Hosted by Karah Preiss, each of the videos featured on Talk Nerdy To Me delves into varying science-related topics from the perspective of a layperson. Posting one new video every week, the channel aims to explain some of the most intricate, complex scientific concepts and reflects how these affect our lives.

Created by Numberphile creator Brady Haran, the Periodic Videos YouTube channel is a chemistry video series run by Brady and professors from the University of Nottingham. The channel hosts a whopping 641 videos and posts new videos every week. One of the channel's most fascinating features is that it showcases a video for each element on the periodic table. Periodic Videos also posts science news updates, the latest developments in the world of chemistry, and other interesting chemistry-related topics.

Another YouTube channel devoted to "uncovering the chemistry in everyday life" is Reactions. Created by Adam Dylewski, Director of Programming at PBS Digital Studios, Reactions belongs to the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. The channel aims to answer "burning questions" on food chemistry, medicinal drugs, the human body, and animals, amongst other interesting topics!

If you're looking for videos that present interesting science and technology applications, then you will love the Applied Science YouTube channel. Showcasing over 200 videos, Applied Science is hosted by Ben Krasnow, Senior Staff Hardware Engineer at Verily. Every Tuesday, Ben posts a video of an exciting, challenging project he's been working on. These hi-tech projects could deal with fields like chemistry, electromechanical systems, and electronics. Explore Applied Science to learn how to 3D print your brain, how anti-theft tags work, how an electron microscope was built in a home shop, and much more!

The acapellascience YouTube channel is suitable for anyone who wants to learn about science through the fun medium of music, particularly "Acapella music." Created by Tim Blais, who refers to himself as a "science musician," acapellascience features captivating explanations of science-related topics, such as entropic time, gravity, how humans evolved from single-celled organisms. What makes this channel so unique is that each explanation takes the form of a catchy, perfectly harmonized acapella song - or as Tim likes to call them - musical science extravaganzas!

The Deep Astronomy YouTube channel is a great choice for anyone looking for space documentaries on YouTube. Founder Tony Darnell says that he has "been in love with the night sky for as long as he can remember." With over 500 videos, the channel caters to "Space Fans" who are interested in learning concepts and getting first-hand updates about the latest discoveries in astronomy. According to Tony, he tries to present these concepts "in a way that provides some perspective of the importance of astronomy in our daily lives."

So there you have it - 20 fascinating YouTube channels for anyone with a hankering for science and its wonders! What did you think of the list? Have you already bookmarked a couple of your favorites? Do you know of any other such interesting science-related YouTube channels that we may have missed? Tell us in the comments section! We'd love to hear your views and suggestions!

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Top 20 fascinating YouTube channels for science junkies

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YouTube can be a great source of engaging science-related videos if you know where to look. This article lists the top 20 most fascinating YouTube channels for researchers and science buffs. This list has something for everyone - whether you're fascinated by physics, captivated by chemistry, or astounded by the wonders of astronomy.

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This film, with David Attenborough celebrates life on our planet and also questions our influence on other organisms. It has beautiful imagery - enjoy!

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Our Planet | One Planet | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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We all know the feeling. The telltale build-up of hydrogen and methane in your large intestine. The discomfort as the gases expand and the mortal dread that comes as the pressure builds. They want out. They're going to evacuate, violently if necessary, from one end of the digestive tract or the other, as is nature's way. But why now? Why here, in the middle of a job interview or the first meeting with your partner's aristocratic parents?

Flatulence doesn't care about your schedule, unfortunately. But it could be a lot worse than a burp over dinner or a bottom burp in an overpopulated elevator. Spare a thought for the characters of A Quiet Place, the sci-fi-horror film starring Emily Blunt in which blind, carnivorous aliens hunt people down with their acute sense of hearing. Forget the embarrassment, this is a world in which farts are fatal.

As A Quiet Place Part II is released in cinemas, it got us thinking. How long could a human being suppress a touch of the windy-pops? And what would happen if you tried to hold it for too long? Strangely, the scientific literature is somewhat thin, but some researchers do have insights because what happens when we fart is fairly well understood.

"On average, a person passes wind around 15 times a day," says Julie Thomson at the digestive health charity Guts UK. "We really don't know how long a person could go without passing wind (and the safety aspects of that) from a science basis - it also has to be said that it would be difficult to suppress wind for long."

We expel around 2.5 litres of gas a day. It could be air we've inadvertently swallowed or gas released when gut bacteria get to work on undigested carbohydrates. When we try to hold in a toot, a guff, an angel's whisper, we feel discomfort - but it can potentially lead to other problems, too.
Read more about digestion:
Professor Claire Collins is research director at the University of Newcastle School of Health in Australia. In an article for The Conversation, she discussed research which linked the retention of gas to a condition called diverticulitis, where 'pouches' develop in your gut lining and lead to inflammation. The jury's out, she tells Science Focus.

"It's unclear whether the risk of diverticulitis was increased or not," she says. "The main research [is] related to reabsorption of gasses and then expulsion in the breath."

That's right. A fart you hold in for too long could eventually be expelled as foul breath, as your stomach balloons until some of the gas is reabsorbed into your circulation. When you bear in mind that this can include hydrogen sulphide - the stuff that causes the smelliest farts - maybe holding in wind isn't worth the effort.

But what about poor old Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place? Even then, where an unexpected trumpet could bring a pack of monsters down on you, letting rip is better than holding tight. Because, says Thomson, the more you hold it in, the more likely it is to make a noise since that only builds pressure inside your body.

"The sound is made by the speed (or perhaps more precisely the pressure) of the gas and this might depend on the contractions of the bowel and the amount of gas produced and the shape of the anus - narrower will likely produce more sound," she says.

"There are ways of reducing it but the options in a healthy person would be to reduce ingested gas. Reduce carbonated drinks, stop chewing gum, stop smoking and eat slowly, chewing food well. If fibre is reduced, this results in constipation which is not helpful and could make the situation worse."

Got that, Em?

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A Quiet Place Part II: Could the characters really hold their farts in for that long?

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We all know the feeling. The telltale build-up of hydrogen and methane in your large intestine. The discomfort as the gases expand and the mortal dread that comes as the pressure builds. They want out. They're going to evacuate, violently if necessary, from one end of the digestive tract or the other, as is nature's way.