The Taxonomy of Candy
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- Опубліковано 23 бер 2016
- In our previous video 'What is a Species?,' we talked about the many ways scientists approach classifying organisms. So, I thought it'd be fun to get a few scientists from The Field Museum to apply their taxonomic know-how on something we're all familiar with: candy! How would you have organized these various confections?
This experiment in classification can be used with anything from pasta, to cell phones, beverages, cereals... seriously, start asking your friends and family if they think Pepsi and Coca-Cola are synonymous species, or similar via convergent evolution, and you're sure to have a lively Tuesday night.
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Thanks to Drs Olivier Rieppel, Janet Voight, Margaret Thayer, and Larry Heaney for entertaining this very serious topic.
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Producer, Writer, Creator, Host:
Emily Graslie
Producer, Editor, Camera, Graphics:
Brandon Brungard
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This episode is supported by and filmed on location at:
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"...Different species of jellybellies."
How delightful.
Characteristics of Taxonomists: cute, grandparent-ish, wears glasses
+turdl38 Not true for all! A few of the younger taxonomists on staff were out of town giving lectures, or on field expeditions when we filmed this.
I figured as much, just made me laugh that these 4 all are.
+turdl38 +thebrainscoop We evidently need a clearer taxonomy of taxonomists.
I propose we start grouping them according to which candy they like best.
+srpilha Brilliant!
Of course, we can also look to the candy manufacturing process for more insights into this phylogeny. For example, fetal M&Ms lack their candy coating, which suggests that they are more closely related to groups such as truffles or chocolate-covered peanuts.
Nathan Ong so, as a "fetal" peanut M&M is a peanut, would that be a highly derived nut or a weird members of the chocolates?
Josh Adams Horizontal gene transfer.
I suppose the common ancestor of all this candy would be sugar?
TheImpiroGirl but if we take the common ancestor we should be doing phylogenetics :3
I understand the larger lesson you're trying to teach here, but seriously, as far as the candy is concerned, I want a consensus and a chart. This is important.
+schmittelt There was no final consensus! But, I do encourage viewers to come up with charts they believe logical. And then they must defend their methods in front of peer reviewers
+thebrainscoop I support JoneseyBanana M&M theory. I believe that should be a starting point.
Anyone else?
+schmittelt I support the theory that each type of candy, Jelly Belly's for instance, are a genus and each different colour/flavour is a species
Different colors could equally well be subspecies, or merely phenotypes, based on the available evidence. Clearly more study is needed, but in the cases where they were collected together I lean towards phenotypes.
Well, you have Fatty and Low-Fat kingdoms. Chocolate and Reeses Pieces are phyla in the Lipid-Rich kingdom. Under chocolate, you would have things coated in chocolate, and solid chocolate with things in it (bars and so on). Under the chocolate-coated phylum are candy-coated and uncoated classes (m&M species vs truffles). Orders under these would include coated or uncoated chocolates, each with a set of families covering solid, liquid, or peanut butter, or nougaty centers).
In the kingdom of Low-Fat or "sugar-based" candies, you have Hard, Chalky, and Soft phyla. Under Soft you may have Taffy vs gummy classes. In this regime, the starburst, both genera in the family of jelly-beans, and most of those other gummy-types would be in an order based on their common ancestor -- Turkish Delight, and their genera would be by flavor.
+Rob Kinney Brilliant.What do you make of candies that have a chocolate coating surrounding a gummy center? (See; Brookside candy bit.ly/1RkcFJN)
+thebrainscoop I LOVE CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
+thebrainscoop They're the fungi of the candy world.
+thebrainscoop I think it depends on what is more important to the identity/appeal of the candy. Is it a gummy that has branched off traits of a chocolate. Or is it primarily a chocolate with gummy as an added bonus. I think the difference with candy evolution is that you have high cross kingdom/phylum/order/family/species breedings so a classic tree arrangement is probably not going to hold. My guess is you will need a multi-dimentional graph.
