It's Okay To Be Smart

Épisode 1 - What's The Most Successful Species on Earth?

28 janvier 2013

Épisode 2 - The Odds of Finding Life and Love

11 février 2013

Épisode 3 - The Science and Beauty of Auroras

25 février 2013

Épisode 4 - Why is the Sky Any Color?

11 mars 2013

Épisode 5 - You Are Mainly Microbe!

25 mars 2013

Original Title: You Are 99% Microbe! Meet Your Microbiome

Épisode 6 - Are You Sharing a Breath With Isaac Newton?

8 avril 2013

Original Title: Whose Air Do You Share?

Épisode 7 - How Bees Can See the Invisible

22 avril 2013

Épisode 8 - Why Does Music Move Us?

8 mai 2013

Épisode 9 - Making Music from Space!

20 mai 2013

Épisode 10 - Why Does the Wind Blow?

3 juin 2013

Épisode 11 - Paying Attention in the Digital Age

17 juin 2013

Épisode 12 - The Science of Rainbows

1 juillet 2013

Épisode 13 - How Big Is the Solar System?

15 juillet 2013

Épisode 14 - Nature's Most Amazing Animal Superpowers

7 août 2013

Épisode 15 - There Are Millions of Skeletons Hidden In Washington, DC

9 septembre 2013

Original Title: There's Science Hidden In Our National Monuments

Épisode 16 - Why Do We Go to Space?

23 septembre 2013

Épisode 17 - Evolution: The Book Of Life

7 octobre 2013

Épisode 18 - Why Do Things Sound Scary?

28 octobre 2013

Épisode 19 - Do the Nobel Prizes Still Make Sense in the 21st Century?

4 novembre 2013

Original Title: Nobel Prizes: Past, Present... and Future?

Épisode 20 - Remembering Carl Sagan

18 novembre 2013

Épisode 21 - Ghosts of Evolution

25 novembre 2013

Épisode 22 - Exoplanets: Are There Other Earths?

2 décembre 2013

Épisode 23 - Is There Intelligent Life Beyond Earth?

9 décembre 2013

Épisode 24 - How To Read Science News

19 décembre 2013

Épisode 25 - Why Do We Cook?

23 décembre 2013

Épisode 1 - The Science of Snowflakes

6 janvier 2014

Épisode 2 - How Artist Claude Monet Was Kind Of Like a Honeybee

20 janvier 2014

Original Title: Claude Monet Was Half Honeybee

Épisode 3 - How Science Defines A Year

27 janvier 2014

Épisode 4 - The Scale of the Universe

3 février 2014

Épisode 5 - The Science of Kissing

10 février 2014

Épisode 6 - When Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact

19 février 2014

Épisode 7 - What Are The Most Important Science Images Ever?

25 février 2014

One picture can change the world.

Épisode 8 - How the Elements Got Their Names

3 mars 2014

There's a story inside every box.

Épisode 9 - Science of Marathon Running

17 mars 2014

26.2 miles of awesome human evolution.

Épisode 10 - There Was No First Human

24 mars 2014

No, YOUR grandfather was a fish.

Épisode 11 - "Sonic Hedgehog Gene" - Why You Have Thumbs And Not Fins

7 avril 2014

Original Title: Sonic the Hedgehog Is Why You Have Thumbs! Ever wonder why you have thumbs?

Épisode 12 - The Amazing Science of… DUST?

14 avril 2014

No use cleaning. The universe is full of dust.

Épisode 13 - The Far Future of the Universe

7 mai 2014

SPOILERS: It doesn't end well.

Épisode 14 - The Incredible Biological Connection We All Share With Our Mom

11 mai 2014

OG Title: Your Mom is LITERALLY Part Of You! Your mom's never far away..

Épisode 15 - The Science of Game of Thrones

19 mai 2014

You know nothing.

Épisode 16 - The Science of BBQ!!!

2 juin 2014

Science is delicious.

Épisode 17 - Why does Time Go Forward?

9 juin 2014

The past is different from the future. Why?

Épisode 18 - The Beautiful Cycles of Carbon and Oxygen In Your Body

13 juin 2014

OG Title: Every Breath You Take is Connected

Épisode 19 - Why Did We Blow on Nintendo Games?

30 juin 2014

if you played NES, you did it too. Did it work?

Épisode 20 - The Delicious Science of CHEESE!

7 juillet 2014

There's science in cheese? You'd cheddar believe it.

Épisode 21 - Why Your Brain is in Your Head

14 juillet 2014

Épisode 22 - You are an Upside-down Lobster

16 juillet 2014

Here's why you aren't built like a lobster.

Épisode 23 - How Your Body Knows Left from Right

18 juillet 2014

Why are our bodies so symmetrical, but our guts aren't?

Épisode 24 - The Sun is a Magnet!

21 juillet 2014

Sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, OH MY!

Épisode 25 - Sunburn, Sweat and the Science of Summer!

28 juillet 2014

A summertime look at why we sweat, why we burn, and why our fingers wrinkle in the pool.

Épisode 26 - The Oldest Living Things In The World

4 août 2014

Épisode 27 - What If There Were No Sharks?

11 août 2014

Épisode 28 - Where Does the Smell of Rain Come From?

18 août 2014

I smell a science storm a-comin'!!

Épisode 29 - What's The Deadliest Animal In The World?

25 août 2014

Besides humans, of course.

Épisode 30 - GOATS!

27 août 2014

(Goat SCIENCE, that is…)

Épisode 31 - The Real "Doctor Frankenstein"

2 septembre 2014

When it comes to science, is there a monster in us all?

Épisode 32 - The SCIENCE of BEER!!!

8 septembre 2014

Is beer the perfect beverage? Let's see what science says…

Épisode 33 - The Physics of Space Battles

22 septembre 2014

How scientifically accurate is your favorite sci-fi space battle?

Épisode 34 - Visiting the Largest Bat Colony on Earth!

29 septembre 2014

OG Title: Bats: Guardians of the Night To see all the great bat action, please watch in HD!!

Épisode 35 - A Slice of Pizza Science!

2 octobre 2014

How does math keep a folded slice from drooping?

Épisode 36 - Why Do Clouds Stay Up?

6 octobre 2014

There's nothing wrong with having your head in the clouds.

Épisode 37 - Why Does the Earth Have Layers?

13 octobre 2014

…or why we live on an onion made of magma.

Épisode 38 - How to See Time Travel!!!

20 octobre 2014

Behold the COSMOTRON 5000!!!

Épisode 39 - Ebola Explained

27 octobre 2014

Don't panic.

Épisode 40 - Why I'm Scared of Spiders

30 octobre 2014

The science of… OH GOD IS THAT A SPIDER?!

Épisode 41 - Why Are Some People Left-handed?

3 novembre 2014

The science of their sinister ways…

Épisode 42 - Are We Living In the Sixth Extinction?

17 novembre 2014

This time, we're the asteroid.

Épisode 43 - Where Do Birds Go In Winter?

24 novembre 2014

And where do they keep their suitcases?

Épisode 44 - Building Curiosity

1 décembre 2014

An ode to curiosity… with LEGO

Épisode 45 - Climate Science: What You Need To Know

8 décembre 2014

Learn the basic science of climate change in 24 easy steps

Épisode 46 - Why People Don't Believe In Climate Science

15 décembre 2014

Épisode 47 - Is Santa Real? (A Scientific Analysis)

22 décembre 2014

…and other Christmas mysteries answered with science!

Épisode 1 - Does My Dog Know What I'm Thinking?

5 janvier 2015

Épisode 2 - How Many Smells Can You Smell?

12 janvier 2015

How do we smell? Great! Thanks for asking!

Épisode 3 - There's No Such Thing As Cold

19 janvier 2015

If cold isn't real, then how can I feel it?

Épisode 4 - 5 Weird Involuntary Behaviors Explained!

26 janvier 2015

Yawns, hiccups, twitchy eyes (and more) explained!

Épisode 5 - What is Déjà Vu?!

2 février 2015

I feel like I've seen this video before…

Épisode 6 - How Many Heartbeats Do We Get?

9 février 2015

Science really gets my heart going…

Épisode 7 - Why Vaccines Work

16 février 2015

A dose of reality about vaccines…

Épisode 8 - Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?

23 février 2015

It's not the size of the month that matters…

Épisode 9 - Attack of the Zombie Parasites!

2 mars 2015

Did someone say BRAAAAAINS…?

Épisode 10 - What Color is the Universe?

16 mars 2015

Hint: It's not black

Épisode 11 - How Many Stars Are There?

23 mars 2015

Counting stars from the shore of the cosmic ocean…

Épisode 12 - %$?# Allergies!

30 mars 2015

It's the season for sneezin'!

Épisode 13 - The Recipe For Life…

6 avril 2015

We're cookin' in the primordial kitchen!

Épisode 14 - Antibiotic Resistance and the Rise of Superbugs

15 avril 2015

OG Title: Superbugs: The Empire Strikes Bacteria

Épisode 15 - Is Ultron Inevitable?

24 avril 2015

Épisode 16 - Could We Clone Ourselves?

4 mai 2015

Just be yourself! Or be your other self. Whichever.

Épisode 17 - What's The Loudest Possible Sound?

11 mai 2015

It’s definitely higher than “11”

Épisode 18 - Does The Moon Really Orbit The Earth?

18 mai 2015

What holds the moon up? Moonbeams!

Épisode 19 - The Essentials of Energy

26 mai 2015

Épisode 20 - When Will We Stop Using Oil?

29 mai 2015

OG Title: Will We Ever Run Out Of Oil?

Épisode 21 - The Surprising Places We Waste Energy

1 juin 2015

Épisode 22 - Did Dinosaurs Really Go Extinct?

8 juin 2015

Welcome to… Jurassic Pluck

Épisode 23 - WHICH CAME FIRST - FLOWERS OR BEES?

15 juin 2015

Stop and smell the flowers… and watch this video

Épisode 24 - Why Are The Bees Dying?

22 juin 2015

Épisode 25 - How Thomas Jefferson Saved America With a Dead Moose

29 juin 2015

OG Title: Thomas Jefferson And The Giant Moose

Épisode 26 - How Does A Canyon Become Grand?

