While we might consider elections to be the cornerstone of democracy, the Athenians who coined the term actually employed a lottery system to choose most of their politicians. Melissa Schwartzberg describes the ins and outs of the...

Imagine you swallowed a small bird and suddenly gained the ability to fly - or you ate a cobra and were able to spit poisonous venom! Well, throughout the history of life (and specifically during the evolution of complex eukaryotic...

Saturn is the crown jewel of the solar system, beautiful and fascinating. It is a gas giant, and has a broad set of rings made of ice particles. Moons create gaps in the rings via their gravity. Saturn has dozens of moons, including...

Before the sun never set on the British Empire; before Genghis Khan swept the steppe; before Rome extended its influence to encircle the Mediterranean Sea; there was ancient Assyria. Considered by historians to be the first true empire,...

Or why we live on an onion made of magma

In many ways, our memories make us who we are, helping us remember our past, learn and retain skills, and plan for the future. And for the computers that often act as extensions of ourselves, memory plays much the same role. Kanawat...

Where does our solar system end, and interstellar space begin, and what is it like there? Satellites and probes like IBEX and Voyager 1 & 2 help us get a better look at our special corner of the galaxy.

The solar system is full of strange things. But these three moons are especially strange, and kind of ... ugly.

So we have Weather and Climate... but are they the same thing? No, no they are not. But they are both super important to how the geosphere is shaped. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats with us about the differences...

So we’ve talked about computer memory a couple times in this series, but what we haven’t talked about is storage. Data written to storage, like your hard drive, is a little different, because it will still be there even if the power goes...

Take a deep breath. In a single intake of air, your lungs swell with roughly 25 sextillion molecules, ranging from days-old compounds, to those formed billions of years in the past. In fact, many of the molecules you're breathing were...

Paul Andersen describes the process of mitosis. He begins by discussing the importance of the cell cycle in development, regeneration, asexual reproduction and wound healing. He differentiates between haploid and diploid cells and...

So, you know about stars. But what if those stars formed a super group like The Avengers? Well, then you have a Constellation! In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about stars, constellations, and how humans have used...

Paul Andersen introduces Anatomy and Physiology in this podcast. He starts by describing how the form of an object fits the function. He then explains the themes of homeostasis and hierarchy. He describes the four major types of tissues;...

In this episode of Crash Course, Hank introduces you to the complex history and terminology of Anatomy & Physiology. -- Table of Contents: Anatomy: The Structure of Parts 2:34 Physiology: How Parts Function 3:50 Complementarity of...

A baby cursed at birth. A fierce battle of good and evil. A true love awoken with a kiss. Since premiering in 1890, “The Sleeping Beauty” has become one of the most frequently staged ballets in history. So what makes this piece so...

The prisoner strapped under a descending pendulum blade. A raven who refuses to leave the narrator's chamber. A beating heart buried under the floorboards. Poe's macabre and innovative stories of gothic horror have left a timeless mark...

So, what is the Ecliptic? Well, it has to do with the Zodiac constellations and our sun and how they move in relation to one another. It's kind of cool! In this episode, Sabrina chats about this imaginary line called the Ecliptic and its...

Mars might be full of salty liquid water! Plus, a guide to the upcoming Lyrids meteor shower.

Hank gets into the dirty details about vascular plant reproduction: they use the basic alternation of generations developed by nonvascular plants 470 million years ago, but they've tricked it out so that it works a whole lot differently...

Everyone eats, right? But how does that food get the energy to power you? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the way energy moves, or flows, through an ecosystem and how that movement forms Food Chains! This first...

Chak Ek', the morning star, rose from the underworld to the surface of the eastern sea and on into the heavens. His brother K'in Ahaw, the sun, followed. Though Chak Ek' had risen first, K'in Ahaw outshone him, and the resentful Chak Ek'...

There are a few animals that will instinctively lick their wounds when injured. SciShow Quick Questions explores the reasons why they do this, and why we sometimes have to stop them from doing it.

In which John Green teaches you about the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the largest of the ancient civilizations. John teaches you the who, how, when, where and why of the Indus Valley Civilization, and dispenses advice on how to be...