+thebrainscoop Well, it could be considered a chocolate candy that has a gummy-derived organelle at its center. A gummyplast, if you will. Or they might be a symbiotic compound candy, similar to corals with their obligately symbiotic zooxanthellae. In any case, they are by their gummy nature descended from Turkish Delight, so this does have to be accounted for in their classification.
This was so fun! I also really appreciate the ending point - asking whether order is inherent or observed after we've seen all the ways different professionals may construct their candy taxonomy.
Also, until I went college I said "Ree-sees Pee-sees" because that's how my family says it, for some reason. I just never thought about it and finally read the label when I was, like, 20? Was mortified to think how many people I'd said that in front of and who just kindly nodded without saying anything. Probably not many - but juuuust enough.
+PBS Idea Channel Thanks Mike!! and never fear, I still call them Ree-sees Pee-sees much to the chagrin of everyone around me. I didn't do it in this video 'cuz... people would write lots of comments about it. PEE-CEES FOR LIFE.
Reese's Pieces, an American brand of candy with a peanut-butter flavored center inside a thin sugary shell (like M&Ms, but with peanut butter instead of chocolate). Neither monkeys nor fish (pisces) involved!
Sweet!
I just love the juxtaposition of applying advanced taxonomic schemes to something as commonplace as candy! I guess that was the whole point.
I love your channel!
I may share this with my mom. She works at the local library and does some science programs for kids sometimes, and this would be the perfect activity to teach them taxonomy. Would have to think of something to replace the peanut candies though because allergies.
I'm a little sad it wasn't mentioned how the different classification schemes will be useful to different people as a result of their specific needs. Someone might classify for color, for example, if they had an aversion or reaction to a specific kind of dye. Retailers might benefit from classification by manufacturer, whereas consumers probably wouldn't care. Someone who is planning a hiking trip might classify by weight, caloric density, or melting point. It all depends on what you need the classification to do for you.
Still, this is an excellent way to demonstrate the concept.
+Chasmodius You do realize this was just an example to be used to help explain taxonomy to kids right? Your entire post is meaningless and gives insight into your own arrogant stupidity.
+Mpollett OH! King of the world! I didn't think I'd meet you here!
Sorry basic alternative white girl. I am not the king of the world. As a matter of fact there is no king of the world. Perhaps you should do some reading on international politics so you don't seem so stupid all the time. But of course we all know you will still be stupid. :)
Mpollett Oh, the King of the World is so humble. *curtsies*
+Mpollett This post is meaningless. Yet it's here.
Wow!, my very first subtitles for a UA-cam video have just been published. Now "The taxonomy of Candy" has ITALIAN subtitles! Yay! Subtitles in UA-cam: CHECK!
+JWentu Thank you so much for taking the time to contribute them! I appreciate it - and I'm sure our Italian-speaking followers do, too. :)
This is the best way to teach science. Ever.
Just don't get the opinion of a dentist and trust me on this one.
+Ry P Since when do dentists usually teach science? Their job isn't to teach.
Jack Lam no candy
You kidding? Drum up some business!
Yeah "lost" them... though Im not a big fan of black licorice.
What actually happened was that I offered them to Margaret since she was the last interview and then we remembered we had to record the candy shots. :p
+thebrainscoop So you're saying if we want to find the black liquorice we should start interrogating Magaret. "Pardon me Margaret, show us your tongue."
+Majoofi nah I would give Margaret candy any day. She is one of the nicest people I've ever met. And, brilliant!
+Majoofi Okay, we'll let it slide this time.
+thebrainscoop It's ok as long as the black liquorice was enjoyed. I just wouldn't want any to go to waste.
Great video! I wonder if you could sequence candy DNA, would that settle this once and for all?
PS - Reese's Pieces do not have chocolate in them!
PPS - Black licorice are definitely Archaea, as I predicted on Twitter :)
Hey, Joe. I have been wondering, philosophically, is my life satisfying. With so much suffering in the world, I just want to know, how do I get through life without thinking about this, and how to positively understand the surrounding world of my daily life. Sorry if this is not your interest.
