ShmoopTube

00:03

Here’s your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Auxin.

00:06

If your plants don’t have it, you’re “auxin” for trouble.

00:10

Here’s a passage about plant patterning, and two viewpoints given by scientists.

00:14

Take a gander.

00:40

According to Scientist 2, why do plant patterns come in waves or periods?

00:46

Let’s take a look at the possible answers.

00:53

It’s helpful to keep in mind that whenever a sentence begins with “according to,”

00:58

that’s a good indicator that you should go back and look again at what they said.

01:03

For example, if someone said, “According to your uncle Gary, he wrestled a police horse

01:07

to try and get out of a parking ticket.”

01:11

You bet we’re going to go back and look at that.

01:13

Anyhow, the question is explicitly about Scientist 2, so let’s review just that part.

01:18

Let’s look at possible answer A: “Because auxin is produced in waves.”

01:22

Nope, that’s not what Scientist 2 said. At all. Not even close.

01:27

Answer B… wait, what? “Because that’s the way it happens?”

01:30

This is supposed to be science!

01:32

Saying something like “just because” is the exact opposite of science.

01:36

There’s no method, there’s no proof, no testing.

01:38

Oh gosh, don’t get me started. No, it’s not B.

01:42

What about C? “Because stress varies, and the structures that follow the pattern also vary.”

01:49

This sounds oddly familiar. In fact, it sounds like the same phenomenon Scientist 2 described.

01:55

OK, C, you look pretty good. We’ll come back to you in a second.

01:58

And, because good scientists never make a claim until they’re sure, we’re going to go check out D here.

02:03

“Because PIN1 is clustered in waves.”

02:06

Well, Scientist 2 never said anything of the sort.

02:13

There we have it, our answer is C. As in:

02:15

We’ll “see” Uncle Gary in 4 to 6 with good behavior.

Full Transcript