Clean, renewable energy is becoming more and more common in our everyday lives. But, as our cars and buildings become more green, tens of thousands of airplanes fly every day using petroleum-based fuel, and there's seemingly no end in...

Bananas! They've got a long trip from harvest to table, and a lot of science goes into keeping them delicious

A discovery-oriented introduction to error correction codes.

We're willing to pay hundreds or thousands more for a specific brand name item, but sometimes it can be tempting to go the way of the knock-off for a fraction of the price. The counterfeit industry is huge and isn't going anywhere, and...

In April 2020, epidemiologist-in-training Sophie Rose volunteered to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. As a young, healthy adult, she's offering to take part in a human challenge trial, a study where participants are...

From floppy disks to thumb drives, every method of storing data eventually becomes obsolete. What if we could find a way to store all the world's data forever? Bioinformatician Dina Zielinski shares the science behind a solution that's...

"Life comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is take that amorphous flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it." In this funny, enlightening talk, educational psychologist Peter Doolittle details the importance --...

As of 2020, the world's biggest lithium-ion battery is hooked up to the Southern California power grid and can provide enough power for about 250,000 homes. But it's actually not the biggest battery in the world: a pair of lakes are. How...

What happens when you don't sleep? And why do we need to do it anyways? Hank explains the science of sleep: the cause, the benefits, and who holds the record for going without it!

Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know...

Do you often lose things like your keys? Psychology can explain not only why it happens, but also some ways to combat that.

Why is it so hard to find female superhero merchandise? In this passionate, sparkling talk, media studies scholar (and father of a Star Wars-obsessed daughter) Christopher Bell addresses the alarming lack of female superheroes in the...

Our brains aren't exactly like a computer's hard drive, but it can still be fun to think about just how much storage space we have in our noggins.

Could we cure climate change? Geoengineering researcher Tim Kruger wants to try. He shares one promising possibility: using natural gas to generate electricity in a way that takes carbon dioxide out of the air. Learn more -- both the...

Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so...

You aren't the only animal with a pantry!

Have you ever noticed that sunlight makes colors fade? Join Quick Questions as we explore why that happens.

The next big shift is now, and it's not what you think: Facebook is the new Windows; Google must be sacrificed. Tech investor Roger McNamee presents 6 bold ways to prepare for the next internet.

What kind of data is your cell phone company collecting? Malte Spitz wasn’t too worried when he asked his operator in Germany to share information stored about him. Multiple unanswered requests and a lawsuit later, Spitz received 35,830...

Expensive to build and often needing highly skilled engineers to maintain, artificial intelligence systems generally only pay off for large tech companies with vast amounts of data. But what if your local pizza shop could use AI to...

In a complex and changing world, how can we make sure unconventional people and their ideas thrive? Business executive Ipsita Dasgupta introduces the concept of "co-conspirators" -- people willing to bend or break the rules to challenge...

It's Green vs. Green in this week's quiz show as Hank battles Katherine to see who takes home all the marriage points.

You might finally be able to watch that 4k video without buffering, thanks to quantum mechanics and orbital angular momentum.

Astounding feats of animal memory.