Well, it'll make the molecular taxonomists happy, but you'd get a lot of pushback from comparative anatomists who would call into question the ability of genetics to resolve the explosive diversification of M&Ms.
RegalPlatypus excuse me?
+RegalPlatypus True. A peanut m&m and pretzel m&m are much more of a evolution of the m&m, versus being a covergent evolution of the peanut or pretzel.
Mnms and
Lol I think that one guy is just hungry.
In my taxonomy class in university the first task was to organise characters from Disney, you know Donald and Dolly and the others. The trouble is that you "know" that some are ducks and some are mice and some are dogs, but the clothes and features are not consistent within species. And when you go through them you have to decide if their clothes count as characters or not. Very funny and quicky shows how difficult it is do decide what are the important traits, like they discuss with the colours of the candy in this video.
+Ingeborg Korme oh cool! That sounds like a great exercise.
.... is there any other character besides Donald that only wears a shirt/no pants though?
+thebrainscoop Well, I think Daisy only has a shirt. And Mickey only has pants while Minnie has a dress with her panties showing. Oh, and Winnie the Pooh and the nephews of Donald also have no pants. Also, it is strange that Pluto is a dog, but Goofy has clothes, but is also a dog. Oh, and Scrooge also has no pants, but foot covers.
:-D
But I loved that you didn't just explain how taxonomy works, but by letting the experts explore the candy you also showed the real prosess and we could hear how they were thinking. Very nice.
+thebrainscoop Porky Pig! Wearing a shirt with no pants can actually be called porky pigging.
this was really awesome, fun, & demonstrative!
He was right about the cinnamon and peanut butter. Here in Canada not long ago the Kraft brand of peanut butter released a cinnamon raisin flavour. I haven't yet tried it myself but I have had peanut butter on cinnamon raisin bread. Yum (and I'm not even a big cinnamon fan)!
Side note, when he mentioned separating them by chocolate and non-chocolate, the Reese's Pieces were moved to the chocolate side but they contain no chocolate. Just candy coated peanut butter lol.
+Crocheting Canuck ugh, the cinnamon raisin peanut butter was my favourite! I haven't seen it in local grocery stores in almost a year now, though :(
samurai squash
Nooooooo!
+samurai squash If you can find it, Peanut Butter & Co makes a "Cinnamon Raisin Swirl" flavor that's delicious. I can get it at most of the local chain supermarkets (I'm in Washington (USA)) and health food stores, but I've also seen it on Amazon.
+Crocheting Canuck Well.. A lot of candies are that hot cinnamon, which burns when you eat it at tastes awful..
This is such cool way of approaching taxonomy :) gotta love me some sweets
I think this one should have ended with, "It still has jelly-beans on it."
I love the way the experts just jump into the task at hand. At least on camera they don't question the validity of the experiment or get huffy about being silly. They just classify that candy, the best they can with the limited information they have. It was very fun to watch and I think it was a great way to explain it
The question I was waiting for you to ask....if you were to dump all jars into a big bowl, do the taxonomists believe that they would classify them back into their original jars, piece by piece?
+Peter Collin This is an interesting point - I considered not putting the candy in individual jars, and instead dumping it all together and having them extract similar 'specimens' that way, however, an important component when classifying organisms is the context in which they were initially collected. Janet goes into this a bit when she discusses "lots" of specimens - the Reese's Pieces all from one river in 'La-La Land.' Perhaps they would be more inclined to sort by color as a first pass, should they all have been in one massive lot.
+thebrainscoop to give a bowl of bats, hippopotami, people, shrews, and dogs and ask candy-ologists 'which are classed as mammalian' would be the inverse of giving boxes of claded boxes of candies and asking taxonomists to "define"... this video was great
+
The ancestor of one group is the peanut. A mutant chocolate gene causes chocolate peanuts and peanut M&Ms to arise. From there the group diverges into peanut butter M&Ms, reece's pieces, and a group which secondarily loses all peanuttiness to become normal M&Ms.
I feel like the skittles and two types of jellybeans form a genus of some kind as well, but I'm not sure how the others fit in.
