All new products must pass through the "valley of death" before they reach the market. Many never make it out, and sometimes that's OK -- if they don't work, don't fill a need or for any number of reasons. One of the fields where this...

Given just a little time, bacteria could outgrow earth, so what's stopping them?

We're losing animal and plant species at such a swift, unprecedented rate that it's nearly impossible to keep up. Computational biologist Tanya Berger-Wolf demonstrates how harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and one of the...

To feed everyone in the future, we may need to disrupt 10,000 years of farming practices and turn agriculture into a closed system.

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A handful of species on Earth share a seemingly mysterious trait: a menstrual cycle. We're one of the select few mammals on Earth that menstruate, and we also do it more than any other animal, even though it's a waste of nutrients, and...

Every year, ocean levels rise and high tides flood the low-lying Marshall Islands in the Pacific, destroying homes, salinating water supplies and disrupting livelihoods. In a stirring poem and talk, youth climate warrior Selina Neirok...

A sad reality that we have to face when studying outbreak science is that sometimes groups of people use outbreaks intentionally to inflict harm on another group. We call this "weaponizing an outbreak", and it's the focus of this...

Imagine a country with abundant power -- oil and gas, sunshine, wind (and money) -- but missing one key essential for life: water. Infrastructure engineer Fahad Al-Attiya talks about the unexpected ways that the small Middle Eastern...

Trying to ripen some fruits on your kitchen counter is totally fruitless - here's why.

Find out why more species live near the equator!

Why are some countries rich? Why are some countries poor? In the end it comes down to Productivity. This week on Crash Course Econ, Adriene and Jacob investigate just why some economies are more productive than others, and what happens...

Building a pandemic-free future won't be easy, but Bill Gates believes that we have the tools and strategies to make it possible -- now we just have to fund them. In this forward-looking talk, he proposes a multi-specialty Global...

By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion. How are we going to feed everyone? Investment-banker-turned-farmer Stuart Oda points to indoor vertical farming: growing food on tiered racks in a controlled,...

Want a Pineapple? If you want a pineapple, it's possible you can just run down to the store and get one. But, if you wanted to grow one, that's a lot more difficult depending on where you live. In this episode of Crash Course Kids,...

New technology has revolutionized how we study wild animals, but it has also bogged down scientists with data...luckily, there's an *intelligent* solution.

If you feel like you’ve been more forgetful than normal recently, you’re definitely not alone. Your memory can have a lot to do with what's happening around you.

It is time to close the funding gap for Black female-led start-ups the world over, says entrepreneur Temie Giwa-Tubosun, whose company LifeBank delivers life-saving medical supplies to remote areas in Africa. Today, LifeBank operates...

In which Adriene Hill and Jacob Clifford teach you about specialization and trade, and how countries decide whether they're going to make stuff or trade for stuff. You'll learn about things like comparative advantage, the production...

In 1980, Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon bet $1,000 on a question with stakes that couldn't be higher: would the earth run out of resources to sustain a growing human population? They bet $200 on the price of five metals. If the price of a...

Why Poor Places Are More Diverse

Why Do We Have More Boys Than Girls

For centuries, billiard balls were made of ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hunting caused elephant populations to decline, they began to look for alternatives. John Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. In five years, he...

Raising children is not easy, and parents can get burnt out just like anyone else. But research shows that parental burnout seems to be unique compare to other kinds of burnouts.

In this video Paul Andersen explains how biodiversity measures the variety of genes, species, and ecosystems on the planet. Biodiversity provides resources and ecosystem services for humans on the planet. He also explains how...