Be Smart
How Every Movie & Video Game Tricks Your Brain
Movies. Video games. YouTube videos. All of them work because we accidentally figured out a way to fool your brain’s visual processing system, and you don’t even know it’s happening. In this video, I talk to neuroscientist David Eagleman...
Be Smart
Why You Can’t Smell Yourself (and Other Ways Your Senses Lie to You)
There is an absolutely weird, but surprisingly common phenomenon called sensory adaptation that you experience every day in countless ways without even realizing it. Without this very strange phenomenon, you would be lost, overwhelmed,...
Be Smart
When Is Now?
When is now? Seems like a pretty simple question… just look at your watch. But do you and I share the same “now”? Let’s journey from Einstein’s thought experiments about relativity to cutting edge neuroscience research to try and answer...
Be Smart
Can Illusions Teach Us How the Mind Works?
Optical illusions are fun, but they can also teach us a lot about how our brains work. In particular, how our brains accomplish the incredible feat of constructing a three-dimensional reality using nothing but 2-D images from our eyes. A...
SciShow
When Sex is Hard
When it comes to sex things can be complicated, but for the three species we are looking at today, sex is really hard.
SciShow
8 Mind-Blowing Optical Illusions
Your brain does its best to inform you about the world around you, but sometimes it gets tricked. Enjoy eight optical illusions to test your brain’s sensory input.
Crash Course
Movies are Magic: Crash Course Film History
Well, they're not really "magic." Maybe "illusion" is a better way to say it. As we begin this journey of the history of cinema, we need to understand how movies trick our brains into even understanding that a movie is a movie. In this...
SciShow Kids
Make Your Own Cartoon! Kids Science Activity
Cartoons are the best! But you know the characters in them aren't real... so how do they move around like that? Today's experiment will teach you all about the different illusions animation uses to trick your brain and bring drawings to...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The legend of Annapurna, Hindu goddess of nourishment - Antara Raychaudhuri and Iseult Gillespie
Historically, the union between Shiva and Parvati was a glorious one: a sacred combination which brought fertility and connection to all living things. Yet a rift had grown between these two forces. Setting out to prove the importance of...
TED Talks
TED: Everything you hear on film is a lie | Tasos Frantzolas
Sound design is built on deception -- when you watch a movie or TV show, nearly all of the sounds you hear are fake. In this audio-rich talk, Tasos Frantzolas explores the role of sound in storytelling and demonstrates just how easily...
SciShow
Why Do We Get the Spins When We’re Drunk?
If you're old enough to drink, you may have had a few too many cocktails and suddenly everything is spinning. Strange as it might seem, that’s not because the alcohol you drank is messing with your brain! So what causes the spins?
SciShow
Can You Bamboozle Birds With Magic?
Humans love illusions, but are we the only animals that fall for them?
SciShow
Studying the Brain with... Quantum Mechanics?
Quantum mechanics may not seem like it has anything to do with human psychology, but some psychologists are starting to borrow concepts from the field to help make human behavior more predictable.
TED Talks
TED: The psychology of your future self | Dan Gilbert
Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person...
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
TED: The forgotten art of the zoetrope | eric Dyer
Artist eric Dyer spent years working at a computer to produce images for the screen. Longing to get his hands back on his work, he began exploring the zoetrope, a popular 19th-century device that was used to create the illusion of motion...
SciShow
Why Does Time Slow Down During Car Accidents?
The sensation of time slowing down during intense situations is a commonly reported phenomenon, but what's actually going on?
SciShow
Does the Camera Really Add Ten Pounds?
Your friend just tagged you in 17 photos on Facebook but you swear those photos lie about your weight. Is the camera playing tricks with your eyes?
SciShow
Why Curveballs Are in the Eye of the Beholder
In baseball, a curveball can be pretty hard for a batter to hit. And it turns out the reason why might have more to do with the batter's eyes than the pitcher's arm!
SciShow
Helping Build the Internet: Valerie Thomas | Great Minds
Despite computers barely being a thing when she was born, Valerie Thomas knew that she was cut out for the tech world, pushed until she got there, and contributed to some hugely important technologies that many of us could not live without.
TED Talks
Marco Tempest: A swarm of mini drones makes ... magic!
Leading a swarm of small, buzzing flying machines, techno-magician Marco Tempest orchestrates a "cyber illusion" that will have you asking yourself: Was that science or magic?
TED Talks
Ben Goldacre: Battling bad science
Every day there are news reports of new health advice, but how can you know if they're right? Doctor and epidemiologist Ben Goldacre shows us, at high speed, the ways evidence can be distorted, from the blindingly obvious nutrition...
TED Talks
TED: The trick to regaining your childlike wonder | Zach King
When we ditch our assumptions, new ideas can enter the world, says filmmaker Zach King. In an entertaining talk full of props and surprises, King shows us the trick to regaining our sense of childlike wonder through the power of...
TED Talks
TED: A cyber-magic card trick like no other | Marco Tempest
The suits, numbers and colors in a deck of cards correspond to the seasons, moon cycles and calendar. Marco Tempest straps on augmented reality goggles and does a card trick like you've never seen before, weaving a lyrical tale as he...