I was doing some field research into this very subject as I clicked on the link. I'm currently studying the migratory habits of American candy here in the UK. I don't know if it is linked with climate change, but a wider range of candy phyla have been discovered here, with each passing year.
I know from examining the structure of the migratory packs, that some species have in fact started breeding here. Several breeding grounds, or manufacturing plants, have been discovered across the UK.
I wish one day to visit the US to see how widespread the UK candy, or sweetie, migration is, as I heard reports that the predatory Hershey had driven the weaker UK sweetie into virtual extinction in the USA.
I can report that a few beloved Cadbury populations have been established throughout the US, although I am aware of cellular level differences between these US vs UK groups. Experts from the UK (see: Rosianna Halse Rojas twitter.com/papertimelady/status/711228266275741696) have publicly stated the US populations are "embarrassing," indicating discrepancies in the comparative groups.
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I wonder if the US genus Cadbury Choclatous is different enough to have it's own taxonomic classification, or whether it should be moved to a sub-genus? If specimens of UK candies are sent to the Field Museum, would they reach you, to aid with your research and attempts to confirm a standard taxonomy of candy?
Best comment & thread ever!
Alright, so, if we think about this.. Candy has a "survival of the fittest" mechanism behind it. It's form and taste serves a function; to please humans enough to conserve the recipe for later use.
Black liquorice is evolved to be please a particular set of people (we eat them a lot more in Holland). It has a niche. In Holland, we also have different combinations with black liquorice; particularly with winegums. However, people who don't enjoy black liquorice probably are not receptive to these combinations. So, any candy which incorporates liquorice is a family of it's own.
You can do this with the rest of the candy as well until you arrive at the different species of candy.
Which we also call "target audience".
Interesting to see professionals in the fields having different approaches at setting up the taxonomies and they all vary from each other! I'm currently in my 3rd year of med school and learning the taxonomy of microorganisms isn't the easiest nor most intuitive job ever...
I don't know about Lala Land but it certainly looks like these species all came from Wonkaland (not to be confused with Oompa Loompa Land).
It's actually very interesting to see a scientific approach to classification. It may seem silly to do it with candy but in reality, this is what scientists do, especially taxonomists, when having to approach a problem. Look for as many possible variables as possible, assign them values, classify the samples according to their values for each variable, see if there are any correlations, etc.
The comment about classifying by color (the red birds) made me think of something. With taxonomy, thanks to evolution, it is possible to use genetic data to understand which features take priority during classification. But with candy, it seems quite reasonable to classify by color, at least superficially. We tend to think it's normal and okay for different types of jelly beans to be different colors (and also flavors though that can vary) but we could also look at it from a different perspective, we could say that there's red candy and green candy, the red candy may be jelly beans or skittles or what have you, but they're all the same color, while the green candy will have different shapes but again same color as each other. Dr Heaney makes a good point regarding classification based on color.
And ah, the philosophy of knowledge and understanding of the universe. The universe simply is, and we do our best to try and understand it even though we may be wrong or trying to force classification upon an unclassifiable world. It's still very stimulating to do, and can be helpful too.
Taxonomy was the main reason why I picked chemistry over biology. Watching this video reminds me of why I didn´t pick it, it feels too random for me.
... and then I went into cancer research.
+Euchale Ichselber as a fellow human, just want to thank you for all the work you do in cancer research (:
You could always go into quantum stuff, if you need more randomness in your research.
This novel way of presenting a core concept is absolutely awesome.
What a great way to explain the difficulties commonly found in taxonomy. Great content as usual. Keep up !
Yes, "lost" ;) I would have "lost" the M&Ms
Right she probably ate them🤣🤣
I didn't think I could ever not like a conversation on candy. Now, I need a grant to classify what type of candy will go into my tummy.
'guts of chocolate' is my new favourite phrase
These doctors and professionals are probably the most charismatic and most respectable people
Wow, I've actually been taxonomizing candy for fun lately, so I was surprised to see this video! I'll share my expertise: there's a good reason not to classify candy by color, and it's because although color is an important component of candy, it's not the most important characteristic. What makes a candy what it is is what the candy is made of: whether it's chocolate, caramel, gummy, etc. So putting red M&Ms in the same category as red Skittles doesn't make sense because the function and taste and effect of those two things are completely different.
