Be Smart
Sunlight Is Way Older Than You Think. Here’s Why…
If the sun instantly switched off like a light bulb–which can’t happen, by the way–then we wouldn’t know for almost 8 and a half minutes. Light travels at the fastest speed there is, but it still takes almost 500 seconds to get to Earth....
Be Smart
Why No One Can See the Stars Anymore
It never gets dark anymore. Not REALLY dark, anyway. Not like it used to. Light pollution is not only making it more difficult to see the night sky, but it's also affecting our health. For the past century and a half, since the dawn of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you change your sleep schedule? | TED-Ed
An early bird rises with the sun, springing out of bed abuzz with energy. Meanwhile, a night owl groggily rises much later, not hitting their stride until late in the day. How many people are truly night owls or early birds? And are our...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happens if you don't put your phone in airplane mode? | Lindsay DeMarchi
Right now, invisible signals are flying through the air all around you. Massive radio waves carry information between computers, GPS systems, cell phones, and more. And the sky is flooded with interference from routers, satellites, and,...
SciShow
What Are We REALLY Using Space Lasers For?
Ever since we started launching stuff into space, we've communicated with spacecraft (and astronauts) using radio waves. But over the past few decades, scientists have experimented with a new technique that could make things a lot more...
SciShow
Do Polar Bears Have Fiber Optic Fur?
Humans may use fiber optic technology to make everything from novelty desk toys to high speed internet cables, but Nature has its own ideas. For decades, scientists have debated to what extent polar bears may use the optical properties...
SciShow
Salmon Can Turn on Night Vision. Why Can’t We?
Most of us can only see certain wavelengths of light our entire lives. So why can salmon switch on night vision? We'll learn how they can reshape their eyes to see into the infrared.
SciShow
Most Planets Don't Orbit Stars!?
Hunting for rogue planets is like hunting for an invisible needle in a haystack. But we're getting a much clearer view thanks to gravitational microlensing surveys. And it looks like there are a LOT more of them out there than we thought.
SciShow
How to See Really Tiny Things Without Killing Them
Where would biology be without microscopes? But for a long time, in order to see the smallest bits of life, that life had to be dead. Then along came Atomic Force Microscopy, which let us observe things like DNA and proteins moving...
SciShow
The Hunt For Green Helium
Despite being a noble gas, helium has a carbon footprint. We haven't managed to find any helium reservoirs that don't also contain natural gas. But must they? Scientists and startups alike are on the hunt.
SciShow
The Nuclear-Powered Clocks of the Future
Atomic clocks are the best timekeepers humanity's got these days, but scientists are working toward something even better: a SUB-atomic (aka nuclear) clock.
SciShow
What Are These Weird Rings In Space?
Over the past few years, astronomers have discovered their own kind of UFO called Odd Radio Circles, aka ORCs. They're a little too round, and a little too invisible at non-radio wavelengths, to immediately know what they are and what's...
SciShow
The Sun Is Green
The Sun is green, actually. We'll go into why the blackbody effect means the Sun emits more green visible light than any other color, and why evolution and color perception mean it's ok to see it as yellow, anyway.
SciShow
Can Sponges “Think” Using Light?
Sponges might not look like particularly complex animals, but they've had billions of years to evolve their own special systems. And one of those systems might involve sending messages through their body in the form of light.
SciShow
There's Water on...the Sun?
With an effective surface temperature of roughly 5,500 degrees Celsius, you might think water couldn't survive on the Sun. Well, scientists debated whether or not it was there for nearly a century, and it turns out, it can!
SciShow
Our Solar System Might Have TWO Hidden Planets
After Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet in 2006, our solar system went from having nine planets to eight. But about a decade later, some astronomers proposed there was another planet, larger than Earth, hiding in the Kuiper Belt. And in...
SciShow
This Squid Glows… To Make Itself Invisible
When you live in the ocean, it can be hard to find ways to keep hidden from predators, or from your own prey. But these three animals have found clever ways to stay hidden, by using light to their advantage. One of them even /makes...
MinuteEarth
We Have No Idea Why
Most animals on earth are bioluminescent, but almost all of them live in the ocean - and scientists aren’t sure why.
MinutePhysics
How to Simulate the Universe on your Laptop
One Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in one minute!
MinutePhysics
How Far Can Legolas See?
One Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in one minute!
MinutePhysics
Minute Physics: What is Gravity?
In this episode, we discuss the basic nature of gravity, one of the four fundamental forces in our universe.
SciShow
The Unique Reason Reindeer Change Their Eye Color
Plenty of animal eyes "glow" in the dark, but only one species has eyes that change color with the seasons.
SciShow
The Strange Mystery of the Barreleye Fish
Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, there's a fish that's . . . a little different. Join us for a new episode of SciShow where Hank will tell you all about the Pacific Barreleye Fish and what makes it so mysterious....
SciShow
Visual Illusions: Why You See Things That Aren't There
Visual Illusions: Why You See Things That Aren't There