The Ecology of Superheroes

When we measure things, most people are only worried about how accurate, or how close to the actual value, they are. Looking at the process of measurement more carefully, you will see that there is another important consideration:...

Globalization is on its deathbed, says economist Mike O'Sullivan. The question now is: What's next? Tracing the historical successes and failures of globalization, O'Sullivan forecasts a new world order where countries come together over...

People ask Google everything under the sun. One of the most commonly searched questions in the world is “How do I grow a beard?”? Let SciShow explain.

Do you think animals can be divided into two biological sexes: female and male? Well, it's way more complicated that that!_

Over the last decade, humanitarian organizations have digitized many of their systems, from registering refugees with biometric IDs to transporting cargo via drones. This has helped deliver aid around the world, but it's also brought new...

Drew Curtis, the founder of fark.com, tells the story of how he fought a lawsuit from a company that had a patent, "...for the creation and distribution of news releases via email." Along the way he shares some nutty statistics about the...

During the 1600's, the exotic tulip became a nationwide sensation; some single bulbs even sold for ten times the yearly salary of a skilled craftsman. Suddenly, though, the demand completely plummeted, leaving the tulip market in a...

It's a moldy world out there, especially in the kitchen. You have questions about food mold, right? Well Hank has your answers.

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Hank helps us understand the difference between the colloquial meaning of randomness, and the scientific meaning, which is also known as stochasticity. We will learn how, in fact, randomness is surprisingly predictable.

What makes work satisfying? Apart from a paycheck, there are intangible values that, Barry Schwartz suggests, our current way of thinking about work simply ignores. It's time to stop thinking of workers as cogs on a wheel.

How Do Bikes Stay Up?

With scissors and paper, artist Béatrice Coron creates intricate worlds, cities and countries, heavens and hells. Striding onstage in a glorious cape cut from Tyvek, she describes her creative process and the way her stories develop from...

The human voice is capable of incredible variety and range. As we age, our bodies undergo two major changes which explore that range. So how exactly does our voice box work, and what causes these shifts in speech? Shaylin A. Schundler...

Think natural disasters are bad? Humans do a pretty good job on our own. Michael Aranda co-hosts this infusion to explain.

What if one day you woke up and were suddenly speaking with a completely new accent from somewhere you’ve never lived? It sounds like a movie plot, but this rare condition is known as foreign accent syndrome.

James Glattfelder studies complexity: how an interconnected system -- say, a swarm of birds -- is more than the sum of its parts. And complexity theory, it turns out, can reveal a lot about how the world economy works. Glattfelder shares...

When someone gets a little scrape, it's pretty common for them to cover it with a bandage while it heals. There are some people, though, who think it's best to leave the wound uncovered and let your body do its healing thing. Who's...

Computer graphics trailblazer Paul Debevec explains the scene-stealing technology behind Digital Emily, a digitally constructed human face so realistic it stands up to multiple takes.

Ever wondered what makes those balls of white foam you sometimes find clinging to plants? Spittlebugs create these bubbly cocoons after feeding on a plant’s fluids; but unfortunately, their eating habits help transmit a deadly bacteria...

Imagine a game played with two players and two dice: if the biggest number rolled is one, two, three, or four, player 1 wins. If the biggest number rolled is five or six, player 2 wins. Who has the best probability of winning the game?...

There are a few forests out there where the trees seem to be especially... polite. Can scientists explain why these species give each other space?

Concrete is all around us: we use it to build our roads, buildings, bridges and much more. Yet over the last 2,000 years, the art of mixing cement and using it to bind concrete hasn't changed very much -- and it remains one of the...

Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That's the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is...