About 60 percent of the ocean is a cold, dark region that spans down to 11,000 meters. This zone is known as the deep ocean, and though it seems like an inhospitable and remote corner of the planet, it is actually one of the greatest...

Given just a little time, bacteria could outgrow earth, so what's stopping them?

Although gelatinous animals might seem like simple creatures, they'll probably outlast the rest of us, because being gelatinous might turn out to be the ultimate survival strategy.

Until recently, scientists thought cannibalism was a rare response to starvation or other extreme stress. Well-known cannibals like the praying mantis and black widow were considered bizarre exceptions. But now, we know they more or less...

In which John Green, Hank Green, and Emily Graslie teach you about evolution. So, in the last 3.8 billion years, life on Earth has evolved from single-celled prokaryotes to the dizzying array of life we have today. So how did all this...

Learn about the three ocean zones with our ocean experts, Dr. Irene Stanella and her lab assistants Wyatt and Ned!

Scientists are discovering new species at the bottom of the ocean and deep in the rainforest, but there are also plenty of new animals being discovered in cities around the world!

Paul Andersen explains how biogeochemical cycling is used to move nutrients from the environment into living material and back again. He explains the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the phosphorus cycle. He also...

What if your basic at-the-office elevator ride takes a sudden turn for the dark side of gravity, could you survive it?

Jeff Smith spent a year in prison. But what he discovered inside wasn't what he expected -- he saw in his fellow inmates boundless ingenuity and business savvy. He asks: Why don't we tap this entrepreneurial potential to help...

Sometimes, a species has declined so dramatically that they require serious human intervention to ensure they don’t disappear forever. Here are six ways we’re using conservation and science to keep those species alive....

...

In the event of a nuclear fallout, every piece of digital and written information could all be lost. Luckily, there is a way that all of human history could be recorded and safely stored beyond the civilization's end. And the key...

Discover the science of how viruses can jump from one species to another and the deadly epidemics that can result from these pathogens. -- At a Maryland country fair in 2017, farmers reported feverish hogs with inflamed eyes and...

Humans don't have interconnected teeth for slicing, or a secondary set of jaws to clamp down on prey already in our mouths, however, the rest of our animal kingdom is full of strange and awesome adaptations.

In order to truly understand differences among animal lifespans, we need to stop thinking about a specific number and start thinking about a distribution.

In this video Paul Andersen defines adaptations and explains how organisms can become better adapted to their surroundings using the process of natural selection. Specific examples of adaptations, like coat color in rock pocket mice, as...

From ripping your own appendages off to cockroach mind control, wasps go to great lengths to ensure the survival of their species.

Want a Pineapple? If you want a pineapple, it's possible you can just run down to the store and get one. But, if you wanted to grow one, that's a lot more difficult depending on where you live. In this episode of Crash Course Kids,...

Paul Andersen explains the importance of selection in biology. Artificial selection occurs when humans choose traits that will be selected for or against. This has created the variety of domesticated animals and crops. He then...

For the microscopic lab worm C. elegans, life equates to just a few short weeks on Earth. The bowhead whale, on the other hand, can live over two hundred years. Why are these lifespans so different? And what does it really mean to 'age'...

Without water, a human can only survive for about 100 hours. But there's a creature so resilient that it can go without it for decades. This 1-millimeter animal can survive both the hottest and coldest environments on earth, and can even...

So you know about Freshwater and Saltwater now and you know that there's not that much Freshwater for us (and other life) to get to. So how do different animals deal with different amounts of water where they live? In this episode of...

Hank gets into why sex is the preferred method of reproduction for most species - and it's not for the reasons you're thinking.

Indigenous communities have looked after their ancestral forests for millennia, cultivating immense amounts of knowledge on how to protect, nourish and heal these vital environments. Today, 470 million Indigenous people care for and...