PBS
Do Black Holes Create New Universes?
Physicists have been struggling for some time to figure out why our universe is so comfy. Why, for example, are the fundamental constants - like the mass of the electron or the strength of the forces - just right for the emergence of...
PBS
Will Wormholes Allow Fast Interstellar Travel?
From Stargate to Interstellar, wormholes are our favorite method for traveling across fictional universes. But they are also a very serious field of study for some of our greatest minds over the last century. So what’s the holdup? When...
PBS
Can Future Colliders Break the Standard Model?
In June, the consortium of Europe’s top particle physicists published their vision for the next several years of particle physics experiments in the EU. A big part of that is the Future Circular Collider, which, if it happens, will...
PBS
How Are Quasiparticles Different From Particles?
The device you’re watching this video on is best understood by thinking about positive and negative charges moving around a circuit of diodes and transistors. But the only elementary particle actually flowing in the circuit is the...
PBS
Is Dark Matter Made of Particles?
By the time you've read this, a billion billion dark matter particles may have streamed through your body like ghosts. The particle or particles of the dark sector make up the vast majority of the mass of the universe - so to them, we're...
PBS
Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?
Life exists in our universe. There we go - one hopefully uncontroversial statement. Therefore our universe is capable of producing and supporting life. How am I going? Two for two? Let’s try for three: therefore there are countless...
PBS
Why Is 1/137 One of the Greatest Unsolved Problems In Physics?
The Fine Structure Constant is one the strangest numbers in all of physics. It’s the job of physicists to worry about numbers, but there’s one number that physicists have stressed about more than any other. That number is 0.00729735256 -...
PBS
How the Quantum Eraser Rewrites the Past | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
Causality is meant to move in one direction: forward. But the Quantum Eraser experiment seems to reverse causality. How and why can this happen and what are the implications of this experiment on how we understand Quantum Mechanics and...
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?
PBS
How Plants Became Carnivores
How and why does botanical carnivory keep evolving? It turns out that when any of the basic things that most plants need aren’t there, some plants can adapt in unexpected ways to make sure they thrive.
PBS
The Dinosaur Who Was Buried at Sea
Paleontologists have been studying nodosaurs since the 1830s, but nobody had ever found a specimen like Borealopelta before. The key to its exceptional preservation was where it ended up after it died and how it got there.
PBS
How We Figured Out Fermentation
Thanks to a recent adaptation, instead of getting sick from the boozy, fermented fruits, one of our primate ancestors could digest them safely, and get more calories at the same time. This new superpower would open up a whole new...
Curated Video
How (Some) Plants Survived The K-Pg Extinction
Perhaps for plants in times of great stress and ecological upheaval, the more DNA the better.
PBS
These Creatures Were Darwin's Greatest Enemy
They may not look like much, but beneath that shell lies an evolutionary mystery - one that stumped the biggest names in natural history for over a hundred years.
PBS
Families with transgender children struggle to navigate wave of anti-trans politics
Texas is the largest state in the country to ban transition-related medical care for minors, joining 19 other states that have restricted access. Laura Barrón-López recently spent time in Texas to learn more about the law and spoke with...
PBS
Social media companies criticized as Israel-Hamas war misinformation spreads rampantly
The world is watching much of the violence between Israel and Hamas through traditional media and broadcasts. But millions also are getting their information through social media. Many posts are spreading misinformation or outright lies...
PBS
What can be done to prevent gun suicides as U.S. rate hits all-time high
Firearms are involved in more than half of suicides in the U.S. The gun suicide rate has reached an all-time high, and for the first time, the rate is higher among Black kids and teens than white ones, according to a recent analysis by...
Be Smart
How Much Of You Is ACTUALLY Alive?
You’re alive right now… at least I’m pretty sure you are. But you’re not TOTALLY alive. Bits of you are always breaking down, being thrown out, and being replaced. Even right now, parts of you are dying. Some of your cells even died...
Be Smart
Are We Running Out Of Food??
If you tried to sum up the last 150 years or so in one image, a chart of exponential growth would be a good place to start. It shows that some things change faster over time. You could apply it to life expectancy. Or compound interest....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happens when you fall into piranha-infested waters? | Antonio Machado-Allison
You're peering into the Amazon River when, suddenly, you lose your footing and fall. Piranhas dart about in the rapidly approaching water. So, are you doomed? Will your fall trigger a feeding frenzy that will skeletonize your body within...
TED Talks
TED: The first-ever cargo ship powered by green fuel | Morten Bo Christiansen
The shipping industry is vital to the global economy, but it's also a huge contributor to the climate crisis. Morten Bo Christiansen, a leader of the energy transition for the global shipping company A.P. Moller – Maersk, talks to TED's...
TED Talks
TED: The "adjacent possible" -- and how it explains human innovation | Stuart Kauffman
From the astonishing evolutionary advances of the Cambrian explosion to our present-day computing revolution, the trend of dramatic growth after periods of stability can be explained through the theory of the "adjacent possible," says...
TED Talks
TED: Why thinking about death helps you live a better life | Alua Arthur
As a death doula, or someone who supports dying people and their loved ones, Alua Arthur spends a lot of time thinking about the end of life. In a profound talk that examines our brief, perfectly human time on this planet, she asks us to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the cursed dice riddle? | Dan Finkel
Ah, spring. As Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, it's your favorite season. Humans and animals look to you to balance the bounty of the natural world which, like any self-respecting Goddess, you do with a pair of magical dice. But then,...