MinuteEarth
Mushroom Wars
Two mushroom guilds with vastly different strategies are locked in competition for forest dominance.
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The concept of warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals is outdated because there are actually tons of different animal thermoregulation strategies.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
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.
MinuteEarth
What if We Replaced Nuclear With Potatoes
Energy use can be confusing – I mean, how do you compare gasoline in your car to electricity piped to your house? That's why we made these things spud-tacularly simple.
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
When Tree Planting Goes Wrong
Trees are a super-efficient way to sequester carbon, but since planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can do more harm than good, we need to go about tree planting more carefully.
MinuteEarth
Why It's Impossible To Win a Nuclear War
Nuclear war is a terrifying existential threat, but we shouldn't only fear the blasts because the ensuing smoke is the real killer.
MinuteEarth
The 3 Reasons This Tree Has Lived 5000 Years
Methuselah’s environment lacks nutrients, water, and oxygen. In other words, it’s the perfect place to grow very very old.
MinuteEarth
When Was The Worst Time In History To Die?
By combining historical demography and epidemiology, we can (sort of) determine how people throughout history have died.
MinuteEarth
What Is The Best Shape For A Farm?
The shape of a farm can tell you a surprising amount about the land it's on and the people that use it.
MinuteEarth
Why Do Heart Attacks Cause *Arm* Pain?
When the brain receives pain from an internal organ, it often projects the pain in the wrong place because of the way sensory nerve paths converge
MinuteEarth
The Disease You Will Never Survive
A simple mis-folding in a certain brain protein causes a disease for which we have no cure.
MinuteEarth
The Weird Sex Lives of Bluegills
When it comes to the mating game, fish have some of the strangest ways of thwarting the competition.
MinuteEarth
How Caffeine Accidentally Took Over The World
Plants don't make caffeine just for us, so what DO they make it for?
MinuteEarth
This Is Not A Bug
It’s common to call creepy crawlies bugs, but because entomologists refer to a specific class of insects as bugs, it’s wrong to call other things bugs - right?
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
These Countries Are Cheating
By overcounting how much carbon their forests suck up, and undercounting how much carbon their industries release, countries undercount their total carbon emissions.
MinuteEarth
Should More Species Be Extinct?
Watch these amazing rewilding videos from our friends at Planet Wild, in which they’re saving Europe’s cutest bird from extinction or resurrecting a dying forest.
MinuteEarth
How Many Mass Extinctions Have There Been?
Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here are some keywords/phrases to get your googling started: - Mass Extinction Event: a significant, global decrease in the diversity of life - "Big 5": The five biggest mass...
MinuteEarth
Is It Safe To Get Your DNA Tested?
Once it’s out of your body, your genetic information is valuable to a variety of people, but you can keep it safe(ish) with a few simple steps. ___________________________________________ To learn more, start your googling with these...
MinuteEarth
Why Electroshock Therapy is Back
Shocking the brain has come and gone as a medical treatment, but it’s currently resurging, as it often provides the best form of relief for severe depression and advanced Parkinson’s disease. ___________________________________________...
MinuteEarth
How to Make a Seashell - Just Add Water
Why do shell building living creatures live near the surface of the ocean? Learn how chemistry creates a dissolving depth for calcium and determines where shell builders can live.
MinuteEarth
What Are Brain Waves?
Even the parts of our brains that don't control physical movement show a lot of rhythm, and that might be integral to how our brains work. ___________________________________________ To learn more, start your googling with these...