PBS
Your DNA's Codes Are (Probably) From Outer Space
New ReviewDid you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA? And that 100% of your DNA may come from outer space? No joke. The biochemistry that defined the coding system of your DNA may have happened off-world, and perhaps even long...
Be Smart
The Great Oxygenation
New ReviewLife’s been around on Earth for at least 3.7 billion years. But for most of that time, it was incredibly boring — just simple little cells squirming around in water. It only got interesting in the last few hundred million years. And that...
PBS
Why Does Caffeine Exist?
Today, billions of people around the world start their day with caffeine. But how and why did the ability to produce this molecule independently evolve in multiple, distantly-related lineages of flowering plants, again and again?
SciShow
We Finally Know How Anesthesia Works
Even though doctors have been using general anesthesia for nearly 200 years, they haven’t really understood the details of how it temporarily shuts down your brain — until now.
SciShow
Bivalves Could Be the New Lab Rats
Bivalves—animals like mussels, clams and oysters—might be a more familiar sight in a restaurant than a lab. But it turns out that studying them might help us learn more about our own health.
SciShow
How the Electricity in Our Bodies Could Fight Cancer
One potential avenue for cancer treatment uses electricity not from any outside machine, but from within our own bodies.
SciShow
Maybe Life Doesn't Need Water, After All
Scientists have been searching for alien life by honing in on the existence of liquid water, but we might be overlooking some types of life out there that doesn't need water at all.
SciShow
Blue Is Pretty Special: How Nature Gets the Blues
It's really difficult for life to create blue pigments, but the color can appear in a handful of compounds that create just the right conditions to reflect blue photons.
SciShow
Female Viagra' & New Insights Into Narcolepsy
Recent research has offered some new insights into our biochemistry -- from a proposed drug for sexual arousal to a possible link between the flu and narcolepsy.
SciShow
Elizabeth Blackburn: Great Minds
Hank brings us the story of Elizabeth Blackburn, the Nobel Prize-winning Australian woman who discovered telomeres and telomerase, and helped scientists begin to understand the process of aging at a genetic level.
Be Smart
Title: The Recipe For Life
If the human body could be distilled down into one molecule, what would our chemical formula be? And WHY is it that way? There’s a whole lot of elements on the periodic table, but life depends on relatively few of them in order to build...
SciShow
Here's What DNA Really Looks Like
There’s more to DNA than just the double helix we know and love: under some conditions this familiar molecule can take on unfamiliar forms, each of which can have a different impact on our health.
SciShow
Silicon-Based Life: Could Living Rocks Exist?
It's possible life could form based on elements other than carbon, but they would look much different than the life we are used to.
SciShow
Dangerous Soaps: How Animals Use Surfactants
When you think of surfactants, you might think of soaps, detergents and other man-made chemicals. But it turns out that some other animals utilize their own versions of these sudsy molecules.
Professor Dave Explains
Metabolomicist Vasudevan Karanghat (Get to Know a Scientist!)
What is metabolomics? Why, it's the study of metabolites of course! In the case of today's researcher, Vasudevan Karanghat, this means using instrumentation and analytical techniques to figure out the concentrations of various compounds...
Professor Dave Explains
Molecular Biologist Chandni Kumar (Get to Know a Scientist!)
What is proteomics? It's the study of the interactions, function, composition, and structures of proteins and their cellular activities. Dr. Chandni Kumar is a molecular biologist who works with proteins to ascertain all kinds of things...
Curated Video
DNA Structure Mneumonic: Purine and Pyrimidines Structures Made Easy
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) carries the genetic instructions for an organism's growth, development, and reproduction, encoded by sequences of four nitrogen bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). These bases form...
Curated Video
What is a nucleotide?
What is a nucleotide? What is a nucleobase? What is the function of a nucleotide? Nucleotides essentially are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.
Curated Video
Disulfide bonds
What is a disulfide bond? Why are disulfide bonds so important in biochemistry? Find out these answers and more in this video!
Food Farmer Earth
Alan Kapuler: A Visionary's Blend of Science, Ideas, and Humanity
Explore the influential life and thoughts of Alan Kapuler, as he discusses the impact of monoculture on society and the importance of agricultural diversity. Learn how his scientific insights aim to foster a more sustainable and humane...
Curated Video
Substrate
In materials science, the substrate is the surface on which a coating is deposited. A Twig Science Glossary Film. Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise textual definitions. Twig Science...
Curated Video
Biochemistry
The study of chemical reactions in living organisms, the chemistry of life. A Twig Science Glossary Film. Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise textual definitions. Twig Science Glossary Films...
Curated Video
RNA
Or ribonucleic acid, is a nucleic acid, similar to DNA. A Twig Science Glossary Film. Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise textual definitions. Twig Science Glossary Films reinforce abstract...
Curated Video
Archaea
A type of prokaryotic organism lacking a cell nucleus, similar to bacteria but now considered as a domain in their own right. A Twig Science Glossary Film. Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise...