Be Smart
Does Evolution Have a Point? 12 Days of Evolution #12
Some of the biggest evolution questions finally answered.
SciShow
A Potential New Staph Vaccine and Touchable "Holograms"
What's cooler: A vaccine for one of the deadliest bacterial infections around or a holodeck? Well, this week we got a step closer to BOTH!
SciShow
Evolution & The Science of Popular Music
This week, researchers reveal the single most important influence on music since 1960. Also, turns out that sleepwalking and sleep terrors are genetically linked.
TED Talks
Angela Belcher: Using nature to grow batteries
Inspired by an abalone shell, Angela Belcher programs viruses to make elegant nanoscale structures that humans can use. Selecting for high-performing genes through directed evolution, she's produced viruses that can construct powerful...
SciShow
What If All Viruses Vanished?
In the past couple years, you may have found yourself wishing that all the viruses in the world just disappear. But be careful what you wish for...
SciShow
Why Billions of Passenger Pigeons Died in Under a Century
How could the most abundant bird in North America go extinct so quickly? Short answer: us.
SciShow
SciShow Quiz Show with Phil Plait: Sperm, Whales, and Sperm Whales
Hank and Phil Plait dive deep into questions about gametes and sea mammals in this episode of SciShow Quiz Show!
TED Talks
Jay Bradner: Open-source cancer research
How does cancer know it's cancer? At Jay Bradner's lab, they found a molecule that might hold the answer, JQ1. But instead of patenting it and reaping the profits (as many other labs have done) -- they published their findings and mailed...
TED Talks
Ellen Jorgensen: Biohacking -- you can do it, too
We have personal computing -- why not personal biotech? That's the question biologist Ellen Jorgensen and her colleagues asked themselves before opening Genspace, a nonprofit DIY bio lab in Brooklyn devoted to citizen science, where...
SciShow
Bigfoot, Yeti: Meet Science
This week in SciShow News, hard science meets cryptozoology, as biologists reveal the results of their investigation into samples suspected to have come from such beasties as Sasquatch and yeti. The findings are pretty much what you'd...
TED Talks
Juan Enriquez: The age of genetic wonder
Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know...
TED Talks
Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics
Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics -- and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials.
TED Talks
Cynthia Kenyon: Experiments that hint of longer lives
What controls aging? Biochemist Cynthia Kenyon has found a simple genetic mutation that can double the lifespan of a simple worm, C. elegans. The lessons from that discovery, and others, are pointing to how we might one day significantly...
TED Talks
Wendy Chung: Autism — what we know (and what we don't know yet)
In this factual talk, geneticist Wendy Chung shares what we know about autism spectrum disorder — for example, that autism has multiple, perhaps interlocking, causes. Looking beyond the worry and concern that can surround a diagnosis,...
TED Talks
Mina Bissell: Experiments that point to a new understanding of cancer
For decades, researcher Mina Bissell pursued a revolutionary idea -- that a cancer cell doesn't automatically become a tumor, but rather, depends on surrounding cells (its microenvironment) for cues on how to develop. She shares the two...
SciShow
SciShow Quiz Show: With the Brain Scoop's Emily Graslie!
Hank goes head-to-head with the Brain Scoop’s Emily Graslie to match wits about springs, hoaxes, and human evolution!
TED Talks
Emma Teeling: The secret of the bat genome
In Western society, bats are often characterized as creepy, even evil. Zoologist Emma Teeling encourages us to rethink common attitudes toward bats, whose unique and fascinating biology gives us insight into our own genetic makeup.
TED Talks
Danny Hillis: Back to the future (of 1994)
From deep in the TED archive, Danny Hillis outlines an intriguing theory of how and why technological change seems to be accelerating, by linking it to the very evolution of life itself. The presentation techniques he uses may look...
SciShow
Why Do We Have Such Crooked Teeth?
A lot of humans need or want braces to fix their crooked teeth, but why do you never see a dog walking down the street with headgear? Our ancient ancestors and mac and cheese may be to blame!
SciShow
Secrets of the Vampire Squid
This week in SciShow News, Hank tells us about some weird science, including a squid that's not a squid, animals that can talk, and new insights into how you can mess up your body much faster and for much longer than you ever thought...
TED Talks
Gregory Stock: To upgrade is human
In this prophetic 2003 talk -- just days before Dolly the sheep was stuffed -- biotech ethicist Gregory Stock looked forward to new, more meaningful (and controversial) technologies, like customizable babies, whose adoption might drive...
TED Talks
Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species?
Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? Juan Enriquez sweeps across time and space to bring us to the present moment -- and shows how technology is revealing evidence that suggests...
TED Talks
Juan Enriquez: The life code that will reshape the future
Scientific discoveries, futurist Juan Enriquez notes, demand a shift in code, and our ability to thrive depends on our mastery of that code. Here, he applies this notion to the field of genomics.
TED Talks
TED: What will humans look like in 100 years? | Juan enriquez
We can evolve bacteria, plants and animals -- futurist Juan enriquez asks: Is it ethical to evolve the human body? In a visionary talk that ranges from medieval prosthetics to present day neuroengineering and genetics, enriquez sorts out...