British MP Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan after 9/11, talking with citizens and warlords alike. Now, a decade later, he asks: Why are Western and coalition forces still fighting there? He shares lessons from past military...

An oblate spheroid is a special case of an ellipsoid where two of the semi-principal axes are the same size.

The Himalayas are well known for containing the highest elevations on Earth, but can they get higher or is there something putting a stop to their lofty pursuits?

When Lesley Hazleton was writing a biography of Muhammad, she was struck by something: The night he received the revelation of the Koran, according to early accounts, his first reaction was doubt, awe, even fear. And yet this experience...

Mountains take can take billions of years to form, but the Adirondack Mountains got ahead by recycling itself.

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, near China, is the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean! Join Jessi and Squeaks and learn all about the super-cool, super-tough creatures that make their home there!

Ever wonder why sometimes the airplane you're flying on decides to lurch suddenly and cause your little baggie of peanuts to spill all over the place? Join Hank on SciShow today as he explores the in and outs and the ups and downs of...

No one has ever conclusively seen a proton turn into other, lighter particles, but fifty million liters of water in Japan might change that and our ideas about subatomic particles forever.

Origami, which literally translates to "folding paper," is a Japanese practice dating back to at least the 17th century. In origami, a single, traditionally square sheet of paper can be transformed into almost any shape, purely by...

In the 19th century, the California gold rush brought thousands of settlers to America's west coast. But finding gold may have been easier than transporting it back east. The only hope for avoiding a grueling six month wagon journey was...

Avalanches can be powerful and dangerous, but not all of them are created equal, and not everything you've seen on TV is likely to actually set one off.

In this episode we explain what quantum tunneling is and how it works!

SciShow explores a place that's as beautiful as it is dangerous: Mexico's Giant Crystal Cave, where chemistry has created the world's largest crystals -- but in an environment so hostile that you'd only survive a few minutes if you saw...

Upside Down Mountains in Real Life

From setback and injury to an Olympic gold medal -- see how confidently making decisions led one bobsledder down an unexpected pathway to victory.

In this video Paul Andersen explains how light can be absorbed, reflected, or transmitted as it moves from one medium to another. The reflection of different wavelengths creates the perceived color of an object. Absorbed light is...

Jessi and Squeaks are back from their research trip and ready to keep learning with all of you! And on their trip back to The Fort, Jessi thought up a really interesting questions: how do animals find their way home?

Mount Everest is unquestionably the highest point on earth, but it doesn't always feel that way.

Why are humans so slow to react to looming crises, like a forewarned pandemic or a warming planet? It's because we're reluctant to rethink, say organizational psychologist Adam Grant. From a near-disastrous hike on Panama's highest...

Mountains are some of the biggest things in the world, but today, we're going to teach you how to make some of your own, right on your kitchen table!

Do you like to go hiking like Jessi and Squeaks do? Have you ever wondered how those mountains you're hiking on got there? Check out this episode to learn how mountains form, and how mountains can keep growing!

What is the maximum height for a mountain on Earth!? And why?

In this video Paul Andersen explains how constructive and destructive interference can create interference patterns. Interference patterns can be created by all types of waves, including water, sound, and light. A classic experiment...

Around 74,000 years ago, a volcano called Toba in Sumatra exploded, and some scientists think it had a serious impact on the human population and some...don't.