6 juillet 2015

Épisode 27 - Your Salad Is Trying To Kill You

15 juillet 2015

Épisode 28 - Why Are Cicadas So Good At Math?

20 juillet 2015

Épisode 29 - Why Do We Laugh?

27 juillet 2015

Épisode 30 - What is Fire?

3 août 2015

Épisode 31 - What Has New Horizons Taught Us About Pluto?

11 août 2015

Épisode 32 - Amazing Facts About Whales!

24 août 2015

Épisode 33 - How Humans Ruined and Rescued an Ocean Paradise

28 août 2015

Original Title: The Ruin and Rise of Monterey Bay

Épisode 34 - Cuttlefish - Tentacles In Disguise

29 août 2015

Épisode 35 - My Date With A Giant Pacific Octopus!

30 août 2015

Épisode 36 - Are Jellyfish the Weirdest Animals In the Ocean?

31 août 2015

OG Title: I Don't Think You're Ready for These Jellies

Épisode 37 - 8 Incredible Deep Sea Oddities!

1 septembre 2015

Épisode 38 - Inside an ADORABLE Sea Otter Adoption Program!

3 septembre 2015

A Sea Otter's Adorable Adoption Story

Épisode 39 - Fact vs. Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law… EXPLAINED!

21 septembre 2015

Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law… Explained!

Épisode 40 - Why Do We Have To Sleep?

28 septembre 2015

Épisode 41 - El Niño and Why It's So Hard To Predict the Weather

5 octobre 2015

Épisode 42 - What Color Is The Moon?

12 octobre 2015

Épisode 43 - How To Hit A Fastball (According to Science!!!)

19 octobre 2015

Épisode 44 - Do Other Animals Mourn Their Dead? (ft. BrainCraft and Gross Science!)

26 octobre 2015

Do Animals Mourn Their Dead (ft. BrainCraft and Gross Science!)

Épisode 45 - Explaining Lunar Eclipses and the SUPER BLOOD MOON!

2 novembre 2015

This is a SUPER BLOOD MOON! Lunar Eclipses Explained

Épisode 46 - Riding In a Hot Air Balloon Shaped Like a Pig… For SCIENCE

10 novembre 2015

The REAL Physics of Hot Air Balloons!

Épisode 47 - How The Placebo Effect Tricks Your Brain

16 novembre 2015

The Strange Science of the Placebo Effect

Épisode 48 - Can Coral Reefs Survive Climate Change #OursToLose

23 novembre 2015

Épisode 49 - Could Planet Minecraft Actually Exist

30 novembre 2015

Épisode 50 - What Is Evolution, Anyway - 12 Days of Evolution #1

14 décembre 2015

Épisode 51 - Is Evolution Random - 12 Days of Evolution #2

15 décembre 2015

Épisode 52 - Have We Ever Seen Evolution Happen - 12 Days of Evolution #3

16 décembre 2015

Épisode 53 - Can Evolution Make an Eye - 12 Days of Evolution #4

17 décembre 2015

Épisode 54 - Have We Ever Seen A New Species Arise - 12 Days of Evolution #5

18 décembre 2015

Épisode 55 - Evolution Is Dumb - 12 Days of Evolution #6

19 décembre 2015

Épisode 56 - Why Do Men Have Nipples - 12 Days of Evolution #7

20 décembre 2015

Épisode 57 - Does Evolution Violate the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - 12 Days of Evolution #8

21 décembre 2015

Épisode 58 - Can Evolution Create Information - 12 Days of Evolution #9

22 décembre 2015

Épisode 59 - Why Are There Still Monkeys? - 12 Days of Evolution #10

23 décembre 2015

Épisode 60 - Are Humans Still Evolving - 12 Days of Evolution #11

24 décembre 2015

Épisode 61 - Does Evolution Have a Point? 12 Days of Evolution #12

25 décembre 2015

Épisode 1 - Could Bigfoot REALLY Exist?

13 janvier 2016

Épisode 2 - Who Shares Your Birthday?

18 janvier 2016

Épisode 3 - This Is Not a Rainbow

25 janvier 2016

Épisode 4 - Why Seasons Make No Sense

1 février 2016

Épisode 5 - 100,000,000 Years From Now

8 février 2016

Épisode 6 - Is Big Data Getting Too Big?

16 février 2016

Épisode 7 - How Do Squirrels Find Their Nuts?

25 février 2016

Épisode 8 - So You Want to go to Mars?

29 février 2016

Épisode 9 - Einstein Is Always Right: Gravitational Waves Edition

7 mars 2016

Épisode 10 - The Equinox Isn't What You Think It Is

16 mars 2016

Épisode 11 - How Many Trees Are There?

21 mars 2016

Épisode 12 - How Do Bees Make Honey?

28 mars 2016

Épisode 13 - Is Inheritance Really All In Our Genes?

4 avril 2016

Epigenetic inheritance is really weird, but is it real?

Épisode 14 - Are You Smarter Than A Slime Mold?

19 avril 2016

Épisode 15 - Why Are You Multicellular?

25 avril 2016

Épisode 16 - The Most Important Moment in the History of Life

2 mai 2016

Épisode 17 - The Cosmic Afterglow

10 mai 2016

Épisode 18 - 6 Chemical Reactions That Changed History

17 mai 2016

Épisode 19 - Is Your Brain Too Old For Video Games?

23 mai 2016

What Video Games Teach Us About the Aging Brain

Épisode 20 - How Fire Ants Took Over America

30 mai 2016

Inside the World of Fire Ants!

Épisode 21 - Spit: Everything You Never Wanted To Know

6 juin 2016

Épisode 22 - How Do Tesla Coils Work? Musical Tesla Coils in SLOW MOTION!

14 juin 2016

Making Music With Lightning!

Épisode 23 - Where Did Zika Come From?

20 juin 2016

Should You Be Worried About Zika?

Épisode 24 - Why Don't Animals Wear Glasses?

27 juin 2016

Épisode 25 - Why Salt & Pepper Ended Up On Every Table

11 juillet 2016

Why Salt & Pepper?

Épisode 26 - Attack of the Cosmic Space Junk!

18 juillet 2016

No Sandra Bullocks were harmed in the making of this video.

Épisode 27 - The Small Problem With Shrinking Ourselves

26 juillet 2016

It’s okay to be… small?

Épisode 28 - Nature’s Killer Cocktails: VENOM Science!

1 août 2016

Venom: Nature’s Killer Cocktails

Épisode 29 - Your Microbiome: The Invisible Creatures That Keep You Alive!

8 août 2016

Épisode 30 - Engines of Destruction: The Science of Hurricanes!

15 août 2016

The physics of the perfect storm…

Épisode 31 - Do Plants Think?

23 août 2016

Épisode 32 - What’s REALLY Warming the Earth?

29 août 2016

Épisode 33 - Why Do More Species Live Near the Equator?

19 septembre 2016

Épisode 34 - Why Don't Ants Get Stuck In Traffic?

26 septembre 2016

Épisode 35 - This Rainforest Caterpillar Looks Like Donald Trump

3 octobre 2016

The Donald Trump Caterpillar and Nature's Masters of Disguise

Épisode 36 - Is Sugar a Drug?

10 octobre 2016

Épisode 37 - How Baby Turtles Find Their Way Home

17 octobre 2016

Épisode 38 - We've Got Ants In Our Plants!

1 novembre 2016

What is this? A forest for ANTS?!

Épisode 39 - How to Avoid a Deadly Asteroid Impact

7 novembre 2016

Death From Above!

Épisode 40 - The Surprising Origin of Thanksgiving Foods

14 novembre 2016

I’m thankful for science

Épisode 41 - Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Concussions?

28 novembre 2016

Épisode 42 - Why Does Everyone Hate Pigeons?

7 décembre 2016

Pigeon Story: How the Rock Dove Became the Sky Rat

Épisode 43 - 23 Reasons to be Cheerful (Thanks to Science!)

28 décembre 2016

Épisode 1 - How An Igloo Keeps You Warm

9 janvier 2017

Building a perfect igloo takes cool science!

Épisode 2 - Is This A NEW SPECIES?!

17 janvier 2017

This is the first-ever video of what we’re calling the "hermit crab caterpillar"! We’re pretty sure this strange caterpillar is a NEW SPECIES. We went to the Peruvian Amazon to see amazing things, but we never expected this 🙂 But that makes me wonder: What *is* a species anyway? And how do you know if you’ve found a new species?

Épisode 3 - How Many Species Are There?

24 janvier 2017

How do we protect what we don’t know exists?

Épisode 4 - The Superb Owl!

31 janvier 2017

As we get ready to watch that big football game that my lawyers tell me I’m not allowed to say the name of, let’s celebrate a champion of the bird world: Stealthy and silent owls! Learn how owls fly so silently, how they see in the dark, and how owls’ incredible hearing makes them such superb aerial hunters.

Épisode 5 - What If Animals Gave Relationship Advice?

8 février 2017

Relationship Advice From the Animal Kingdom Ever find yourself wishing for relationship advice and have no one to turn to? Looking for the secrets to a long and happy relationship but can’t find the answers? Maybe you just want to know how to tell that certain someone that you like them, but don’t know how to make the first move? Have no fear, Mother Nature is here! Other animals have millennia worth of mating experience, maybe they can teach us a thing or two?

Épisode 6 - How The Toilet Changed History

14 février 2017

We’re proud to collaborate with Bill and Melinda Gates for this week’s video! It may sometimes seem like things are getting worse, but there’s lots of reasons to be optimistic about the future. More people have access to toilets and sanitation than ever before. Thanks to public health improvements like this, since 1990, 122 million children’s lives have been saved. Diseases like polio are nearing eradication. Women have more access to health care and education than ever before.

Épisode 7 - Who Invented the Meter?

28 février 2017

How the Meter Became the Meter The meter is the world’s ultimate measure, but how did it become “the” meter? What is this measurement based on? The story of this revolution in measurement traces its roots to the French Revolution. Scientists decided that an equal and united people should have equal and united measures. So they sent a pair of young astronomers out to measure the world, and invent the meter. Little did they know they’d find nothing but war, deception, and strife along the way. As a result of this ill-fated mission, the meter carries an error that still persists today. Still think the metric system is so perfect?

Épisode 8 - How Do We Know Plate Tectonics Is Real?