I put everything chocolate-covered in one category, but it's a complex category because a lot of things can be inside the chocolate, and those things can be very similar to a kind of candy that's the same, but not covered in chocolate.
Then in another category, I have things that are basically solid chocolate, but might have bits and pieces of other things in them, like chocolate bars with peanuts or puffed rice. This has sub-categories like whether the chocolate is dark, white, or milk, and what other flavors or things are in it.
Most other candies tend to be pretty homogeneous, so they're pretty easy to categorize: gummies, marshmallow, hard candy, chalky candy, taffy, gum, toffee, marzipan, peanut butter candy, candy corns and the like, and those fruity chewy things with hard shells like Skittles.
Then there are the more obscure/weird things, like candy goo and pixie dust, and combinations of things might be in their own categories or as sub-categories of whatever is the main component of the candy.
The acquisition of chocolate coverings may in some or all instances be due to convergent evolution. If that's the case then, for instance, Milk Duds will be more closely related to plain caramels than they are to chocolate-covered raisins.
Such a wonderful concept in illustrating the difficulties of taxonomy. Yes, I will share with my librarian friends and others who have created taxonomies for websites.
Delightful.
All such good sports, and managed to still explain the process effectively, despite their mouths often being stuffed with candy.
+insomniacfolder they are not suppose to eat the specimens when sorting. this is all wrong
It's so cool hearing scientists talk scientifically about something so simple.
This is brilliant! :D
"I lost it!" ...or more likely "I ate it!" :D
Nope. She seems very intelligent and therefore would not go near the abominations.
I've watched shows where people talk indepth about the real histories of candy, and everything, and it's so so interesting to see other people breaking them up how they think they'd be best classified, this was such an awesome video.
I love how serious they all take it, they are clearly all very passionate about their field
This is awesome. Getting a bunch of experts to do something so silly and relatable to the masses while still making clear their thought process when approaching taxonomy.
Emily and the Brain Scoop team: thank you for continually bringing educational and entertaining content to this channel that is accessible but no less thought-provoking.
I love this video. It's an incredibly creative and fun way to introduce the subject. Great work.
I need to find this magical river full of reeses pieces. js....
It's in Detroit. good luck.
More videos with Dr Janet Voight please.
+arrowzfly21 "La-la Land" was the moment I decided to like the video.
+arrowzfly21 Yes please. I love seeing her and she does such cool stuff.
I adore the Costume Designer of this video production team ! Beautiful color scheme ! Good job !
They should show this in every elementary/middle school and have the kids classify their own candies after👍🏽
What about looking at the history of each candy company? You definitely have some convergent evolution there.
That's exactly what I would occupy myself with as a kid. Given a box of assorted sweets, I'd group them, I'd test them, I'd classify them, I'd give them a rarity value. I enjoyed taxonomic divisions/relations in various fields as soon as I understood what they were. My mom loves biology, she encouraged that passion in me )
I'm so happy for the Brainscoop being viewed by a larger audience! Great job, Emily and Brandon. I hope more people continue to watch in the future!
This was such a fantastic idea for a video. The general idea of taking someones methodology and applying it to an unusual subject could be a format in itself.
Very clever video, making us have a look at the thoughts of experts, treating a subject many people have knowledge of and can relate to. Well done!
A-MA-ZING!!! this is one of the best tBS episode ever. This game, this example, is PURE GENIUS and is perfect to let people understand more about taxonomy, evolution and biology in general. Kudos!
Love this concept!!! such a creative and interesting idea to explain taxonomy. Thank you!
This was super fascinating!! I loved Larry...he seemed pretty stoked to snack on the "specimens."
Scientists at the Field Museum are awesome.
What a fun video! I loved seeing all their different perspectives on how to classify candy. That's awesome.
