SciShow
Plants Are Way Cooler Than We Give Them Credit For
Plants! If oxygen and good smells aren't enough for you, here's a collection of episodes that might win you over.
Crash Course
Fungi: Death Becomes Them - CrashCourse Biology
Death is what fungi are all about. By feasting on the deceased remains of almost all organisms on the planet, converting the organic matter back into soil from which new life will spring, they perform perhaps the most vital function in...
TED Talks
TED: Four billion years of evolution in six minutes | Prosanta Chakrabarty
Did humans evolve from monkeys or from fish? In this enlightening talk, ichthyologist and TED Fellow Prosanta Chakrabarty dispels some hardwired myths about evolution, encouraging us to remember that we're a small part of a complex,...
SciShow
Top 5 Deadliest Substances on Earth
There are natural poisons that lurk in bacteria, plants, and fungi pretty much everywhere, and they're there for good reasons (according to the organisms that produce them) - but what is it about their chemical make up that makes them so...
TED Talks
TED: The future of fashion -- made from mushrooms | Dan Widmaier
Your closet is likely full of all kinds of materials -- leather, cotton, nylon and polyester, to name a few -- that contribute to fashion's sustainability crisis. Biomaterials investigator Dan Widmaier explains how we could look to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Dead stuff: The secret ingredient in our food chain - John C. Moore
When you picture the lowest levels of the food chain, you might imagine herbivores happily munching on lush, living green plants. But this idyllic image leaves out a huge (and slightly less appetizing) source of nourishment: dead stuff....
MinuteEarth
How Mushrooms Make It Rain
Want to learn more about the topic in this week's video? Here are some keywords/phrases to get your googling started: spore: asexual reproductive agent for fungi
SciShow Kids
Fungi: Why Mushrooms Are Awesome | Biology for Kids
What's something that's neither vegetable or meat, digests food on the outside of its body, glows and the dark, and can go on top of your pizza? The amazing mushroom!
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are food preservatives bad for you? - Eleanor Nelsen
Food doesn't last. In days, sometimes hours, bread goes moldy, apple slices turn brown, and bacteria multiply in mayonnaise. But you can find all of these foods out on the shelf at the grocery store " hopefully unspoiled -- thanks to...
SciShow
10 Fantastic Fungi Superpowers
Join Hank Green to learn ten weird, scary, and amazing things fungi can do! Chapters MAKE YOU HALLUCINATE 0:50 psychotherapy 1:43 Claviceps purpurea Credit: Dominique Jacquin 2:08 SALEM WITCH TRIALS 2:39 2 MAY CAUSE MASS HYSTERIA 2:49...
Crash Course
Taxonomy: Life's Filing System - Crash Course Biology
Hank tells us the background story and explains the importance of the science of classifying living things, also known as taxonomy.
Bozeman Science
Fungi
Paul Andersen surveys the Kingdom Fungi. He starts with a brief description of the fungi phylogeny. He describes some of the major characteristics of fungi; heterotrophy, cell walls of chitin, hyphae, sessile. He describes the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The secret language of trees - Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard
Learn how trees are able to communicate with each other through a vast root system and symbiotic fungi, called mycorrhizae. -- Most of the forest lives in the shadow of the giants that make up the highest canopy. These are the oldest...
SciShow
6 Weird Mushrooms (And Other Fungi)
Mushrooms can be pretty weird! Some have the power to trick animals into caring for them, appear to bleed, or even clean up radiation!
Chapters
SCLEROTIA Credit: Tocekas
0:59
EGG-MIMICKING FUNGUS
2:05
HYPHAE
...
SciShow Kids
Why Does Bread Have Holes In It? | SciShow Kids
Mister Brown and Squeaks are making bread, and they're going to need a tiny little helper to get the job done: a fungus called yeast!
Disciplinary Core Idea:
PS1.B: Chemical Reactions - Heating or cooling a substance may cause changes...
SciShow Kids
Soil Is Alive!
Jessi and Squeaks make a new friend named Grady, and he teaches them about all the living things you can find in soil!
Disciplinary Core Idea:
LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans - There are many different kinds of living things in any area,...
SciShow
Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
SciShow takes you inside the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster to show you how, nearly 30 years later, life has adapted and persisted.
SciShow
Fairy Rings
Hank noticed something mysterious in the park one day. Fairy rings: are they mystical portals to another realm? Or could there be another, more scientific, explanation?
SciShow
Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
SciShow takes you inside the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster to show you how, nearly 30 years later, life has adapted and persisted.
SciShow
The Earth's Internet: How Fungi Help Plants Communicate
Plants have their own interconnected networks that allow them to communicate with each other, sometimes over considerable distances!
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are spotty fruits and vegetables safe to eat? - Elizabeth Brauer
In 2010, 30 billion dollars worth of fruits and vegetables were wasted by American retailers and shoppers, in part because of cosmetic problems and perceived spoilage. But what are these spots, anyway, and are they okay to eat? Elizabeth...
Crash Course Kids
The Dirt on Decomposers
We've talked about food chains and how energy moves through an ecosystem, but let's take a step back and see how everything starts... and ends. Decomposers! This first series is based on 5th grade science. We're super excited and hope...
Be Smart
Which Life Form REALLY Dominates Earth?
Are humans really Earth's most dominant species? Let's put all of the planet's living things on a scale and see what has amassed the most mass. This week we break down the concept of "biomass" to judge Earth's living things from top to...