7 mars 2017

Solving the Puzzle of Plate Tectonics But did thee feel the Earth move? Why do Africa and South America fit together? Anyone who’s ever looked at a map can see that Earth’s continents are kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. The idea that continents are constantly moving and weren’t always in their current spots is a pretty obvious idea, right? You might be surprised to learn that geologists only accepted that idea recently in the past few decades, and it figuring out how plate tectonics and continental drift work required some pretty strange evidence.

Épisode 9 - What Is Luck?

17 mars 2017

Is luck real? It might feel like a mystical force tugging us toward good or bad fortune, but it turns out luck is really where probability runs into the human mind. That’s right, there’s a scientific side to luck, and if you study a few principles of math and psychology, you might even be able to create your own good fortune.

Épisode 10 - How Did We Figure Out What Light Is?

21 mars 2017 - 4/5

Illuminating the Universe: The History of Light Beyond what we can touch, taste, smell, and hear, we experience the universe through light. But how did we come to discover light, and how did we learn light’s true nature, as the fastest thing in the universe, an electromagnetic spectrum, a wave and particle capable of the most amazing things? Here is the history of light, according to physics.

Épisode 11 - How Much Plastic is in the Ocean?

28 mars 2017

What can you do to make the oceans plastic-free?

Épisode 12 - How Dogs Became Our Best Friends

12 avril 2017

Dogs and Humans: A 30,000-Year Friendship Of all the species that humans have domesticated, dogs are our oldest animal friends. But how did a group of wolves become the furry pup at the end of the bed? New research is finally unlocking the paw-in-hand evolution of dogs and humans. In this episode we’re answering one big question: Did we domesticate dogs, or did dogs domesticate us?

Épisode 13 - Where Did Humans Come From?

18 avril 2017

Ready to untangle the branches of the human family tree?

Épisode 14 - Why Are We The Only Humans Left?

25 avril 2017

In part 2 of our special series on human ancestry, we ask why we are the only surviving branch on the human evolutionary tree. Just 50,000-100,000 years ago, Earth was home to three or four separate human species, including our most famous cousins: the Neanderthals. New research has shown that Neanderthals were not the brutish, unintelligent cavemen that cartoons make them out to be. They were creative, smart, social, and perhaps even had complex language. So why did they go extinct as soon as Homo sapiens moved into their territory? Does any trace of them live on today? Why don’t we have Neanderthal neighbors?

Épisode 15 - Why Does Hair Grow The Way It Does?

2 mai 2017

Much A-Do About Hair All mammals have hair at some point in their lives, but none of them wear it quite like humans. Why does our hair grow where it does, and not grow where it doesn’t? How does our hair get its color? And why does it go gray and often fall out when we get older and go bald? Learn all about the science of human hair in this week’s video!

Épisode 16 - Are We All Related?

9 mai 2017

In part 3 of our special series on human ancestry, we investigate how closely related we all really are. Basic math tells us that all humans share ancestors. But you’ll be amazed at how recently those shared ancestors lived. Thanks to genetic data in the 21st century, we’re even discovering that we really are all descended from one mother.

Épisode 17 - CRISPR and the Future of Human Evolution

17 mai 2017

Épisode 18 - Can We Resurrect an Extinct Species? SHOULD WE?

23 mai 2017

De-Extinction: A Mammoth Undertaking De-extinction, or using the power of modern biotechnology to bring back extinct species like mammoths and dinosaurs, would be cool. But is it really as easy as the movies make it look? Or do the cruel hands of time make it impossible? This weel we look at the technical and ethical hurdles behind the science of de-extinction and reverse engineering species that are no longer around.

Épisode 19 - ЩΉӨ BЦIᄂƬ ƬΉΣ PYЯΛMIDƧ

2 juin 2017

Who built the pyramids? The colossal geometric monuments found at Giza and elsewhere in Egypt are some of Earth’s most impressive constructions. Pyramids are truly wonders of the ancient and modern world. But when the pyramids were built, the ancient Egyptians hadn’t invented the wheel, developed bronze tools, or discovered pi. How were they able to stack two million stone blocks, each weighing more than two tons, into precise geometric alignments that would survive more than 4,000 years and capture the imaginations of explorers throughout history? They did it the same way we always have: by trial and error. The true history of the pyramids is one of experimentation and science, not magic… or aliens.

Épisode 20 - How Ingenious Animals Have Engineered Air Conditioning

13 juin 2017

Are humans nature’s greatest architects? When we look elsewhere in nature, we find some pretty amazing animal architects. Species like ants, termites, prairie dogs, birds, and more have engineered some incredible structures. This week we look at how a few of these species have mastered physics to install air conditioning in their homes!

Épisode 21 - Is Space a Thing?

20 juin 2017

Since the days of Ancient Greece, philosophers and scientists have been wondering: What is space? Is the absence of things… a thing? These questions continued to fascinate physicists in the modern era, leading Isaac Newton, Ernst Mach, and Albert Einstein to wonder about the true nature of the fabric of the cosmos. The search for an answer led them to some of the greatest theories in physics. This week, we ask if space and time are really real, and how they come together to make “spacetime”!

Épisode 22 - How the Pyramids Were Built (Pyramid Science Part 2!)

30 juin 2017

You asked for it, so here’s the follow-up! Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Over the past centuries, archaeologists, historians, and engineers have reconstructed a great deal of the technology and science used to build the Egyptian pyramids. This week we look at ancient Egyptian mathematics, building techniques, tools, and culture to reconstruct the Great Pyramid’s construction.

Épisode 23 - Nature's Fireworks

3 juillet 2017

Nearly all life on Earth is ultimately powered by light. But many creatures have learned how to make their own. This week we investigate the beautiful phenomenon of bioluminescence. From blinking fireflies on summer nights to glowing deep sea monsters, prepare to learn about the chemistry of living light.

Épisode 24 - Orchid Mantis: Looks That Kill

11 juillet 2017

This video is perfect for adults orchids. Many creatures wear disguises in order to keep safe from predators, but there are some that dress to kill. Orchid mantises are one of nature’s most awesome examples of aggressive mimicry. These killer insects are almost indistinguishable from orchids! Scientists recently learned that their disguise doesn’t work quite how we thought it did.

Épisode 25 - Beavers: The Smartest Thing in Fur Pants

19 juillet 2017

Beavers have done more to shape North American landscapes than any animal beside humans. We don’t notice them much today because there aren’t many left, but before colonization, North America was home to hundreds of millions of these furry engineers. This week, we show you why Earth’s second largest rodent is more amazing than you ever knew, and why they’re the smartest thing in fur pants.

Épisode 26 - How Do Glaciers Move?

25 juillet 2017

Glacier ice is weird. It’s solid. Solid things aren’t supposed to flow. But glacier ice flows like a liquid, and it does that without melting! How is this possible? I traveled to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska to find out.

Épisode 27 - Why Nature Loves Hexagons (featuring Infinite Series!)

3 août 2017

From spirals to spots to fractals, nature is full of interesting patterns. Many of these patterns even resemble geometric shapes. One of the most common? Hexagons. Why do we see this six-sided shape occur so many times in nature? This week we explore why hexagons are so common in the natural world, from honeycomb to bubbles to rocks, and what their mathematics, physics, and biology may have in common.

Épisode 28 - Your Climate Conscience

8 août 2017

News about climate change is often full of doom, guilt, and anxiety. This can make many people reluctant to pay attention to or discuss it. We asked former Vice President Al Gore to help us find a different way to talk about climate change.

Épisode 29 - When Is It Winter On Uranus?

25 août 2017

Earth has seasons, but what about the rest of the planets in the solar system? Let’s take a tour from Mercury to Pluto and see what seasons would be like on all our planetary neighbors. Bring a sweater!

Épisode 30 - How Poop Shapes the World

29 août 2017

Waste not, want not… right? Poop, in all of its various forms throughout nature, shapes the world in ways you might not imagine. One creature’s waste is another’s fuel, and all over nature these leftovers help new life spring up. Here’s how whales, birds, worms, bats, and more help the world breathe clean, thanks to their poop.

Épisode 31 - DNA Doesn’t Look Like You Think!

5 septembre 2017

Biology textbooks are full of drawings of DNA, but none of those show what DNA actually looks like. Sure, they’re good models for understanding how DNA works, but inside of real cells, it’s a whole lot more interesting. Learn why we can’t look directly at DNA, and find out how DNA is actually packed inside cells.

Épisode 32 - Putting Hurricane Harvey In Perspective

15 septembre 2017 - 5/5

Replace Harvey with Irma… still true.

Épisode 33 - Do You Really Have Two Brains?

19 septembre 2017 - 5/5

Are you a left-brained person or a right-brained person? Spoiler: You’re neither. Each of us uses both sides of our brain for most of what we do. But still, there are a number of brain functions that do show lateralization, where they are localized to one side or another. Why is this? And how does it influence our definition of consciousness? People with “split brains” can help us figure it out.

Épisode 34 - Why Is The Universe So Empty?

26 septembre 2017 - 4/5

Why is the universe organized the way it is? And why is it so empty? From planets and stars to superclusters and galactic filaments, the universe’s largest structures formed because of its smallest. In this special collaboration with PHD Comics, we’ll learn how the earliest, quantumest blips seeded the structure of everything everywhere.

Épisode 35 - Doomsday Machines

3 octobre 2017 - 5/5

Épisode 36 - Why It Is What Time It Is (The History of Time)

17 octobre 2017 - 5/5

How did we come up with our system of telling time? Why do we divide the day into 24 hours of 60 minutes each, and put 60 seconds in each minute? Where does the definition of a second come from? And who decides what clock shows the correct time? There’s clearly a lot of questions when it comes to time.

Épisode 37 - The Cheerios Effect

25 octobre 2017 - 5/5

Ever notice how cereal clumps up in your bowl, or how cereal sticks to the edges of the bowl? Bubbles in beverages do the same thing.You've probably seen this surface tension and buoyancy at work, but did you know there's some mind-blowing science behind it? What we learn in our cereal bowl even connects to the lives of tiny insects that walk on water.

Épisode 38 - Should You Eat Every Day?

