Be Smart
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....
3Blue1Brown
How colliding blocks act like a beam of light...to compute pi.
The third and final part of the block collision sequence.
3Blue1Brown
How colliding blocks act like a beam of light...to compute pi: Colliding Blocks - Part 3 of 3
The third and final part of the block collision sequence.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't we cover the desert with solar panels? | Dan Kwartler
Stretching over roughly nine million square kilometers and with sands reaching temperatures of up to 80° Celsius, the Sahara Desert receives about 22 million terawatt hours of energy from the Sun every year. That's well over 100 times...
SciShow
Nobel News Capturing Photons Cloning Frogs
Hank brings us the news about the new Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, what they won for and what it all means.
SciShow
First Results from the Probe That Went to the Sun
Scientists have revealed the results of the Parker Solar Probe’s first two flybys of the Sun, and LIGO has a new instrument called the quantum vacuum squeezer!
SciShow
Moon dust tricky squid and the worlds biggest telescope
Hank explains the enormity of the Giant Magellan Telescope, possibly the biggest telescope ever built, as well as updates about NASA's new mission to the moon, and an unusual discovery about the habits of deep-sea squid.
TED Talks
TED: How much does a video weigh? | Michael Stevens
What color is a mirror? How much does a video weigh? Michael Stevens, creator of the popular educational YouTube channel Vsauce, spends his day asking quirky questions like these. In this talk he shows how asking the right -- seemingly...
TED Talks
Marco Tempest: The electric rise and fall of Nikola Tesla
Combining projection mapping and a pop-up book, Marco Tempest tells the visually arresting story of Nikola Tesla -- called "the greatest geek who ever lived" -- from his triumphant invention of alternating current to his penniless last...
TED Talks
Wendy Freedman: This telescope might show us the beginning of the universe
When and how did the universe begin? A global group of astronomers wants to answer that question by peering as far back in time as a large new telescope will let us see. Wendy Freedman headed the creation of the Giant Magellan Telescope,...
SciShow
The Leviathan of Parsonstown
In the 1800s, William Parsons built a telescope larger than any in the world: The Leviathan of Parsonstown. This landmark in science history helped solve the mystery of just what a nebula could be.
SciShow
There Are Crystal Mirrors Hidden in Scallop Eyes
Sea creatures abound this week, as scientists make discoveries about scallop eyes and use models to help figure out the age old mystery, "Which came first, comb jellies or the sea sponge?”
SciShow
The Space Mirror That Turned Night into Day
Solar sail technology was once only theoretical, but it's now being developed to propel spaceships. How did the first solar sails get into space, and why?
Bozeman Science
Stimulated Emission
In this video Paul Andersen explains how stimulated emission can be used to create coherent light. When an atom absorbs a photon it moves to a higher energy level through stimulated absorption. It may then release a photon and moves to a...
SciShow
The Biggest Telescope EVAR!
Their return was delayed for a while, but three ISS crew members are finally home. Plus, engineers have started assembling the Giant Magellan Telescope!
SciShow
5 Weird Things That Can Catch Fire
Fire: it's beautiful, it's dangerous, and it shows up in surprising places. Here are five weird things you might have on hand that can go up in flames. Chapters 0:00 0:05 0:11 0:17 0:23 0:29
SciShow
Why Do Things Look Darker When They're Wet?
It's kinda embarrassing when you spill stuff on your shirt and it makes a stain. So you might as well understand the science behind it, so at least you can act all smart and explain it to people.
SciShow
Gravitational Waves Discovered!
Einstein predicted their existence 101 years ago, and now it's official: we've detected gravitational waves directly for the first time ever!
SciShow
Why Gravitational Waves Are a Big Deal
Last week, it was announced that we've detected gravitational waves on Earth. Now, Hank explains what that means for the future and why it's such a huge deal.
MinutePhysics
How lasers work (in theory)
How does a laser really work? It's Bose - Einstein statistics! (photons are bosons)
SciShow
From Kepler to Webb: The History of the Telescope
Hank regales us with the history of the telescope, and then introduces us to some folks from the team who are working on the newest telescope in the chronology - the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared telescope due to launch in 2018.
SciShow
The Most Sophisticated Mirror in the Universe
Hank summarizes the five reasons why infrared telescopes were supposed to be impossible to build, and then describes how a team of scientists and engineers overcame those obstacles to build the James Webb Space Telescope.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the vampire hunter riddle? - Dan Finkel
You’re a vampire hunter entering the enemy’s lair. Can you outsmart this tricky brainteaser and vanquish the vampires? -- You’ve stealthily descended into the darkness of a vampire cave, setting a sequence of mirrors as you go. When the...