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What If We Could See Nature In Infrared?
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...
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Trying to Land a Plane (to Prove the Dunning-Kruger Effect)
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...
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Inside a Machine That Can Recreate Hurricanes (for Science)
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...
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This Is How Astronauts Drink Coffee In Space!
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...
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This Face TOTALLY Changes the Human Story
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...
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These Butt-Tickling Ants Are Endangered Butterfly Bodyguards | IN OUR NATURE
Seemingly distant ecosystems, even half a world apart, are connected in surprising ways. In this special limited series, Emily Graslie and Trace Dominguez join me as we explore the universal rules of life that tie together Earth’s living...
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The Unexpected Measure that Makes the Modern World Tick
All of modern society relies upon a seemingly simple but surprisingly complex unit of measurement: the second. But knowing exactly what a “second” is is more complicated than you might think!
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The Unbelievable Science of How We Read
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...
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The Transcontinental Burrito Hypertunnel (a Very Serious Science Video)
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...
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The Strange Science of Why We Dream
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...
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The Mathematical Code Hidden In Nature
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...
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The Magic (and Mystery) of Mirrors
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....
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Why is Puberty so Weird?
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...
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Unraveling the Great Butterfly Migration Mystery
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...
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You'll Never Guess Where Earth's Largest Migration Happens
The biggest (and most mysterious!) migration in the world happens every night in the ocean as 10 billion tons of zooplankton swim to the surface to feed. This undersea journey is known as Diel vertical migration, and it occurs in every...
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Antibiotic Resistance and the Rise of Superbugs
Antibiotic Resistance and the Rise of Superbugs
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The Unbelievable Story of Earth’s Most Epic Flood
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...
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Here's What I Learned From Getting COVID
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.
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Can We Solve the Air Conditioning Paradox?
As the Earth warms due to human-caused climate change, billions of people in the developing world will face life-threatening heat waves, raising the demand for air conditioning. But powering all of that cooling is going to take more...
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Can Life Really Be Explained By Physics? (featuring Prof. Brian Cox)
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...
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Using a Bunch of Mousetraps to Explain How Pandemics Work (feat. @theslowmoguys)
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...
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How Did Giant Pterosaurs Fly?
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...
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How Ancient Ice Proves Climate Change Is Real
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...
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Fixing Daylight Saving Time Is THIS Easy
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...