1 novembre 2017 - 5/5

An intermittent fasting diet is one of the hippest new nutrition and fitness philosophies, based around the idea that going hungry can be good for your health. Some think it’s a weight loss secret that calls upon our ancient evolutionary programming. We look at the science behind intermittent fasting.

Épisode 39 - Asteroid Mining: Our Ticket To Living Off Earth?

7 novembre 2017 - 5/5

Asteroid mining sounds like something out of a bad space movie, but harvesting materials from space rocks might be our ticket to building space colonies or living on Mars. Most of Earth’s precious and rare metals are locked too far in the crust for us to get at them, and launching them to space is too expensive for us to supply large colonies off Earth or explore far off worlds. How do we get our hands on the planetary resources inside asteroids? Let’s find out!

Épisode 40 - The Romantic Lure of Moonlight

15 novembre 2017 - 4/5

Organisms of all shapes and sizes synchronize their behaviors using biological clocks. Some keep pace with the daily rising and setting sun using circadian rhythms. Others use annual cycles or the changing seasons as their cue. But many animals use moonlight and Earth’s lunar cycle to run their biological clock. Do humans do the same thing, with things like menstrual cycles? This week we take a look at living by moonlight.

Épisode 41 - Inside an ICE CAVE! - Nature's Most Beautiful Blue

28 novembre 2017 - 4/5

Where do glaciers and icebergs get their beautiful blue color? This unique blue might be nature’s most brilliant, and the color arises in a very special way thanks to some surprising interactions between light and water molecules. Who knew physics could be so breathtaking?

Épisode 42 - 20 MILLION Year Old Spider!! Unweaving the Science of Spider Silk

12 décembre 2017 - 5/5

You’ll never look at spiders the same way again!

Épisode 43 - Why Do You Love Your Family?

20 décembre 2017 - 4/5

Why do we love people we’re related to? Compared to strangers, why do we feel such a deep sense of connection with our family members? Sure, they’re nice to us, we take care of each other, and we often live with them, but there has to be a deeper biological reason. That reason, unsurprisingly is evolution. In this video, I explain why taking care of our family, or even dying for them, makes sense in the eyes of evolution.

Épisode 1 - How Atom Bombs Can Uncover Forged Art

2 janvier 2018

It’s been estimated that 1 in 10 works of fine art are forged or misattributed. The truth is, no one really knows how much fake art is out there, because many art counterfeiters are so skilled that their paintings are almost indistinguishable from the real works. But even counterfeiters can’t beat physics! From atomic bomb remnants to ancient atoms, here’s some of the amazing ways that science can detect fake art.

Épisode 2 - Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature?

9 janvier 2018

Among living things, the color blue is oddly rare. Blue rocks, blue sky, blue water, sure. But blue animals? They are few and far between. And the ones that do make blue? They make it in some very strange and special ways compared to other colors. In this video, we’ll look at some very cool butterflies to help us learn how living things make blue, and why this beautiful hue is so rare in nature.

Épisode 3 - How to Figure Out the Day of the Week For Any Day Ever

16 janvier 2018

You might think that computers are the only things that run algorithms, but you’re wrong. Here’s a neat mental trick for calculating the day of the week for any day ever, developed by famous mathematician John H. Conway

Épisode 4 - The Most Extreme Life Forms On Earth… And Beyond?

30 janvier 2018

What have we learned from exploring Earth’s harshest locations? That pretty everywhere we look for life, we find it. From smoking hot hydrothermal vents to icy deserts, up in clouds and inside rocks, extremophiles have found a way to survive. These survivors and adapters are not only teaching us about life on Earth, but expanding the possibilities of where life can exist elsewhere.

Épisode 5 - Tuatara All The Way Down – Face To Face With A Living Fossil!

7 février 2018

Your now is not your forever (unless you’re a tuatara) During the 2017 Project For Awesome livestream, I promised I’d make a tuatara video if we hit our fundraising goal, and I’m a man of my word! Little did I know I’d get to meet a tuatara and learn things about a 200 million year old branch of life that would blow my mind. Get ready to meet the chillest reptile, weird living fossil, and star of Turtles All The Way Down… the tuatara.

Épisode 6 - Defusing the Population Bomb

13 février 2018

Is overpopulation real? Is Earth filling up with too many humans? How many people can Earth hold, anyway? As our species approaches 8 billion, human overpopulation is a major concern for many people. How can we reduce poverty and our impact on the environment? Do we need a forced one-child policy or something? Maybe not, because when we look at the science and history, populations seem to control themselves. This week we look at all these questions and more.

Épisode 7 - Why Are There As Many Males As Females?

22 février 2018

In almost every animal species on Earth, equal numbers of males and females are conceived. Why is that? Especially in populations like lions or elephant seals, where most males don’t get to mate? That’s survival of the laziest, not survival of the fittest. It turns out that in most cases, an equal balance of the sexes is the evolutionary stable strategy. From Charles Darwin to Ronald Fisher to W.D. Hamilton to Richard Dawkins, the question of why there’s as many males as females has fascinated biologists. Today, we’ll explain why that is the way it is.

Épisode 8 - Could You Be Immune To Everything?

7 mars 2018

Do you remember having a cold in 5th grade? Or the flu a couple years ago? Your immune system does. Our bodies hold many levels of immune defense.Physical barriers like skin, the innate immune system, and our body’s most powerful defender, the adaptive immune system. Millions of B cells and T cells and antibodies are constantly on patrol for germs and antigen invaders. As scientists learn more about how this system works and how to engineer it, could we ever actually be immune to everything?

Épisode 9 - Can You Bend Light Like This?

3 avril 2018

The other day I got bored and noticed this weird thing happened when I held my finger up to my eye, so I had to science it and figure it out! Let me know if you try these light-bending experiments too, especially that last one that I can’t quite explain yet…

Épisode 10 - Where Did Life Come From?

11 avril 2018

The origin of life is one of the most important mysteries in all of science. When did life begin? How did life first evolve from chemistry? Where did life get started? In some primordial soup or somewhere else? Let’s journey back to the origin of life, as best as we know it, from the RNA world do the last universal common ancestor of everything alive today.

Épisode 11 - 97% of Climate Scientists Really Do Agree

19 avril 2018

Do 97% of climate scientists really agree that humans are the main cause of climate change? Yep! Here’s what the 97 percent statistic *really* means.

Épisode 12 - What If You Never Forgot Anything?

1 mai 2018

How does memory work? And how does… un-memory work? Our brain does a lot of remembering and forgetting every day, so you should probably make room for som info on how it works. You’ll also get to meet some people who can’t make memories, and also never forget anything.

Épisode 13 - Why Do We Itch?

8 mai 2018

It’s one of the most annoying sensations our bodies can feel, but does anything feel better than when you scratch an itch? Ok, maybe *some* things. But itching and scratching are up there. How does this weird sensation work? And what is itching for?

Épisode 14 - The Deadpool Salamander

15 mai 2018

Axolotls are special salamanders. Not only to they stay in their juvenile form their whole lives, they can regenerate entire limbs! Studying how they do it could change the way we treat human limb injuries.

Épisode 15 - The Cosmic Origins of Earth's Water

22 mai 2018

Why is Earth is a blue planet? Because it’s covered in water! Where did Earth’s water come from? Of course, water isn’t unique to our planet. The origin of water traces beyond the solar system to the earliest days of the universe. Here’s the story of the galaxy’s H2O.

Épisode 16 - Why Does This Wolf Have A Pouch?

5 juin 2018

Until the early 20th century, Tasmania was home to a very weird wolf-like creature. Except that it wasn’t a wolf. Even though it looked like a wolf. How did that happen? Here’s the science of convergent evolution!

Épisode 17 - What’s The Hottest Hot and Coldest Cold?

12 juin 2018

The hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe are rarely witnessed, but in these rare spots, our understanding of physics is challenged. Weird things happen at extreme hot and absolute cold.

Épisode 18 - Which Life Form REALLY Dominates Earth?

20 juin 2018

Are humans really Earth’s most dominant species? Let’s put all of the planet’s living things on a scale and see what has amassed the most mass. This week we break down the concept of “biomass” to judge Earth’s living things from top to bottom, and see how humans have changed the world.

Épisode 19 - It's Okay to Fart

26 juin 2018

Farting is hilarious and gross and everyone is doing it so why can’t we talk about the science of it?! Flatulence, passing gas, cutting the cheese, toots… whatever you call it, it's natural and here's how it works.

Épisode 20 - The Surprising Reason We Eat Spicy Food

10 juillet 2018

People who live near the equator use more spices per recipe than people who live far from the equator. But that isn't for the reason you think. Spices and other plant ingredients have special powers that make them a truly magical superfood!

Épisode 21 - The Only Animal That Weeps

17 juillet 2018

Why do we cry? It’s weird. Humans leak water out of their faces when they get sad. Are we the only animals that do this? What does it mean? What is it for? Here’s the science of human tears!

Épisode 22 - 3 Incredible Examples of Evolution Hidden In Your Body

24 juillet 2018

Humans are special, and we got that way thanks to evolution and natural selection. The proof is right there in our bodies! From anatomy to genes, here are some stories of how you got to be the way you are.

Épisode 23 - Why Do Disney Princesses All Look Like Babies?

7 août 2018

I noticed something weird about Disney Princesses lately. Naturally, I had to examine it through the lens of science. The answer led me to new knowledge about human development, the domestication and taming of animals, and why we find things cute in the first place. You’ll never look at cartoons the same way again.

Épisode 24 - How Some Words Get Forgetted

14 août 2018

English is a confusing language for many reasons. But the irregular verbs might be the most confusing part. Why is “told” the past tense of “tell” but “smold” isn’t the past tense of “smell”? It turns out that the study of irregular verbs can teach us a lot about how languages evolve. This week, we look at how the era of Big Data is unlocking secrets behind the weirdness of words.

Épisode 25 - How Habits are Formed

28 août 2018

You have the power to change your brain!

Épisode 26 - Will You Still Eat Raw Fish After Watching This Video?

11 septembre 2018

Have you ever noticed that warning about raw or undercooked seafood at the bottom of restaurant menus? Ever wondered why it’s there? Because fish carry a ton of parasites, and if they aren’t prepared correctly then those parasites can make it into your body. But it turns out, this fishy intersection with the wild world of parasites can teach us a lot about how these moochers help keep ecosystems healthy, and why we should protect them.

