MinuteEarth
Why The Ocean Needs Salt
Our oceans don’t technically contain salt, but the ions salt is made of play a critical role in planet-wide processes that make the Earth habitable.
MinuteEarth
Why Do Weeping Willows Weep?
Most trees reach for the sun – but not the weeping willow. Why?
MinuteEarth
Why Do People Hate Koalas?
On the Internet, koalas get an unnecessary amount of hate, so let's debunk some of the most pervasive koala myths!
MinuteEarth
The WEIRD Way Monkeys Got to America
Many of the greatest biological dispersal events in history likely happened because animals inadvertently traveled across the oceans on floating debris.
MinuteEarth
MinuteEarth Explains: Animal Winners and Losers
In this collection of classic MinuteEarth videos, we keep score on the winners and losers of the animal kingdom. 0:00 - Intro 0:10 - Why Only Some Monkeys Have Awesome Tails • Why Only Some Monkeys Have Awesome Tails 1:57 - Rise Of The...
MinuteEarth
Is Bigger Better?
Elephants might be strong, but they are weak compared to ants because ants have certain advantages that allow them to outlift their larger competitors.
MinuteEarth
In The Future, Death Will Be Different
In the future, humans will likely die of a very different suite of causes than we do now, thanks to advances in healthcare, an aging population, and changes in the environment.
MinuteEarth
How To Survive Poison
It’s not just how much you take in; it’s how fast your body can purge it.
MinuteEarth
Apparently tree FINGERPRINTS are a thing
Every species on Earth has a fingerprint - whether or not they have fingers at all.
MinuteEarth
How A Whale And A Bear Beat The System
While the rest of the world’s megafauna are still foundering in the anthropocene era, these two big animals have used little animal strategies to bounce back. Way back.
MinuteEarth
Eclipses Used To Be Terrifying
Because eclipses are powerful and frightening events, ancient cultures went to great lengths to understand eclipses, leading to remarkably accurate predictions and helping invent the science of astronomy.
MinuteEarth
Ancient Humans Made Millions Of These - We Don’t Know Why
The Acheulean handaxe was the most common tool of early humans, but we still don’t know what the heck they used it for.
MinuteEarth
Which Will Kill You First?
The body can get a whole lot colder - but not a whole lot hotter - before we die. Why is that?
MinuteEarth
Why Is There So Much Land In The North?
Most of Earth’s land is currently in the northern hemisphere because we happen to exist in a time where uneven heating in the mantle has pushed many continental plates northward.
MinuteEarth
The Plant You Don’t Have To Water
Some plants can drink water from the air - and that has some weird effects on the forests where they live.
MinuteEarth
There’s No Such Thing As “Warm-” Or “Cold-” Blooded
The concept of warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals is outdated because there are actually tons of different animal thermoregulation strategies.
MinuteEarth
Which Is Worse: Underpopulation Or Overpopulation?
The human population of the world will soon peak – and then decrease – thanks to a combination of two quickly changing economic and educational trends.
MinuteEarth
Why Most Fossils Are Incomplete
In 1990, fossil collectors in South Dakota stumbled across a dinosaur that turned out to be a really big deal. Not just because it was a T. rex – basically the most popular dino out there – or because it ended up in Chicago’s famous...
MinuteEarth
Why Continents Are High
Lots of geological forces need to come together for continents to form, but they all require one ingredient: water.
MinuteEarth
Why Weather Forecasts Suck
There are two types of rain, and one of them is almost impossible to forecast.
MinuteEarth
We Have No Idea Why
Most animals on earth are bioluminescent, but almost all of them live in the ocean - and scientists aren’t sure why.
MinuteEarth
Mushroom Wars
Two mushroom guilds with vastly different strategies are locked in competition for forest dominance.
MinuteEarth
How We Learned That Water Isn't An Element
For thousands of years, water was thought to be an element. That is, until some of the greatest chemists in the world managed to crack it open.