In this video Paul Andersen explains how the mitochondria generates energy for the cell through aerobic respiration. He also explains how research into the organelle has shown its importance in eukaryotic evolution.

Paul Andersen explains the major classification terms in ecology and how a community can be measured by species composition and species diversity. The symbiosis of leaf cutter ants is included. The podcast ends with a discussion of...

Why do we jail people for being poor? Today, half a million Americans are in jail only because they can't afford to post bail, and still more are locked up because they can't pay their debt to the court, sometimes for things as minor as...

From spirals to spots to fractals, nature is full of interesting patterns. Many of these patterns even resemble geometric shapes. One of the most common? Hexagons. Why do we see this six-sided shape occur so many times in nature? This...

When two people are trying to make a deal -- whether they’re competing or cooperating -- what’s really going on inside their brains? Behavioral economist Colin Camerer shows research that reveals how badly we predict what others are...

Have you ever looked at your camera and wondered what all of those buttons actually do? For manual photography, the aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity can all be manipulated to get just the right amount of light. Carolina...

You botched your forward double somersault and biffed it hard on the water. Why does it have to hurt so bad?

Secrets, disease and beauty are all written in the human genome, the complete set of genetic instructions needed to build a human being. Now, as scientist and entrepreneur Riccardo Sabatini shows us, we have the power to read this...

Sunscreen comes in different levels of SPF, or sun protection factor, but what does that mean for your skin and the ultraviolet radiation hitting it? Olivia explains the science of SPF.

It's leap year time... so what are years, anyway? And what do they have to do with the supermassive black hole in the core of the milky way?

Hank talks about how warp drives could potentially work.

Carbon dioxide is the biggest player in the climate crisis, reshaping our world in an urgent way, but that’s not the only way CO2 has changed the world. It’s also contributed to making some of the weirdest places on Earth.

Today, Craig is going to talk about social policy - in the United States this means achieving one of three goals: protecting Americans from risk, promoting equal opportunity, or assisting the poor. Many Americans strongly believe in...

Authentic dollar bills are equipped with many security features to make them difficult to forge. But that doesn't stop counterfeiters from trying to fool people with fakes. Luckily, anyone can help catch a counterfeit; all you need are a...

How to Find an Exoplanet

If you find a glowing rock, it probably doesn't mean you're the chosen one. If it's one of these five phenomena, it's quantum mechanics, not narrative significance.

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Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen argues that reducing humanity’s ecological footprint is incredibly vital now, as the western consumer lifestyle spreads to developing countries.

I visited the Howard Hughes Medical Institute last week.

The Arctic may seem like a frozen and desolate environment where nothing ever changes. But the climate of this unique and remote region can be both an early indicator of the climate of the rest of the Earth and a driver for weather...

Blaise Aguera y Arcas leads a dazzling demo of Photosynth, software that could transform the way we look at digital images. Using still photos culled from the Web, Photosynth builds breathtaking dreamscapes and lets us navigate them.

The way we experience seasons don't necessarily line up with how they're technically defined - here's why.

Models of the universe’s early days have only been possible with dark matter as a variable, but we still don’t have proof that dark matter exists. But recently, scientists may have found a way to replicate the results without the...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how the kinetic energy gained by an object is equivalent to the work done on the object. The force on the object must act parallel or antiparallel to the motion of the object to do work. Several...

This week, a group of researchers use nuclear fallout to figure out how old liver cells are, while another gets one step closer to predicting volcanic eruptions.