Épisode 27 - Is Height All In Our Genes?

18 septembre 2018

I’m tall. Most of the people in my family are tall. Does that mean my son will be tall? Turns out the inheritance of height is a lot more complicated than we thought. Scientists know that nature (genes) and nurture (environment) both play a role, but after more than a century of questions, we’re only just now starting to get some answers.

Épisode 28 - What Do Raindrops Really Look Like?

25 septembre 2018

What do raindrops look like? Exactly how we drew them as kids, right? Wrong! Teardrop-shaped rain is physically impossible. This week I went inside a vertical wind tunnel to bring you the true shape of rain.

Épisode 29 - Where Do Teeth Come From?

9 octobre 2018

Teeth. We’ve all got ‘em (most of us, anyway). But how do they grow? Teeth are made from some biological nanotechnology that will blow your mind. They are strong enough to last hundreds of millions of years. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered how adult teeth replace your baby teeth, get ready to see something terrifying.

Épisode 30 - The Largest River On Earth Is In The Sky

23 octobre 2018 - 4/5

What’s the largest river on Earth? If you said “the Amazon”… you’re only half right. Scientists have discovered an even bigger river in South America, and it’s in the sky above the Amazon rainforest. Turns out, this sky river is the reason there’s a rainforest at all…

Épisode 31 - The Deadliest Flu Season in History?

31 octobre 2018

The flu might feel like some minor illness that you don’t need to worry about much, but tens of thousands of people still die from it every year. And back in 1918, Flu killed up to 5% of the world’s population. Could a flu that bad happen again?

Épisode 32 - What is Farthest Away?

6 novembre 2018

The edge of everything used to be the edge of the map. But now, thanks to what we know about astrophysics and the universe, the edge of everything might not even exist…

Épisode 33 - The Dinosaur On Your Thanksgiving Table

15 novembre 2018

Eating turkey this holiday season? Chowing down on a roast chicken? You’re eating a dinosaur! Entertain your family and friends with a little science lesson this year, and show them why bird bones tell us that birds are actually living dinosaurs.

Épisode 34 - Can We Get Older Without Aging?

21 novembre 2018

Nothing is guaranteed in life except death, taxes, and entropy. What do other life forms have to teach us about staying alive as we get old, and will we ever conquer death?

Épisode 35 - The Raisin Bran Effect

30 novembre 2018

AKA "The Brazil Nut Effect" but brazil nuts are blah The bottom of the cereal box is a disappointing place. But at least now you know why. Where do you see the Brazil Nut Effect around you?

Épisode 36 - Does Someone Else Have Your Face?

14 décembre 2018

They say everyone has a doppelgänger, but is that really true? This week we meet a young woman who found her own look-alike, and figure out how we actually recognize faces.

Épisode 37 - Do Fish Pee?

27 décembre 2018

You know you’ve wondered. Do fish actually pee? And what does that make the ocean… one big toilet?

Épisode 1 - Is There Life on Earth?

7 février 2019

If we lived light years from Earth, how would we know there’s life here? Let’s take a look at the search for extraterrestrial life on habitable exoplanets, and discover what biosignatures would show someone else that we’re here.

Épisode 2 - The Impossible Hugeness of Deep Time

12 février 2019

Humans have a hard time with really big numbers, especially when it comes to DEEP TIME. The history of the Earth took a lot longer than you think, trust me. But I’m here to help you put it in perspective. With some string.

Épisode 3 - Are You Afraid of Holes?

27 février 2019

Honeycomb. Strawberries. Flower pods. Some people find these things incredibly scary. We call this extreme fear trypophobia. But why does it exist?

Épisode 4 - Where Do You Weigh The Most?

5 mars 2019

You may have heard that a kilogram of feathers weighs the same as a kilogram of steel, but that all depends on where you weigh them. This video is all about the difference between mass and weight, and how weirdly awesome Earth’s gravity really is.

Épisode 5 - Why Are So Many People Allergic To Food?

20 mars 2019

More people have food allergies than ever before. Peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, and even milk… the list of possibly dangerous foods seems to get longer every day. But why do some people’s bodies have deadly reactions food? And why are food allergies on the rise? In this video we explain what food allergies really are, and what the difference is between food allergy and food intolerance. Some fellow YouTubers tell us their stories of what it’s like to live with food allergies, and we bring you the best current science on how to prevent food allergies in kids and adults. It’s a tough nut to crack.

Épisode 6 - How to be Crushed by the Atmosphere!

2 avril 2019

Air. I bet you never even notice that it’s there. Yet you are swimming in an ocean of it every day. If there’s a literal ton of air pressing down on you all the time, so why don’t we feel it? We look back at the history of physics to learn how we figured out air pressure, why vacuums don’t suck, and how people like Galileo, Torricelli, and Otto von Guericke changed science forever with a few simple experiments.

Épisode 7 - Decoding the Great Monarch Butterfly Migration

9 avril 2019

The monarch butterfly migration is one of nature’s greatest events. This orange-winged wonder travels up to 4,500 km from all over North America to spend the winter hanging from oyamel fir trees in central Mexico’s mountain forests. I got to go there. Seeing tens of millions of butterflies dangling from the treetops is a truly breathtaking sight. But how does an animal with a brain the size of a poppy seed navigate to this one special place, especially since the last monarchs to make the trip lived 4 or 5 generations earlier? Get ready for an amazing story of science, instinct, and navigation.

Épisode 8 - Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Migration in VR180

9 avril 2019

This is a VR180 video so pop on your Google Cardboard or VR Headset to be totally immersed in our world! No headset? No problem. Move your mobile phone around and catch the total 180 experience!

Épisode 9 - Why We Get Dizzy (…and Astronauts Don’t)

26 avril 2019

We’ve all gotten dizzy before… but have you ever gotten WEIRD DIZZY? I teamed up with Vanessa Hill from BrainCrat to answer the question “why do we get dizzy?” and in the process we learned about some very strange and hilarious ways to get extra-special dizzy! Get ready to learn about your vestibular system, the system that lets you know where your body is in space. You don’t even notice your vestibular system is there… until it stops working right!

Épisode 10 - How To Drink Coffee In Space

3 mai 2019

I love coffee. Like, a lot. You know who else loves coffee? Astronauts! And also the people who help them do awesome things in space (I think NASA might be powered by coffee). But how do astronauts actually drink coffee in space, aboard the International Space Station, in microgravity? I visited astronaut Don Pettit to learn about his invention for having a cup o’ Joe in orbit. This is some awesome science.

Épisode 11 - Where Your Eye Color Comes From… SurprEYESing Science!

18 mai 2019

The eyes are often the first thing we see when we look at someone. And when you look at them up close, everyone’s eye color is a kaleidoscope of shapes and hues. How does eye color work? The answer involves some very cool physics, and probably isn’t what you were taught in school. And you’ve probably wondered how is eye color inherited, or why some people have blue eyes even if their parents’ eyes are brown? Get ready for a long look deep into the genetics and physics of eye color.

Épisode 12 - How To Make One Million Species Disappear

24 mai 2019

A massive new study has just been released showing that human activities are threatening Earth’s other life forms in some very bad ways. One million species may be at risk of extinction. Just let that sink in. Isn’t the Anthropocene awesome? Check out the study below to learn more and find out how we can stop it.

Épisode 13 - See INSIDE a Chrysalis! - Painting Wings with CRISPR

18 juin 2019

Butterfly metamorphosis is still a bit of a mystery. What happens inside a chrysalis to turn a caterpillar into a beautifully painted butterfly? Does it really turn to soup? I visited Dr. Arnaud Martin, who uses the CRISPR genetic modification technology to learn about how genes build bodies. Dr. Martin uses CRISPR to disrupt certain genes, and then looks for changes in butterfly wing patterns, creating designs we never see in nature. This tells us which genes control which part of the "wing painting" process. In the process of visiting Dr. Martin’s lab, I had my mind blown about what REALLY happens during butterfly metamorphosis. You will too.

Épisode 14 - Could You Be a Chimera?

21 juin 2019

Ever feel like you aren't totally yourself? Well, maybe you aren't. In this video, we explore the idea of human chimeras. In mythology, the "Chimaera" was a beast made from different animals combined into one. But in biology, a chimera is a single organism whose body is made from parts of two or more genetically distinct individuals of the same species. Biological chimeras were once thought to be rare, but modern genetics has shown us that these genetic mashups are so common, that you yourself may actually be a chimera. And even if you don't have part of another body in you, your body is certainly not just one thing. We also discuss the idea of mosaicism and how it relates to cancer, Tasmanian devils, and circus sideshow attractions.

Épisode 15 - Seeing a Black Hole with a Planet-Sized Telescope - STELLAR

3 juillet 2019

It took about a century for black holes to go from impossible, to theoretical, to real. And it was just this year, in 2019, when we finally saw the first picture of a black hole! But how to you take a photo of something so massively dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull? You use a telescope the size of the Earth!

Épisode 16 - Apollo’s Most Important Discovery (Inside NASA’s Moon Rock Vault!)

9 juillet 2019

Fifty years ago, we sent the first astronauts to walk on the moon’s face. But what they brought back is just as important as what got them there. I’m talking about moon rocks, guys. And I got to go visit NASA’s lunar sample vault to learn more about them! NASA’s moon rock collection has helped us learn so much about the early solar system, the formation of rocky planets like ours, and where our moon came from. And let me tell you, the story of our moon is a VIOLENT one. It involves the word “magmoon”. That’s an awesome word! Enjoy this video, and I hope you learn not just some lunar geology, but also how exploring the moon helped change what the space program was all about.

Épisode 17 - Why We Are Losing the Night Sky

14 juillet 2019

It never gets dark anymore. Not REALLY dark, anyway. Not like it used to. Most humans on Earth live under light polluted skies. That's because, for the past century and a half, since the dawn of electric light, we’ve been losing our connection to the night. We need artificial light for modern society, of course. The problem is, we need darkness for our health, and for the health of wildlife and ecosystems, and we’re not getting enough of it. I traveled to McDonald Observatory in far west Texas, one of the darkest places in North America, to learn what people are doing in order to preserve dark skies, and to see truly dark skies for myself (and so I could show them to you!). This video features time lapse night sky images that I’ve been collecting for the past few years, and I hope they make you feel something special. Turn out the lights, keep looking up, and don’t be afraid of the dark.

