SciShow
How to Clean Up After Ourselves in Space
We've launched thousands of spacecraft over the years. And as the space junk around our planet builds up, researchers are working on ways to clean things up using some obvious things, like lasers, and some less obvious ones, like solar...
MinutePhysics
The "Mountain Or Valley?" Illusion
This video is about a multistable perceptual illusion, similar to the hollow face illusion, whereby maps or aerial or satellite photos look upside down/inside out, ie, concave (valley) parts look convex and convex (mountainous) parts...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Pazit Cahlon and Alex Gendler: What "Machiavellian" really means
From Shakespeare's plays to modern TV dramas, the unscrupulous schemer for whom the ends always justify the means has become a familiar character type we love to hate. For centuries, we've had a single word to describe such characters:...
SciShow
The Science of Lying
Hank gets into the dirty details behind our lying ways - how such behavior evolved, how pathological liars are different from the rest of us, and how scientists are getting better at spotting lies in many situations.
TED Talks
3 ways to upgrade democracy for the 21st century | Max Rashbrooke
Democracy needs an update -- one that respects and engages citizens by involving them in everyday political decisions, says writer and researcher Max Rashbrooke. He outlines three global success stories that could help move democratic...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How does money laundering work? - Delena D. Spann
Money laundering is the term for any process that "cleans" illegally obtained funds of their "dirty" criminal origins, allowing them to be used within the legal economy. And the practice is about as old as money itself. But how does it...
TED Talks
Shaka Senghor: Why your worst deeds don’t define you
In 1991, Shaka Senghor shot and killed a man. He was, he says, "a drug dealer with a quick temper and a semi-automatic pistol." Jailed for second degree murder, that could very well have been the end of the story. But it wasn't. Instead,...
TED Talks
Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration
After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. In this talk, he shares how his ambitious new project,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Got seeds? Now add bleach, acid and sandpaper - Mary Koga
For a seed to start growing, its embryo must emerge from its hard coat. In nature the embryo is aided by frost and animal digestion -- but humans can help too. Nicking, filing, and soaking the seed in hot water or acid are all forms of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can steroids save your life? | Anees Bahji
Steroids: they're infamous for their use in sports. But they're also found in inhalers, creams to treat poison ivy and eczema, and shots to ease inflammation. The steroids in these medicines aren't the same as those used to build muscle....
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Rosalind Franklin: DNA's unsung hero - Claudio L. Guerra
The discovery of the structure of DNA was one of the most important scientific achievements in human history. The now-famous double helix is almost synonymous with Watson and Crick, two of the scientists who won the Nobel prize for...
SciShow
A Strangely Cool Supermassive Black Hole!
In this week's news we discover that Tatooine has got nothing on HD 131399Ab's wide orbit, and there's a some really cool jets coming out of a supermassive black hole.
SciShow
How Paintings Help You See the World Differently
Emerging research suggests that paintings might be more than just pretty pictures: how we process what we see in paintings might also impact the way we process the world around us.
Crash Course
Star Clusters
Last week we covered multiple star systems, but what if we added thousands or even millions of stars to the mix? A star cluster. There are different kinds of clusters, though. Open clusters contain hundreds or thousands of stars held...
SciShow
Dark Matter Is Even Stranger Than We Thought | SciShow News
Scientists can see how dark matter is distributed based on how its gravity affects light, but when astronomers compared recent data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope to current models, something didn’t add up....
Crash Course
Media Policy & You: Crash Course Media Literacy
Copyright and other media regulations have always been a bit tricky, but the internet made all of that infinitely more complicated. But what does all of that mean for you, the consumer?
MinuteEarth
Why Apple Pie Isn't American
Our diets are more global than we realize, because our common food crops and animals were domesticated far away in diverse locations. __________________________________________ If you want to learn more about this topic, start your...
TED Talks
BJ Miller: What really matters at the end of life
At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? For many, it's simply comfort, respect, love. BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician who thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The pleasure of poetic pattern - David Silverstein
Humans are creatures of rhythm and repetition. From our breath to our gait: rhythm is central to our experience, and often brings us pleasure. We can find pleasure in the rhythm of a song, or even the rows of an orchard. Of course, too...
Crash Course
100 Years of Solitude Part 2: Crash Course Literature 307
In which we continue our exhaustive look at One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
SciShow
The Mystery of the Biggest Genomes
3 billion base pairs is a pretty typical genome size for organisms like us, but there are a few plants and animals with genomes so huge they completely blow this number out of the water.
Be Smart
How The Pyramids Were Built (Pyramid Science Part 2)
Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible. Over the past centuries, archaeologists, historians, and engineers have reconstructed a great deal of the technology and science used to build the Egyptian pyramids. This...
SciShow
3 Facts About Lemmings
Lemmings are small, thickset vole-like animals that live in the Arctic tundra. They live in a harsh environment, are super-cute, kinda mean, and totally misunderstood.
SciShow
The Problem With Those 9 Personality Types
The Enneagram, like many personality tests, isn't well backed-up by scientific research, but its popularity in spite of that can give us a window into how the human mind works.