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This Land Is Your Land - Project For Awesome 2016
About the importance of the National Parks Foundation.
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How Was the Grand Canyon Formed?
I was in Arizona recently for Phoenix Comic-Con, and had the amazing pleasure of seeing one of Earth's greatest natural wonders… the Grand Canyon. More than a mile deep, and several miles across, it just defies belief. But I couldn't...
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Why Are So Many People Allergic To Food?
More people have food allergies than ever before. Peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, and even milk… the list of possibly dangerous foods seems to get longer every day. But why do some people’s bodies have deadly reactions food? And why...
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The Biggest Myth About Climate Change
You’ve seen it in the comment section before: “Climate change is natural. It’s happened before and it will keep happening”. In reality, comments like these are the newest kind of climate change denial. In this video we’re going to learn...
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How Much Of You Is ACTUALLY Alive?
You’re alive right now… at least I’m pretty sure you are. But you’re not TOTALLY alive. Bits of you are always breaking down, being thrown out, and being replaced. Even right now, parts of you are dying. Some of your cells even died...
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Are We Running Out Of Food??
If you tried to sum up the last 150 years or so in one image, a chart of exponential growth would be a good place to start. It shows that some things change faster over time. You could apply it to life expectancy. Or compound interest....
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The Golden Ratio: Is It Myth or Math?
The golden ratio. Some say it’s the most mythical number in the universe. Others say it underlies everything from nature’s patterns to beauty in art and design. But, like, what is it? And does the myth of the golden ratio hold up to its...
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Sand Dunes Shouldn’t Exist (Here’s Why They Do)
How can sand, blown by the wind, form such intricate and beautiful patterns as ripples and dunes? The answer is a surprising secret of self-organization. In this video, we travel to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado to climb the...
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The Impossible Hugeness of Deep Time
Humans have a hard time with really big numbers, especially when it comes to DEEP TIME. The history of the Earth took a lot longer than you think, trust me. But I’m here to help you put it in perspective. With some string.
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Is Earth's Most Important Ocean Current Doomed?
Ocean currents are our planet’s circulatory system, and they keep everything from ecosystems to the climate healthy. But we’re changing Earth in ways that threaten to disrupt and even break critical ocean currents like the planet-wide...
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The Strange Cosmic Origin of Earth’s Most Precious Metals
Precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and rhodium are expensive because they're rare in Earth's crust. But are they rare in the universe? Why is it so hard to make some of the chemical elements? Where do heavy metals come from,...
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The Science of Iridescence
Why do we see rainbows in soap bubbles? What makes an oil slick so oddly beautiful? Iridescent colors, which transform depending on the angle you look at them, are all over nature. How does physics make these shifting rainbows? We’re...
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The Amazing (and Deadly) Science of Jumping Spider Vision
Why do spiders have 8 eyes? It’s a seemingly simple question with a surprisingly complex answer. We’ll be hanging out with some jumping spiders (the cutest of all spiders) and some jumping spider researchers to investigate how a...
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Recycling Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Fix It.
If everyone would just put more in the recycling bin instead of the trash can, the world would be a better place. Right? Well, that’s not exactly true. For many items that end up in the recycling bin, you’ve actually created more trash...
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In Search of the Blackest Thing on Earth
There are some startlingly black animals out there, whether they’re in the deep ocean or in the darkest corners of the rainforest. But humans have created some stunningly black substances too, using science and engineering. So who wins,...
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I Tried Eating Bugs… Here's What I Learned
People say insects are the food of the future. They’re more environmentally sustainable and more humane than other sources of animal protein. Can they really catch on in western diets? I’m a pretty adventurous eater, but I’ve never...
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How Your Brain Makes Time Pass Fast or Slow
Time passes for all of us at the same rate of one second per second. But why does it sometimes feel like time is passing so fast, or so slowly? Especially during COVID? Let’s learn about how our brains keep track of and try to make sense...
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How Your Brain Makes Its Own Electricity
Here’s a thought: What IS a thought? I know it involves my brain, and my brain is made of neurons. And my brain’s neurons are listening to other neurons all over my body. But how do those neurons actually work? Maybe you’ve heard that it...
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How We Solved the Greatest Riddle In Navigation
Humanity’s drive to explore our planet is one of the defining characteristics of our species. But exploration only works if you know where you are at any given time. Not so easy when you are out at sea with no visible landmarks and the...
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You Are An Upside-Down Lobster
Our bodies are mirror images of lobsters and other arthropods from back to belly. We've know since the early 19th century that our guts and nervous systems are inverted from theirs, but only recently has molecular biology shown us why....
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Why do Trees Talk to Each Other?
Walk into any forest, and beneath your feet is an elaborate social network that helps make life on Earth possible. It’s called the “Wood Wide Web”, a massive and intricate network of fungi that exchange water, nutrients, and chemical...
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Why Are There As Many Males As Females?
In almost every animal species on Earth, equal numbers of males and females are conceived. Why is that? Especially in populations like lions or elephant seals, where most males don’t get to mate? That’s survival of the laziest, not...
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Where Do Birds Go In Winter?
As winter approaches, V-shaped flocks glide overhead as the world's birds begin their long treks to warmer climates. Humans used to have some pretty crazy theories about where birds went for winter, like the moon, or to the bottom of the...