Épisode 18 - Is This Why We Haven’t Found Alien Civilizations? - STELLAR

22 juillet 2019

Looking up at the stars makes you wonder: what and who is out there? And why haven’t we seen any other intelligent civilizations given the vast size and age of the universe? They’re complicated questions and although we haven’t met any other space-faring species we do have a way of calculating just how many alien civilizations might be out there as well as some rather frightening ideas as to why we might not have met them.

Épisode 19 - Do Trees Talk?

27 juillet 2019

Why the forest is more than the trees

Épisode 20 - How Blind People See With Sound…

10 août 2019

I met Molly Burke a few months ago. She’s awesome. I absolutely love what she’s done on YouTube to bring awareness to living with disability, and turning it into ability. And her guide dog Gallop is awesome too! When Molly and I first met, we started talking about how she navigates the world, because I’m a nerd and I always steer the conversation toward science. I was not prepared for what she told me. She said she uses echolocation! Molly’s brain has adapted to listen to sounds in her environment in ways that most of us sighted people can’t even imagine. I went to meet her in LA and brought a special surprise, to see if my brain could learn what hers has.

Épisode 21 - Why Don’t Birds Lay Square Eggs?

19 août 2019

What is “egg-shaped” even? I used to think it was the shape of a chicken egg. Then one day I saw a collection of eggs from lots of different bird species, and I realized just how many different kind of egg shapes there really are! I had to know why. And it turns out a couple teams of scientists had wondered the same thing. Here’s what science says about why eggs are egg-shaped, if that's even a thing, which I’ve learned it might not be. Evolution of bird eggs, go!

Épisode 22 - 7 Scientific Urban Legends Debunked!

6 septembre 2019

It sounds like such an incredible fact. “Our own cells are outnumbered by our microbes 10 to 1!” I don’t remember where I first heard it. But I read it in science papers and articles by journalists, so I believed it without question. I even made one of my first videos based on this fact. Problem is, this fact is not true. So how did it remain firmly planted in our common knowledge for almost four decades without any scientific scrutiny? And how can you prepare yourself to not be fooled by other scientific urban legends? I look at a few of the most famous incorrect factoids in science, and give a few suggestions for how to make our common knowledge more correct.

Épisode 23 - Money Is A Technological Fiction (The Invention of $$$)

29 septembre 2019

Money. We all use it. But is it real? I mean, you can touch a coin or bill, but who decided that’s worth anything? And what about all those 1’s and 0’s getting swapped and traded by computers thousands of times per second? How are those worth anything? We trace the history of money, from physical barter to bitcoin, and discover that money isn’t just a lie we all agree to share, it’s been built on the back of technology and invention for millennia.

Épisode 24 - What’s In a 20,000 Year-Old Cube of Ice?

7 octobre 2019

Earth’s climate is changing in a big way, and it’s because there's more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point in our species’ history. But Earth’s climate has changed before. How do we know that this time we’re the cause? We know thanks to tiny bubbles of ancient atmosphere trapped in ice.

Épisode 25 - This Face Changes the Human Story

21 octobre 2019

Greetings, fellow Homo sapiens. Our species is the only remaining member of the genus of upright, walking apes known as Homo. Where did we come from? Our history just got a whole lot more complicated (in a good way) thanks to some incredible new fossils unearthed in South Africa over the past few years. I got to visit them, and the scientists who discovered them, to learn their story and ours. Meet your cousin: Homo naledi

Épisode 26 - What Would Trees Look Like On Other Planets?

25 octobre 2019

Why are trees and other plants green? Seems like a simple question. But the answer is full of surprises. Using a special camera that can pick up light just beyond the visible range, into the near-infrared, you’ll get to see trees like you’ve never seen them before. And these other-worldly images can teach us not only why trees are green on Earth, but what color photosynthetic life on other planets might be.

Épisode 27 - IN YOUR FACE EXPLOSIVE CHEMISTRY!! (VR180)

2 novembre 2019

This is a VR180 video so pop on your Google Cardboard or VR Headset to be totally immersed in our world! No headset? No problem. Move your mobile phone around and catch the total 180 experience!

Épisode 28 - What Color Is A Banana?

9 novembre 2019

What color is a banana? Duh, it’s yellow. But what is yellow? Now that you mention it, how do we see color in the first place? That’s the series of questions that led me to making this video. It started simple and took me down a rabbit hole of decoding our visual system. Turns out it’s way more interesting than I ever thought possible. You might even call it complex. In fact, it’s a wonder it even works. Biology… wow, right?

Épisode 29 - Evolution FAILS in the Human Body

19 novembre 2019

If you were taking an engineering class in school and you turned in the human body for your final exam… you would get like, a C+. Or maybe a B- at best. That’s because the human body is full of design flaws. Except they aren’t really design flaws, because the human body wasn’t designed. It was evolved, and it is still evolving. And that means some of our parts don’t work as well as they could, they just work well enough. Here’s a rundown of a few of the human body’s biggest evolutionary fails!

Épisode 30 - I Ate Worms! Trying a Thanksgiving Feast Made from Bugs

23 novembre 2019

People say insects are the food of the future. They’re more environmentally sustainable and more humane than other sources of animal protein. Can they really catch on in western diets? I’m a pretty adventurous eater, but I’ve never actually tried edible insects. So when I got invited to an edible insect Thanksgiving feast, I had to say yes. Along the way I learned that eating bugs isn’t really that new for humans, and that this really could be a delicious food we all eat in the near future.

Épisode 31 - Recycling Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Fix It.

10 décembre 2019

If everyone would just put more in the recycling bin instead of the trash can, the world would be a better place. Right? Well, that’s not exactly true. For many items that end up in the recycling bin, you’ve actually created more trash by trying to recycle them. You’ve also made it harder to recycle the stuff that CAN be saved, and basically demonstrated that recycling is broken… at least the way we do it today. Here’s how we can fix it.

Épisode 32 - The Strange (Unexpected) Reason Ice is Slippery

17 décembre 2019

I’m guessing you’re pretty familiar with ice. We use it in our drinks, slip on it, skate on it, worry about climate change melting it. But have you ever stopped to really think about this stuff? The freezing and melting of water affects so much of our world. It’s ice crystals in thunderclouds that create lightning. Ice is powerful enough crack boulders, float stones, and alter entire landscapes. Ice is such a common substance, you'd think we'd know everything about it by now. But it has some secrets and weird properties we’ve only just begun to figure out. One question about ice that's, still not totally answered, is one of the most obvious: why is ice slippery? It's a more complicated answer than it seems!

Épisode 33 - Why We Should Put Rockets On the Moon

30 décembre 2019

Half a century ago, astronauts got on top of a really big rocket and sent a tiny little capsule on a 384,000 km trip to the moon and back. And they were able to do it because a lot of extremely smart and dedicated people pushed engineering and chemistry to the limits in order to create a 36-story tower of carefully-controlled space fire powerful enough to escape Earth’s gravity. I went to NASA in Houston to talk to astronaut Don Pettit about how they did it, and if we’ll be able to do it again.

Épisode 1 - 3 Ways Trees Can Save the Climate (With Our Help)

11 février 2020

Can trees really save us from climate change? For eons, nature has relied on photosynthesis as a big way to keep carbon dioxide levels from getting out of control. But as we have put more carbon into the air, we’ve also cut down many of the forests we need to suck that carbon up. So big tree-planting initiatives like #TeamTrees to the rescue, right? Actually, we need to think bigger. Here’s three ways trees really can help us solve climate change, from a guy who wants to plant a TRILLION trees, to how we might save the forests we’ve got, to scientists hacking biology to make trees even better.

Épisode 2 - Can Supercrops Feed 10 BILLION People?

19 février 2020

If you tried to sum up the last 150 years or so in one image, a chart of exponential growth would be a good place to start. It shows that some things change faster over time. You could apply it to life expectancy. Or compound interest. Or any number of things. But especially population growth. Back in 1798 a guy named Thomas Malthus noticed that not everything grows this way. And this caused people to worry, because they were sure it would lead to massive death and starvation and famine. But that didn’t happen, thanks to something called the Green Revolution and a guy named Norman Borlaug. As we face a future population of ten billion and a world impacted by climate change, how will we do a Green Revolution 2.0?

Épisode 3 - Humans Are Smart. Why Are Babies So Unsmart?

25 février 2020

The first thing a baby giraffe experiences after being born is a 2 meter fall straight down to the ground. But within an hour, it’s standing, walking, and nursing on its own. And a blue whale calf, after nearly a year growing inside mom, can swim to the surface moments after being born. Human babies on the other hand? We’re born unable to move or eat on our own, we can’t communicate or fully sense our world, and we leak EVERYWHERE. If humans are so smart, why are our babies so… un-smart? You may think it’s all about head size, but the real science is more complex.

Épisode 4 - Sunlight Is Way Older Than You Think. Here’s Why…

3 mars 2020

If the sun instantly switched off like a light bulb–which can’t happen, by the way–then we wouldn’t know for almost 8 and a half minutes. Light travels at the fastest speed there is, but it still takes almost 500 seconds to get to Earth. That’s how long it would take before we knew the sun went dark.But the most amazing thing about the sunlight we see is it’s actually really old. SUPER old. AMAZINGLY OLD! Tens of thousands of years old. How is that possible? Because of the physics and mathematics of random walks.

Épisode 5 - Fixing Daylight Saving Time Is THIS Easy

10 mars 2020

Every year, hundreds of millions of people voluntarily turn their lives upside down by setting their clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the autumn on a particular date mandated by the government wherever they happen to live. Daylight saving time is a perfect example of how a few people with the best of intentions can end up annoying millions of the rest of us for the better part of a century. And it’s time we take an honest look at how we got to this place where half the world comes unstuck in time twice a year, and ask if the supposed advantages for springing forward and falling back still hold up!

Épisode 6 - What This Chart Actually Means for COVID-19

17 mars 2020

Stay informed. Stay cautious, but not scared. Listen to scientists and public health officials and follow their guidance. By protecting yourself, you’re protecting the most vulnerable among us. Together we can flatten the curve on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. More resources below!

Épisode 7 - Why Soap Is Still Our Best Weapon Against the Coronavirus

25 mars 2020

One of the most effective things you can do to protect yourself from catching a germ and becoming a statistic, whether it’s a global pandemic like COVID-19 or just every single other day of your life, is something that people have been trying to get you to do since you were like 2. Wash your hands. With good ol’ soap. And do it the right way. That’s it. Here’s the science of handwashing!

Épisode 8 - Why the Heck Are We Ticklish?

14 avril 2020

I’ve explained a lot of weird bodily functions on this show but there’s one that we haven’t covered that’s always confused me: Tickling. What are you for, tickling? What’s the point of you? Why do you exist? Why do you make us laugh even though we hate you? Let’s dig into our evolutionary past to try and find an answer.

Épisode 9 - Fly Through a Nebula 163,000 Light Years Away (30 Years of the Hubble Space Telescope)

25 avril 2020

Épisode 10 - How Evolution Made COVID-19 Our Perfect Enemy (and Why We’ll Beat It)

6 mai 2020

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are nasty enemies. Invisible, mysterious, and deadly, they have spread around the world and caused much of humanity to hide away. Germs like these only succeed and spread because of our social evolution, and our social nature is why social and physical distancing is so deeply painful for us. But evolution has also given us the gifts we need to survive this difficult time. Here’s how.

Épisode 11 - Counting the Species in my Backyard… for SCIENCE!

19 mai 2020

Épisode 12 - Why Do Other Animals Keep Giving Us Viruses?

3 juin 2020

Viruses keep jumping out of nature and into humans, and getting us very sick in the process. So why do zoonotic spillovers like SARS-CoV-2 happen, and why are they becoming more frequent? We asked an expert.

Épisode 13 - How Did Giant Pterosaurs Fly?

9 juin 2020

The largest pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus were closer in size to airplanes than birds. No flying animal alive today comes close to their huge size. So did giant pterosaurs actually fly? I went to see the fossil bones of the largest pterosaur that ever lived so I could learn how these winged giants actually took to the skies.

Épisode 14 - What Is A Dinosaur And What Isn’t?

23 juin 2020

There’s a lot of confusion out there about what is and isn’t a dinosaur. And you’d be forgiven for being kinda confused. Maybe paleontologists are just messing with us. Or… maybe the question of what is and isn’t a dinosaur goes deeper than we think? Well, like an intrepid fossil hunter, I set out to dig up an answer, and what I found teaches us a lesson about how hard it is to build a picture of the past when you only have a few puzzle pieces, and a lot about why we classify things the way we do.

Épisode 15 - How Well Do Masks Work? (Schlieren Imaging In Slow Motion!)

4 juillet 2020

Wearing a mask is a cheap and easy way to help stop the spread of airborne infections like COVID-19. It’s also a sign that you want to help protect other people and have them protect you… that we’re all in this together. Here’s some awesome slow-motion schlieren imaging experiments to demonstrate why masks work! Share with someone who needs to see this.

Épisode 16 - COVID-19 & Mask Myths DEBUNKED!

23 juillet 2020

Bottom line: Masks work. They are safe for almost everyone to wear, and the more people that wear them along with adhering to physical distancing and other strategies, then that’s more lives we’ll save. But there’s still a lot of confusion and misinformation out there when it comes both to wearing masks and the actual risks of getting infected with COVID-19. In this video I address a few of the most common myths and misunderstandings using scientific evidence.

Épisode 17 - Why Is Our Skeleton On the Inside?

28 juillet 2020

Having bones is pretty cool. They make our blood, let us hear, and keep us from being just a squishy puddle on the floor. But for every species with bones, there’s at least 20 species on Earth with exoskeletons instead. And those exoskeleton animals are incredibly tough and strong. So why don’t WE have our skeletons on the outside? This is the story of bones!

Épisode 18 - Why a Tuesday Can Feel Like July and Sometimes Never (How We Perceive Time)

1 septembre 2020

Time passes for all of at the saem rate of one second per second. But why does it sometimes feel like time is passing so fast, or so slowly? Especially during COVID? Let’s learn about how our brains keep track of and try to make sense of time, and how they get fooled.

Épisode 19 - The Fastest Animals Are Way Faster Than You Think

13 septembre 2020

The fastest animal in nature isn’t what you think it is. It’s way, way smaller than that. Nature’s tiniest creatures warp the laws of physics, and they do it in ways that even human engineers would gawk at. Using the power of super slow-motion macro video, let’s uncover the biological engineering that lets nature’s fastest creatures do their zoomy thing.

Épisode 20 - 4 Ways to End the Universe

13 octobre 2020

I don’t want to alarm you, but the world is going to end. All of this. Gone. And scientists are certain all of this will happen. On the bright side this isn’t going to happen for 4-5 billion years. It makes me wonder: In a universe bigger than we can fathom, across eons of time, could… all of it end? Everything? The whole universe? Yes. And it probably will. Here’s how.

Épisode 21 - The Secret Behind a Gecko’s Gravity-Defying Grip

31 octobre 2020

Geckos can grip and climb almost anything. Walking up walls, hanging upside down… even from glass. It’s almost like they can defy gravity. How do they do it? The secret lies in nanotechnology. I’ll tell you how that works and how scientists are using this incredible gripping ability to inspire next-generation adhesives

Épisode 22 - Why Are There 7 Days In a Week?

9 novembre 2020

Why does everyone use a 7 day week, and where did it come from? Where do the names of the days come from? And who can we blame for Mondays? Here’s the true story of one of the oldest human customs still in use today. It gets a little weird.

Épisode 23 - The SHOCKING Truth About Ben Franklin and the Kite

18 novembre 2020

You’ve probably heard of Ben Franklin and the kite. But do you know the TRUE story of how his famous experiment changed the world? Here’s the tale of how one person’s quest for scientific knowledge altered the direction of history.

Épisode 24 - Inside the Lab That Invented the COVID-19 Vaccine

8 décembre 2020

Here we are, just a year after the first news of the coronavirus we now call SARS-CoV-2 and the global pandemic known as COVID-19… and scientists have already developed more than one safe & effective vaccine. How did they do that so quickly? I visited the lab whose work directly led to these first COVID vaccines, so you can learn how basic research connects to life-saving medicine. This is how to make a COVID-19 vaccine.

Épisode 25 - Why the Heck Is Glass Transparent?

23 décembre 2020

Épisode 1 - Why Do We Lie?

11 janvier 2021

Everyone lies. Even you and even me. We lie about small things and we lie about big things. We lie to help ourselves and we lie to protect others. Powerful people lie, all the way down to little kids telling fibs. Why do we do this if we’re supposed to be the most socially developed species on Earth? Why can’t we tell the truth? Are we doomed to lie? Well, maybe. Here’s why.

Épisode 2 - Visualizing Herd Immunity (with 500 Mousetraps!)

4 février 2021

Since the start of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the term “herd immunity” has been all over the news. But what does it really mean? One thing most people don’t realize about vaccines is that they aren’t just to protect the person who gets the shot. They also protect the population as a whole… even people who didn’t get the shot. In this video, we use lots and lots of mousetraps and ping-pong balls to show you how that works.

Épisode 3 - When Is Now?

15 février 2021

When is now? Seems like a pretty simple question… just look at your watch. But do you and I share the same “now”? Let’s journey from Einstein’s thought experiments about relativity to cutting edge neuroscience research to try and answer that question.

Épisode 4 - The Golden Ratio: Is It Myth or Math?

10 mars 2021

The golden ratio. Some say it’s the most mythical number in the universe. Others say it underlies everything from nature’s patterns to beauty in art and design. But, like, what is it? And does the myth of the golden ratio hold up to its mathematical reality? Let’s find out

Épisode 5 - What is Impossible in Evolution?

17 mars 2021

Could humans ever evolve to have wings? Why don’t fish have propellers? Why don’t tigers have wheels? Why don’t zebras have laser turrets? These might all seem like stupid questions (and maybe they are!) but they can teach us a lot about how evolution actually works, and how it doesn’t work.

Épisode 6 - The Transcontinental Burrito Hypertunnel

1 avril 2021

The finest burritos in the world are made in San Francisco’s Mission District. But how can you get a hot & fresh one in New York City in time for lunch? Physics, that’s how. For this very serious and scientific video, we dug a classic documentary out of the vault that tells the story of the transcontinental burrito tunnel, and its successor, the transcontinental burrito hypertunnel. They are both true marvels of physics. Oh, and they aren’t real… but the science is.

Épisode 7 - How Ocean Currents Work (and How We Are Breaking Them)

19 avril 2021

Ocean currents are our planet’s circulatory system, and they keep everything from ecosystems to the climate healthy. But we’re changing Earth in ways that threaten to disrupt and even break critical ocean currents like the planet-wide Great Ocean Conveyor. This could have devastating effects on our future. In this video, we explain how ocean currents work, how climate change is threatening to disrupt them, and what we can do to stop that from happening.

Épisode 8 - Why Are We Warm-Blooded?

4 mai 2021

A human with the metabolism of a hummingbird would need to eat about 80,000 calories a day to survive. That’s because staying warm by making your own heat takes a ton of energy. And that brings up a paradox, because creating your own body heat is incredibly expensive. The largest animals on Earth have to spend most of their day just eating enough to keep their heat engines running. So why aren’t we cold-blooded… like crocodiles? Here’s the science

Épisode 9 - The Shocking Way Your Body Makes Electricity

2 juin 2021

Here’s a thought: What IS a thought? I know it involves my brain, and my brain is made of neurons. And my brain’s neurons are listening to other neurons all over my body. But how do those neurons actually work? Maybe you’ve heard that it involves electricity, but does that mean you’ve got little zaps and lightning bolts running through your veins like Pikachu? Don’t worry, I’m here to set you straight on what a neuron is, what an action potential is, and how fast your nervous system really communicates.

Épisode 10 - A Brief (Scientific) History of Butts

30 juin 2021

Hold on to your butts. This episode is about… butts. The science and evolutionary history of your rear end, the down-low on your derriere, shining a little light where the sun don’t shine… you get the picture. But(t) seriously, we don’t talk about this all-important hole enough, and how, from an evolutionary perspective, it might be the most important orifice on your body.

