SciShow
Thrusters That Eat Teflon! Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
Pulsed plasma thrusters use the same stuff that’s on your frying pan to make spacecraft zoom around the universe. And they’ve been doing it since the 1960s.
SciShow
What Happens If A Plane Gets Struck By Lightning?
If you're flying on a plane in a thunderstorm, you should be more worried about the wind than the lightning.
TED Talks
TED: Thorium, an alternative nuclear fuel | Kirk Sorensen
Kirk Sorensen shows us the liquid fuel thorium reactor -- a way to produce energy that is safer, cleaner and more efficient than current nuclear power.
SciShow
Where Are All the Electric Airplanes
Clean, renewable energy is becoming more and more common in our everyday lives. But, as our cars and buildings become more green, tens of thousands of airplanes fly every day using petroleum-based fuel, and there's seemingly no end in...
SciShow
4 High-Tech Ways To Stop Wildfires (And 1 Low-Tech One)
Thanks to climate change, many regions are experiencing longer and more dangerous wildfire seasons. Here are 4 high-tech ways we are trying to stop these fires in there tracks, as well as one that’s a bit simpler.
TED Talks
Amory Lovins: A 40-year plan for energy
In this intimate talk filmed at TED's offices, energy innovator Amory Lovins shows how to get the US off oil and coal by 2050, $5 trillion cheaper, with no Act of Congress, led by business for profit. The key is integrating all four...
SciShow
How Space Tech Is Changing Life on Earth: 2020 Edition
We’ve developed thousands of technologies for space exploration, but luckily for us, sometimes those solutions apply to problems here on the ground, too.
SciShow Kids
Why do Planes Leave White Streaks in the Sky?
Have you ever seen an airplane high in the sky leave a long trail behind it? That's called a contrail! It's kind of like a cloud, or your breath on a cold day. Jessi and Squeaks explain the special circumstances that make contrails happen!
TED Talks
Michel Laberge: How synchronized hammer strikes could generate nuclear fusion
Our energy future depends on nuclear fusion, says Michel Laberge. The plasma physicist runs a small company with a big idea for a new type of nuclear reactor that could produce clean, cheap energy. His secret recipe? High speeds,...
SciShow
Weird Places: The Glowing Blue Lava at Kawah Ijen
Maybe you've seen pictures of glowing blue lava flows and dismissed them as Photoshop trickery. Healthy skepticism is good, but there really is a volcano in Indonesia where a unique fluke of chemistry creates an eerie blue glow.
SciShow
This Reaction Could Let Us Live on Mars
There is a chemical reaction discovered a century ago that could be the key to creating everything from fuel to shelter on Mars!
TED Talks
TED: Dreams and details for a decarbonized future | Jim Hagemann Snabe
As chairman of the world's largest maritime shipping company, Jim Hagemann Snabe thinks a lot about how goods get where they need to go and the impact their journey has on the planet. Leading the effort to decarbonize shipping by 2050,...
Crash Course
Humans and Energy: Crash Course World History 207
In which Stan Muller subs for John Green and teaches you about energy and humanity. Today we discuss the ideas put forth by Alfred Crosby in his book, Children of the Sun. Historically, almost all of the energy that humans use has been...
SciShow
Why Is It So Hard to Build an ICBM?
To hopefully put your mind more at ease, Hank is here to talk about the work that goes into designing and building ICBMs.
TED Talks
Amanda Schochet: How bumble bees inspired a network of tiny museums
Sometimes, small things make a huge impact. After studying how bees in urban environments can survive by navigating small land patches, ecologist Amanda Schochet was inspired to build MICRO, a network of portable science museums the size...
PBS
We Are Star Stuff
Stars are our stellar alchemists. They spend their entire lifespan creating and molding elements. In their final moments, a supernova spreads these elements out into the universe, providing the building blocks for new stars, planets, and...
TED Talks
Amory Lovins: Winning the oil endgame
In this energizing talk, Amory Lovins lays out his simple plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy.
SciShow
Setting Spaceships on Fire
What's more exciting than a spaceship? A spaceship on Fiya! NASA plans on playing with fire. Caitlin Hofmeister explains in this episode of SciShow Space!
TED Talks
Bilal Bomani: Plant fuels that could power a jet
Algae plus salt water equals ... fuel? At TEDxNASA@SiliconValley, Bilal Bomani reveals a self-sustaining ecosystem that produces biofuels -- without wasting arable land or fresh water.
SciShow
Why Does It Take So Long to Get to Mercury?
On a cosmic scale, Mercury isn’t very far away, but it's incredibly hard to get there. Getting into orbit around it takes years of flybys in the solar system, but we're going to do it again!
PBS
The First Humans on Mars
Elon Musk's SpaceX program proposes that 100 people could be sent to colonize Mars within 10 years. What might that colony look like?
SciShow
Why Aren't Commercial Jets Getting Faster?
Airplanes are one of the quickest ways to get anywhere, but commercial jets haven't gotten much fast since the 1950's. Why is that?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Will future spacecraft fit in our pockets? - Dhonam Pemba
When you picture a rocket, you might imagine a giant ship carrying lots of fuel, people and supplies. But what if the next wave of spacecraft were small enough to fit into our pockets? Dhonam Pemba details the future of microspacecraft,...
SciShow
Why Does the US Have So Many Power Outages?
The United States has a lot more power outages than other countries do, and fixing this problem will be a massive undertaking. Chapters View all Across the United States, the average customer loses power about once or twice a year, for a...