Professor Dave Explains
Introduction to Pharmacology
What are drugs? What do they do? How do they do what they do? These questions are part of the field of pharmacology, and over this series we will learn all about a wide variety of different drugs that have clinical use. This will require...
Professor Dave Explains
Mechanisms of Natural Selection Types of Sexual Selection
We touched upon sexual selection when we learned about natural selection. Essentially when there is a variance in the reproductive success of a particular sex for a given species, secondary sex characteristics will develop in that...
Professor Dave Explains
Introduction to the Microbial World
It's time to learn about microorganisms! These are all the tiny little critters in the water, and the air, and in the ground, and inside you. We didn't even know they were there until a few hundred years ago, but once we started to learn...
Professor Dave Explains
Pharmacodynamics Mechanisms of Drug Action
Now that we know how drugs move through the body to reach their target, what happens once they get there? By what mechanisms can drugs interact with target proteins to elicit a particular cellular response, and by extension a...
Professor Dave Explains
Drug Addiction and the Brain
We are able to become physically dependent on a wide variety of substances, which results in what we call drug addiction. What does this look like from a neurophysiological standpoint? What does the drug-addicted brain look like? Let's...
Professor Dave Explains
Routes of Viral Transmission
Now we know a bit more about how viruses interact with cells, whether those are bacterial cells, or animal cells, such as ours. But how do they gain access to our cells in the first place? How do viruses get inside the human body? Let's...
Professor Dave Explains
The Psychology of Emotion and Stress
Humans, just like most other mammals, display a wide variety of emotional states. But what are emotions? Why do we have them? What purpose do they serve in an evolutionary context? Let's get to the bottom of emotions right now!
Professor Dave Explains
Inheritance of X-Linked Genes
We all know that DNA is the molecule of heredity, but we didn't always know that. It had to be demonstrated empirically. As it happens, some of the first evidence put forth had to do with genes found on the X-chromosome of fruit flies,...
Professor Dave Explains
Brain Damage and Neuroplasticity
At this point, we understand how important the brain is. So naturally, when the brain is damaged in some way, it is usually disastrous for the individual. What are the different types of brain damage? How does the brain respond? We will...
Professor Dave Explains
Legionnaires’ Disease Legionella pneumophila
One day in 1976, there was a terrible outbreak of an unknown disease at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. What was the pathogen responsible for this so-called Legionnaires' disease? Let's find out!
Professor Dave Explains
Typhoid Fever Salmonella typhi
Typhoid fever can be a very serious illness, and we may have already heard of it because of Typhoid Mary, a famous carrier in the beginning of the 20th century. Let's go in for a closer look!
Professor Dave Explains
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Rickettsia rickettsii
In 1896, a mysterious disease spread through the Snake River Valley of Idaho. Some people called it a spotted fever, and hundreds got sick. As it turns out, this was all the doing of some bacteria, Rickettsia ricketssii. Let's get a...
Professor Dave Explains
Chickenpox and Shingles (Varicella-Zoster Virus)
Lots of kids get the chickenpox. I know I did! I was about four years old. It was awful. But now we can learn all kinds of things about the virus called Varicella-Zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles. What is its structure...
Professor Dave Explains
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Staphylococcus aureus is the bacteria responsible for what we commonly refer to as a staph infection. They are extremely common, but they are also developing antibiotic resistance at an alarming rate. Let's take a look at these now.
Professor Dave Explains
Syphilis Treponema pallidum
Syphilis is another infection that is typically caused by sexual contact, thanks to the pathogen Treponema pallidum. What does this bacterium do? How is the infection treated? Let's take a closer look now.
Professor Dave Explains
Lyme Disease Borrelia burgdorferi
Lyme disease. It's that one you get from ticks! So what kind of ticks, and where are they? How does that work exactly, and what are the bacteria that are being transferred when they bite? The bacteria are called Borellia burgdorferi,...
Professor Dave Explains
Food Poisoning Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli
We've all gotten food poisoning before, and it's terrible. So what causes it? Just a little bit of bacteria called E. coli, that's all. Let's check them out!
Professor Dave Explains
Gene Therapy
When we looked at some areas of biotechnology earlier in the series, we briefly touched on gene therapy, without saying much about what it is. Now we are ready to dive into this topic and see what it is all about. If a person has a...
TED-Ed
How Do We Study Living Brains?
Out of all vertebrates, the largest brain when compared to body size belongs to humans. Studying the working brain presents challenges to scientists. Learn about three of the most common tests used to understand how the living brain...
TED-Ed
What Are Mini Brains?
Scientists grow tiny brains outside an organism in their labs. How this is accomplished and why become the central focus of a video and discussion. After viewing the core lesson, ten questions check for content mastery and prepare young...
Be Smart
Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Concussions?
Woodpeckers withstand more than 4,000 Gs without getting a concussion, yet humans only withstand up to 300 without getting one. An eye-opening video explains the difference in anatomy between humans and woodpecker brains as part of a...
TED-Ed
What Happens When You Have a Concussion?
Ever had a concussion? Watch a video that explains the complicated dangers of concussions and how brain neurons are damaged during a concussion. Discover ways to heal the brain after a concussion and the long term effects of head...
Bozeman Science
The Brain
There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain—wow! In this brain video, viewers see how the brain has evolved from simple to complex organisms. The instructor explains the 17 different structures of the brain and their...
TED-Ed
The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain
What does it really mean to know a language? Did you know that knowing two or more languages means that your brain might actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends? Discover the three different types of...