Épisode 11 - Why Is Sex a Thing?

30 juillet 2021

Why does sex exist? You might think the obvious answer is “reproduction” but there are plenty of organisms on Earth that don’t require sex to reproduce. And the more that scientists examined sex, they more they realized that it’s an expensive and inefficient way to get your genes to the next generation. The true purpose of sex is actually one of the longest-standing mysteries in evolutionary biology. But scientists are closer than ever to finding the answer. Here’s what we know about the evolutionary enigma of sex.

Épisode 12 - How Much Of You Is Alive?

7 septembre 2021

You’re alive right now… at least I’m pretty sure you are. But you’re not TOTALLY alive. Bits of you are always breaking down, being thrown out, and being replaced. Even right now, parts of you are dying. Some of your cells even died before you were born. And some will never come back. These are all very strange, mildly uncomfortable things to think about. And what’s even stranger than that is a big fraction of your body is, was, and will never be alive. So how much of you is dead?

Épisode 13 - This Simple Code Is Behind Nature’s Most Complex Patterns

22 septembre 2021

How do zebras get their stripes? How do leopards get their spots? And how do giraffes get their giraffe-shaped thingies, whatever they are called? Would you believe the answer is… math? This is the story of a WWII wartime codebreaker and his quest to decode nature’s most beautiful patterns. Alan Turing uncovered a simple code that explains everything from stripes to spots and all the patterns in between… he was just too far ahead of his time. Only recently have biologists found evidence that his pattern-forming system

Épisode 14 - I Can't Believe We're Making Another COVID Video

8 octobre 2021

I guess we’re still doing this.

Épisode 15 - Sand Dunes Shouldn’t Exist (Here’s Why They Do)

20 octobre 2021

Original Title: The Self-Organizing Secret of Sand Dunes How can sand, blown by the wind, form such intricate and beautiful patterns as ripples and dunes? The answer is a surprising secret of self-organization. In this video, we travel to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado to climb the largest sand dunes in North America and bring you the science of how wind and sand combine to create ordered landforms out of chaos. The science must flow.

Épisode 16 - Inside the Largest Living Thing On Earth!

6 novembre 2021

The biggest thing that has ever lived on Earth… is a tree? Hard to believe, but it’s true. Travel with me to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to go inside the most massive species on our planet, and learn what unique and special evolutionary adaptations let them get so big.

Épisode 17 - What Is Nothing?

23 novembre 2021

This is a video about nothing. Hope you learn something!

Épisode 18 - Why Do We Dream?

22 décembre 2021

It would be a lot easier to study the science of dreaming if we weren’t asleep every time we did it. Why do we dream? What does dreaming do for our brains? How did dreaming evolve? Here’s a look at the current theories from psychology and neuroscience.

Épisode 19 - Can you figure out the Castle Illusion?

19 juillet 2022

Épisode 20 - The Motion Aftereffect Illusion

26 juillet 2022

Épisode 21 - Why jumping spiders are the best things with 8 legs

2 novembre 2022

Épisode 22 - This is why Daylight Saving Time needs to GO

4 novembre 2022

Épisode 1 - Can We Actually Clean Up the Plastic Pollution Problem?

6 janvier 2022

Original Title: We’re Drowning in Plastic Pollution. Can We Actually Fix It? There’s been a lot of talk on YouTube lately about ocean plastic pollution and #TeamSeas. But there hasn’t been enough talk about the **ridiculously unthinkable scale of the ocean plastic pollution problem** or how it intersects with other environmental issues like climate change. And here’s a big spoiler alert: Nearly all environmental scientists agree that ocean plastic pollution isn’t a problem we can clean our way out of. So what CAN we do? That’s what this video is about.

Épisode 2 - Here's What I Learned From Getting COVID

25 janvier 2022

Original Title: Here's What I Learned... I’m vaccinated. I’m boosted. And I still got infected with the omicron variant of COVID-19. Here’s what I learned, and what it means for the possible end of this pandemic.

Épisode 3 - The Weird Brain Illusion That Makes Movies Work

1 février 2022

Original Title: Why Every Video Is An Illusion Movies. Video games. YouTube videos. All of them work because we accidentally figured out a way to fool your brain’s visual processing system, and you don’t even know it’s happening. In this video, I talk to neuroscientist David Eagleman about the secret illusions that make the moving picture possible.

Épisode 4 - How Do We Read? It’s Magic (Almost)

15 février 2022

Reading. You’re doing it right now. I bet you don’t even have to think about it. But have you ever wondered what’s happening in your brain to turn all these weird symbols into meaning? This video will teach you how to read all over again. What you’re doing right now is way more amazing than you ever realized.

Épisode 5 - What’s Actually on the Other Side of a Mirror?

3 mars 2022

How many times do you look in a mirror every day? Have you ever stopped to wonder how they actually work? Mirrors do strange things to our world, seemingly flipping everything so that what was right is left and what was left is right. But what if I told you that mirrors don’t actually flip the world left to right? The real magic of mirrors is far stranger and more interesting, as you’re about to learn.

Épisode 6 - How Evolution Beat Cancer (…for Whales at Least)

22 mars 2022

Why do whales, elephants, and other large animals not get cancer? Logically, the larger an animal is, and the longer it lives, the more likely it should be to get cancer. But these giants don’t. Why is that? And can the answer help humanity?

Épisode 7 - Can Life Really Be Explained By Physics?

8 avril 2022

Original Title: What Is Life? I recently got to sit down with physicist and science communicator extraordinaire Prof. Brian Cox. Did we talk about black holes, the Big Bang, or alien worlds? Nope! We talked about biology. Specifically, what is “life” and how did it begin? You might not expect it, but looking at life through the lens of physics can teach us a lot about why interesting groups of atoms like you and me exist.

Épisode 8 - Can Illusions Teach Us How the Mind Works?

26 avril 2022

Optical illusions are fun, but they can also teach us a lot about how our brains work. In particular, how our brains accomplish the incredible feat of constructing a three-dimensional reality using nothing but 2-D images from our eyes. A young artist and psychology researcher named Adelbert Ames, Jr. developed a series of illusions that help us understand how this process of constructing reality actually works. Sometimes we need to be fooled in order to gain understanding.

Épisode 9 - Are Humans Still Evolving?

19 mai 2022

We’re living longer. Dying less. Human life expectancy has doubled in just a couple centuries. Machines and meals and medicines keeping us alive long past the age where we can make babies. Does this mean our species is no longer under the influence of natural selection? Have humans stopped evolving?

Épisode 10 - This Machine Makes 300+ km/h Winds (INDOOR HURRICANE!)

2 juin 2022

Hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones are Earth’s most powerful storms, capable of unleashing destruction and death on coastal areas worldwide. As climate change warms Earth’s oceans, we face more risk of storms rapidly intensifying into category 5, sometimes in less than a single day. Being able to predict these rapidly intensifying storms will save lives, but studying hurricanes in detail is difficult and dangerous. So in order to improve our understanding of hurricanes, scientists have built a machine that can create hurricane conditions indoors.

Épisode 11 - Why You Can’t Smell Yourself (and Other Ways Your Senses Lie to You)

21 juin 2022

There is an absolutely weird, but surprisingly common phenomenon called sensory adaptation that you experience every day in countless ways without even realizing it. Without this very strange phenomenon, you would be lost, overwhelmed, and completely unable to navigate the external world. In this episode, we’ll explore the many ways your brain “tunes out” most of what’s going on around you so that you can be the high-functioning smart people that we know you are.

Épisode 12 - Trying to Land a Plane (to Prove a Point)

6 juillet 2022

You may not be an expert, but perhaps you feel pretty confident that you could ride a motorcycle, or give someone a decent haircut - if you absolutely had to - right? Not so much, according to the psychological phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Turns out we’re all at risk of being overconfident about something. Watch Joe put this theory to the test as he tries to land a 737 (in a simulator, of course). Oh, did we mention Joe's not a pilot?

Épisode 13 - Why No One Can Agree What’s REALLY the Tallest Mountain

22 juillet 2022

What's the tallest mountain on Earth? It might seem like an easy question to answer, but in reality it's one that brings up more NEW questions than answers. It turns out that the way we measure mountains rests on a lot of approximations, assumptions, and averages. And when you dig into those, there's several contenders for the tallest mountain, each with their own good case for the title. So, which mountain do YOU think should take the throne?

Épisode 14 - Why is Puberty so Weird?

4 août 2022

There is no phase of a human’s lifetime that is as strange and disgus....er....magical as the transition from childhood into adulthood - that handful of years that we call . . . PUBERTY. Why does it happen? How does it work? Why is it so weird? Join Joe in this whirlwind tour of the endocrine system to find the answers.

Épisode 15 - The Crime Wave We Can Blame on… Neutron Stars?

23 août 2022

There’s a crime wave sweeping the world right now. A new kind of theft that takes just minutes to carry out. These criminals are on the hunt for something that fetches big bucks on the black market. Numbers are skyrocketing, and public officials are scrambling for answers. Turns out, we can blame it all on neutron stars and some oddities of the periodic table. When it comes to neutron crime, it's hard to get a charge to stick… heh heh

Épisode 16 - The Biggest Myth About Climate Change

15 septembre 2022

You’ve seen it in the comment section before: “Climate change is natural. It’s happened before and it will keep happening”. In reality, comments like these are the newest kind of climate change denial. In this video we’re going to learn about all the reasons that Earth’s climate changes, natural and otherwise, and then how we know that modern climate change can’t be blamed on natural forces. Maybe we can finally put this biggest myth about climate change in the trash.

Épisode 17 - The Unbelievable Story of Earth’s Most Epic Flood

11 octobre 2022

One day around 15,000 years ago, a wall of ice 2,000 feet tall and 30 miles wide suddenly broke wide open, and it unleashed the largest flood that we know of in the history of Earth. Come and hit the road with me as we search for the geologic fingerprints of the Missoula Ice Age Floods, and learn the story of one of the worst natural disasters that’s ever happened!

Épisode 18 - Why 8 Eyes Are Better Than 2 (...If You're a Spider)

25 octobre 2022

Épisode 19 - How We Solved the Greatest Riddle In Navigation

8 novembre 2022