PBS
The Rise and Fall of the Bone-Crushing Dogs
A huge and diverse subfamily of dogs, the bone-crushers patrolled North America for more than thirty million years, before they disappeared in the not-too-distant past. So what happened to the biggest dogs that ever lived?
PBS
The Assassin Puzzle
Imagine you have a square-shaped room, and inside there is an assassin and a target. And suppose that any shot that the assassin takes can ricochet off the walls of the room, just like a ball on a billiard table. Is it possible to...
PBS
Are Holograms Nostalgia or a New Form of Art?
You might have heard about the debut of Hologram Tupac at the music festival Coachella earlier this year. But with Queen's recent announcement of a Hologram Freddie Mercury and TLC's plans for a Hologram Lisa Left Eye Lopes, it looks...
PBS
Superluminal Time Travel + Time Warp Challenge Answer
By choosing the right path and the right reference frames, any superluminal motion can lead to information or objects returning to their origin before they depart.
PBS
Is Doctor Who a Religion?
Dr. Who is one of the longest running TV shows on the BBC, and it's got a huge fandom surrounding it, called Whovians. And while it might not seem like, Whovianism, might just be religion! Whovians, like other passionate fan cultures,...
PBS
How a Supervolcano Made the Cenozoic's Coolest Fossils
One of the most dynamic, transformative, and potentially dangerous features in North America is also responsible for some of the continent's most amazing fossil deposits. It's a supervolcano we now call Yellowstone.
PBS
The Time Terror Birds Invaded
About 5 million years ago, a new predator made its way from the south and onto the coastal plains of North America. It was a giant, flightless, carnivorous bird and came to be known by one of the coolest and most richly earned nicknames...
PBS
Topology Riddles | Infinite Series
Can you turn your pants inside out without taking your feet off the ground?
PBS
How Big are All Infinities Combined? (Cantor's Paradox)
Infinities come in different sizes. There's a whole tower of progressively larger "sizes of infinity". So what's the right way to describe the size of the whole tower?
PBS
Telescopes on the Moon
Find out about China's current telescope on the moon and what the future plans are for mounting larger telescopes on the lunar surface.
PBS
The Geometry of SET
In the card game SET, what is the maximum number of cards you can deal that might not contain a SET?
PBS
Is William Gibson A Modern Day Oracle?
The science fiction writer William Gibson has not only written some fantastic scifi novels, but in the process predicted the internet, Miku Hatsune, reality TV, and a crazy amount of other technological and societal developments that...
PBS
When Fish Wore Armor
420 million years ago, some fish were more medieval. They wore armor, sometimes made of big plates, and sometimes made of interlocking scales. But that armor may actually have served a totally different purpose, one that many animals...
PBS
Is the Universe a Computer?
The universe is made up of information, similar to a computer, and physics (you know, the basis of the universe) certainly is based on computational principles. But is it running some grand program? Will the answer be 42? Make sure you...
PBS
Can A Starfox Barrel Roll Work In Space?
DO A BARREL ROLL! Or at least, try…? The iconic move from Star Fox seems so easy, just press a button and BOOM. The ship rolls. But HOW? Barrel rolls in atmosphere are easy to execute with the use of ailerons, but in space, it's a...
PBS
The Other Explosion You Should Know About
Fossils found around the world suggest that multi-cellular life was not only present before the Cambrian Explosion, it was much more elaborate and diverse than anyone thought. This is the story of the sudden burst of diversity that...
PBS
The Black Hole Information Paradox
Black holes are the result of absolute gravitational collapse of a massive body: a point of hypothetical infinite density surrounded by an event horizon. At that horizon time is frozen and the fabric of space itself cascades inwards at...
PBS
Is There a Fifth Fundamental Force? + Quantum Eraser Answer
Has a fifth fundamental force been discovered and how will this effect our understanding of the universe?
PBS
When Birds Stopped Flying
Ratites have spread to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. And there are fossils of Ratites in Europe, Asia, and North America too. That's a lot of ground to cover for birds that can't fly. So how did Ratites end up all...
PBS
What Do Stars Sound Like?
We can now map the interiors of stars by "listening" to their harmonies as they vibrate with seismic waves.
PBS
Kill the Mathematical Hydra
How do you defeat a creature that grows two heads for every one head you chop off? You do the math.
PBS
Solving the Wolverine Problem with Graph Coloring
At one time, Wolverine served on four different superhero teams. How did he do it? He may have used graph coloring.
PBS
Is Buying Call of Duty a Moral Choice?
If you play video games, you've shot a gun. And those guns are REALISTIC. So real that many are actually LICENSED by IRL arms dealers. Which means that when you buy a video game, you're also putting money in the pockets of those gun...