This is absolutely charming! I love seeing the scientists play with this"problem"
I was really hoping this video would end with a nice taxonomy chart for what they decided.
this is a GREAT way to associate everything in every day life with the scientific methods. As juvenile as it can seem, the explanations from the professionals and applying that to something anyone can relate with, made this a great video and very engaging. thanks!!!
This was super cute. I'm subscribing.
this was so amazingly creative, and such an interesting take on how all these different scientists looked at the way to classify the candy! This was a lot of fun! :)
always love your videos keep up the good work!
What a wonderful way to explain taxonomy! Interesting, relatable, fun. Great learning tool Emily, thank you!
I honestly really adored how interesting and ridiculous this video was (because who would've ever though of classifying candy? Hahaha) because it's amazing how they're all going about their attempts to classify each of the candies and then they explain their reasonings and it's just great.
Woohoo Janet Voight! More octopus genatalia please!
Thumbs up for remembering Janet's research on octopus reproduction!
An absolutely brilliant and fun way to teach what taxonomy is. We should figure out more ways like this to teach children. Great video.
This would be a fantastic experiment for kids.
Also, I loved how each of these accomplished scientists had different approaches to the problem.
This is a great way to explain taxonomy. Really fun and funny.
Great video! Would love to see more of this.
"Do you eat the beetles that you study?"
"No, not normally...."
it seemed like they had a good time doing this (and eating the specimens!) what a interesting video!
This is the most in depth and pivotal moment in science.
Emily, I find you such an inspiration! You discovered science in you life and found a place and job for that passion. Your work, and your love of science has convinced me to continue to investigate and pursue science as I complete high school and prepare for college. Your videos and work with both uni. of Montana and the Field Museum inspire me to investigate and study more about the creatures that make up our world.
I've been waiting for this since yesterday, and I have to say it was definitely worth the wait.
You must be millennial if you think one day will ever qualify as a "wait" that's substantial, haha. ;-P
I'm not a millennial, I'm just really impatient when it comes to The Brain Scoop.
And after 3 years, on a video about candy... it still has brains on it.
I feel like the immediate, obvious place to start is that we know from the historical record that peanut M&Ms split off as a species from regular M&Ms.
This was so fun to watch, I'm subscribing. Yay!
This is a fantastic way to help give a basic understanding of taxonomy!
Thank you so much for this video! I am an upper elementary teacher and will definitely be using this exploration activity with my students and showing them this video after. Thank you for producing high quality content and giving us access to informal educational experiences we wouldn't otherwise have!
great video.way to make this subject accessible.
I like how they totally say you can't classify species by just color alone yet the one professor is totally doing it
What a great concept for a video, yet another reason I'm a fan.
THIS IS BRILLIANT!!! For true genius, though, have children involved in sorting the candy. Experts, you know!
Great 'out of the box' thinking, really dig it!
Love it, a joyful and educational episode!
I love that the mammalogist was the one who said, all the red together. Because that is exactly how real phylogenies are sometimes. Especially with plants, the consensus is thrown off all the time, but who says that he's necessarily wrong, when before genetics that was what they went on.
I love how seriously they all took this.
The Assoc Curator lady was getting into it lol, funny when she started referring to candy cores as 'guts'.
awesome way to learn!!
This was cool. Please post videos more often!!!
Cool beans, love the video. Happy Easter 🎈
+MadeofAwesome4ever Caught me, I forgot the jelly on a candy video 🎈
A new brainscoop video! It's basically Christmas.
Dammit Emily, now I want candy! Unless, of course, it DOES still have brains on it, in which case you can keep it. >.>
Great episode! TNX
i lost it when the guy asked if he could have one while he was sorting them
Brilliant video!
This video would be a great way to demonstrate scientific categorizing to kids! You guys do a great job of supplying great information while also putting it into words most average people can understand. I really think these videos will help out the modern population of people that are interested in sciences but don't have a good educational source to learn from. I really hope this gets people more interested in science. It's always been my favorite class! I really enjoy historical sciences like anthropology and paleontology because seeing how things improved over time is just too cool!