MinuteEarth
The Crabs Are Coming
As the waters warm in the deep sea around Antarctica, ecosystem-crushing crabs are able to live closer and closer to the continent.
MinuteEarth
Why Monkeys Can Only Count To Four
There’s an island in the Caribbean where David used to perform magic tricks for monkeys. And it was super cool because it suggested that they have the ability to count! (but only up to four)
MinuteEarth
Why Don't We Eat Carnivores?
Humans eat a lot of different animals, but almost none of them are carnivores - why?
MinuteEarth
Why does the north get more total eclipses?
Solar eclipses can happen anywhere on earth, but if you want to see a total eclipse, you need to go to the far north, because the Earth’s shape and orbit determine the high latitudes and eclipse hotspot.
MinuteEarth
What’s Eating The Titanic?
When a ship sinks, lots of factors, like the ship’s materials, the water quality, and the depth of the seafloor all play a role in determining how long the ship will last down there - as a result, the Titanic will be gone in fifty years,...
MinuteEarth
Weird Things Animals Do During Eclipses
For centuries, humans have reported animals freaking out during solar eclipses, like birds falling from the sky and bees hiding in their hives, but the animals most affected by eclipses might be us.
MinuteEarth
Inside The Sunny Center of a Hurricane
Why is the middle of a hurricane sometimes so clear and calm?
MinuteEarth
How To Name A Disease (Like COVID-19)
We’ve changed - and standardized - the way diseases get named because the old way was often stigmatizing and confusing.
MinuteEarth
How Many Mass Extinctions Have There Been?
Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here are some keywords/phrases to get your googling started: - Mass Extinction Event: a significant, global decrease in the diversity of life - "Big 5": The five biggest mass...
MinuteEarth
How Fighting Wildfires Makes Them Worse
Today's wildfires burn, on average, twice the amount of land they did in 1970. The reason? We've been working too hard to put them out. Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here's a keyword/phrase to get your googling...
MinuteEarth
DemDebate Secret Video - What The U.S. Promised in Paris
NBC & YouTube actually asked us to make TWO videos for the Democratic Presidential Debate on January 17th, 2016. Here's the video that DIDN'T get shown at the debate. Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here are some...
MinuteEarth
How Birds Fooled Military Radar: A Technology Turned Conservation Tool
A technology to ignore birds on radar ended up being useful to study and conserve them.
MinuteEarth
Why Are There Clouds?
Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here are some key words/phrases to get your googling started: - Lifting Condensation Level (LCL): The altitude at which the water vapor in rising air begins to condense - Adiabatic...
MinuteEarth
Which Fish Did We Evolve From?
Today's oceans are full of fish with fins that couldn't evolve into limbs like ours. So, who are our ancestors and where did they go?
MinuteEarth
Should We Grow Human Organs In Pigs?
An amazing new technology will let scientists grow new kidneys for patients using their own stem cells inside of pigs.
MinuteEarth
You Can’t Actually Die Of Old Age
Despite centuries of death records to the contrary, “dying of old age” is not medically possible; instead, it’s just a convenient catch-all.
MinuteEarth
Why We Haven’t Learned More In 101 Years Of Trying
Almost everything we know about the reproductive practices of European eels comes from a genius study conducted more than 100 years ago.
MinuteEarth
Why These Bears “Waste” Food
Optimal foraging theory means that turning down food is sometimes more efficient than eating it - but even then, what’s “wasted” doesn’t necessarily go to waste.
MinuteEarth
Why The Ocean Needs Salt
Our oceans don’t technically contain salt, but the ions salt is made of play a critical role in planet-wide processes that make the Earth habitable.