Cody Reeder is an American

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, amateur scientist, mechanic and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

personality. He runs the popular YouTube channel Cody'sLab.

Life

Reeder was born and raised near

Grantsville, Utah Grantsville is the second most populous city in Tooele County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,617 at the 2020 census. The city has grown slowly and steadily throug ...

, on "an off grid ranch in the west desert". He has worked as a mechanic, and studied geology at Westminster College and

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Uta ...

, but was later academically suspended due to a low GPA.

Experiments

Having joined YouTube in 2011, Reeder initially began posting videos of his experiments to show to his grandmother: "I would do science experiments all the time anyway ... Then other people started watching them", he explained in a 2017 interview. His channel Cody'sLab reached 100,000 subscribers in October 2015. Having not received his

silver play button YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons or YouTube Plaques, are a series of awards from YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. They are based on a channel's subscriber count but are offered at the sole ...

six months later, Reeder celebrated reaching 250,000 subscribers by forging a homemade play button out of genuine

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

. He reached 1,000,000 subscribers in early 2017. Reeder first gained considerable media attention in 2016, after posting a video of himself drinking water containing a small, diluted amount of

cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

. The purpose was to prove how the dosage defines toxicity. While emphasizing that the amount he consumed (17 mg) was considerably smaller than any lethal dose, Reeder said he did experience certain effects such as rapid breathing. This video, among others, has since been removed from his channel. Similar experiments however, such as him drinking heavy water, " hydric acid" (

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...

), and breathing in all the

noble gas The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low che ...

es, remain available as of January 2021. In 2017, his channel was suspended for two weeks, following received strikes. The reason was suspected to be a video on the science behind how small insects (Reeder used

fruit flies Fruit fly may refer to: Organisms * Drosophilidae, a family of small flies, including: ** ''Drosophila'', the genus of small fruit flies and vinegar flies ** ''Drosophila melanogaster'' or common fruit fly ** '' Drosophila suzukii'' or Asian fruit ...

, of unspecified species) can survive being

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different fre ...

d, while larger ones cannot. Preceding the suspension, an increase in flagged videos and concern that his account may be deactivated, prompted Reeder to create a back-up channel. An article on TubeFilter blamed "overzealous viewers" for generating the automatic strikes, writing that Reeder's channel is both "wholesome and family-friendly", and commenting on how YouTube's strike system also affects those "who stay well within the bounds of acceptable content". In a 2019 video explaining a period of channel inactivity, Reeder mentioned how some of his videos, although intended to be used for educational purposes, had been flagged by YouTube, showing a warning he received for a video on making gunpowder from urine. In the same video, Reeder explained how he also had been visited by United States government agents, after publishing several videos on

isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass number ...

isolation and

nuclear radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

. The agents, equipped with

geiger counter A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental ...

s, did not find anything of concern, and Reeder himself said that they were only trying to help him not get in trouble in the future. He has also received media attention after becoming one of the 100 finalists of the abortive

Mars One Mars One was a small private Dutch organization that received money from investors by claiming it would use it to land the first humans on Mars and leave them there to establish a permanent human colony. From its announcement in 2012 to its ...

project, having been selected from over 200,000 applicants.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeder, Cody Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American Internet celebrities Educational and science YouTubers Education-related YouTube channels Online edutainment People from Grantsville, Utah Technology YouTubers Video bloggers YouTube vloggers Westminster College (Utah) alumni Utah State University alumni