SciShow
What Shape Are Black Holes? Yes.
What shape is the event horizon of a black hole? Well, the answer to that question changes if our universe is hiding an extra dimension (or more). Black holes could come in an infinite number of shapes — including a precisely spinning...
SciShow
Should We Be Raising Kids Barefoot?
While most of us only think about our shoes in terms of how they complete our outfits, there's a lot more impact that your choice of footwear can have on your life. Turns out that shoes can change how your feet grow and develop. So is it...
SciShow
The Crabs That Revolutionized Neuroscience
We used to think neural circuits were rigid and robotic, but now we know that's not true -- thanks to crab stomachs.
SciShow
Does COVID Mess With Your DNA?
As more and more are infected with COVID-19, there's a growing group of people who have what's called Long COVID, meaning they still have symptoms for weeks or months after getting sick. While we still don't know for sure the cause of...
SciShow
Parasites Are Good, Actually
Parasites give most of us the heebie-jeebies. But new research shows they're pretty dang important for ecosystems, and climate change is putting them in danger. So here's some of the reasons you should care about those guys!
SciShow
Burn Your Waste With... Water?
Supercritical water produces fire without flames, which is great for making clean drinking water from our waste in space or breaking down forever chemicals here on Earth.
SciShow
Does the Food Chain Stop At Jellyfish?
Jellyfish aren't the most nutritious animals in the ocean. Yet sea turtles and many other organisms get their nutrition from almost nothing else. Here's why they don't totally starve to death.
SciShow
How to See Inside Anything
You might think of x-rays as the go-to particle to see through solid objects. But there's a subatomic particle out there that can see through everything from volcanos to lead shielding in nuclear reactors. It's called a muon, and...
SciShow
How Does Chickenpox Turn Into Shingles?
You might know that chickenpox and shingles are both caused by the same virus, varicella zoster. Here's why the symptoms, and even the vaccines, are different the second time around.
SciShow
The Record-Breaking Rocket You've Never Heard Of
If you're going to be a world-record holder in the Space Age, why not be tiny instead of giant! JAXA's SS-520-5 is the smallest rocket to ever achieve Earth orbit. Check out the SciShow Pin of the Month here:...
SciShow
The Sun Is Green
The Sun is green, actually. We'll go into why the blackbody effect means the Sun emits more green visible light than any other color, and why evolution and color perception mean it's ok to see it as yellow, anyway.
SciShow
Why Is ChatGPT Bad At Math?
Sometimes, you ask ChatGPT to do a math problem that an arithmetically-inclined grade schooler can do with ease. And sometimes, ChatGPT can confidently state the wrong answer. It's all due to its nature as a large language model, and the...
SciShow
Why HPV Is Cancer In One Convenient Package
HPV isn't the only virus that causes cancer, but it's one of the best at it. Here's what we've learned about this supervillain of a pathogen, and how to stop it.
SciShow
The Sun Isn't Normal. This Telescope Learned the Hard Way.
The Kepler mission did a great job at showing just how abundant planets are beyond our solar system, but its hunt for Earth 2.0 orbiting Sun 2.0 was a lot less successful. That's partly because the scientists who designed the telescope...
SciShow
Why Aliens Might Love Their Frozen Home
In the hunt for life beyond Earth, scientists shouldn't skip over frozen planets. In some cases, ice might actually help life evolve!
SciShow
This Parasite Needs To Ruin Three Lives
Why do so many parasites, especially helminths aka flatworms, jump around as many as THREE hosts to complete their life cycle? Why isn't one host good enough for them? We'll find out why parasites evolve complex life cycles that don't...
SciShow
Is Mifepristone Safer Than Viagra? Yes*
Mifepristone, a drug used for medical abortions, is under fire in the United States, with critics claiming it isn't safe to use. Abortion rights advocates often revert to a funny talking point to argue for its safety, but how accurate is...
SciShow
The Return of Thalidomide
Thalidomide is the infamous drug at the heart of one of the world's worst drug safety catastrophes in modern medicine. And yet, more recent research is finding that thalidomide is still worth using, despite the risks. So what makes this...
SciShow
Can We Treat Alzheimer's With Period Blood?
From diabetes to Alzheimer's, there's a lot that we hope to be able to treat using stem cell therapies. But the stem cells we use tend to be hard to come by. But it turns out there's a new source of stem cells that has researchers...
SciShow
Is That “New Car Smell” Dangerous?
Some of us can't get enough of that new car smell. But certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that help create this aroma are linked to cancer. While this doesn't mean new car smell definitely increases your chance of getting cancer,...
SciShow
What Are We REALLY Using Space Lasers For?
Ever since we started launching stuff into space, we've communicated with spacecraft (and astronauts) using radio waves. But over the past few decades, scientists have experimented with a new technique that could make things a lot more...
SciShow
The Wildest Noises in Wildlife… and Dunes
Nature can be pretty noisy, but there's some stuff that's just quiet all the time - right? Well, thanks to advances in audio equipment, researchers are finding out that everything from plants to bacteria have a lot more to say that we...
SciShow
Do Polar Bears Have Fiber Optic Fur?
Humans may use fiber optic technology to make everything from novelty desk toys to high speed internet cables, but Nature has its own ideas. For decades, scientists have debated to what extent polar bears may use the optical properties...
SciShow
The Future Of Trees Is Liquid
We love trees, but the main problem is that they aren't exactly travel-sized. However, new technology wants to bring the fresh-air benefits of trees to places that the real deal just can't thrive, like dense urban areas!