Lenses are famous for their ability to bend light rays — to make smaller things look bigger, big things look smaller...even create a super bright beam of light that warns ships where the shore is. And some lenses, such as fresnel...

Are people who are more creative really "left-brained"? Is a human brain not fully developed until a person hits 25 years old? Did my parents waste a bunch of money buying Mozart CDs to make me smarter as a baby? In this episode,...

Some of the coolest and most detailed fossils around aren't found in rocks - they're found in amber, a hardened tree resin that can preserve things in incredible detail. From dinosaur feathers to spider webs, and even more, here are a...

You've probably heard the rule that you cannot travel faster than the speed of light (in a vacuum). And this is true.

You may also have heard that you cannot travel precisely AT the speed of light. But this is false...because you...

You may have seen some unpronounceable words or weird abbreviations in your food's ingredient lists before, but have you ever wondered why that stuff gets added into your snacks? It's not just for fun, those preservatives are all there...

Who among us hasn't uttered the phrase "I'll sleep when I'm dead"? Well, sleep deprivation can totally kill you. But you might be surprised to learn what the actual cause of death is, and a technique you can use to stay awake for the...

You might have heard that a quarter of your skeleton is in your shoes, and that's true, as long as they're closed-toe. So why do we need that many foot bones? The answer is more complicated than you think, and to get to the bottom of...

About 360-ish million years ago, some tetrapods moved onto land and changed the course of history. So we'd love to know more about these guys, and what it took to get there. But the thing is, the fossils we need to understand this...

You may have heard of the Hobbits -- no, not the Tolkien ones. Our cousins, Homo floresiensis! But have you ever wondered why this enigmatic mini species was so little? Let's talk about the decades of research into what made the...

Technology has shaped our world, and in particular, semiconductor silicon chips are the magic ingredient that's sparked a revolution. And all of the world's flashiest tech can only exist at all because of one single mine. From your...

The Ig Nobel Prize may not come with the prestige of a Nobel, but it celebrates some weird and wonderful science. Here are the most fascinating Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies about people. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Tom Lum (he/him)

People have been trying to make the prettiest colors we can for thousands of years. And sometimes, we've even used poison to do it. From lead white to arsenic Scheele's green and cobalt violet, here are just a few of the most toxic...

Plenty of animals do things that seem risky, but they clearly have a good reason for doing it. After all, they've made it this far by taking chances. But these birds really take the cake when it comes to daredevil stunts, all in the...

When variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, AKA mad cow disease, first emerged, researchers noticed a weird trend in exactly who got sick. Mot patients were diagnosed in their twenties, which would mean they got infected in their teens....

Whether it's lavender aromatherapy to sleep better or a peppermint oil pill for your irritable bowel syndrome, essential oils have a lot of proposed therapeutic uses. Here's where the research stands on those and others like bergamot...

As of 2024, exactly seven people have been cured of HIV, most recently the "next Berlin patient." Why aren't we sharing this cure with everyone living with HIV? It's complicated.<b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him)

Humans may think we have the market cornered on bizarre sexual acts, but the animal kingdom has come up with some mating rituals that put us to shame. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Hank Green

Do you taste something bitter when you hear the right word? Maybe you see a flash of a certain color instead. If so, you might have synesthesia. But it turns out, we're ALL capable of having different senses interact with one another...

Let's say goodbye to 2024 by highlighting some amazing space images that were released this year. They aren't just pretty — astronomers can actually study them to learn more about the universe!



Hosted by: Niba Audrey...

From a fancy-frilled ceratopsian to a possible new biggest snake ever and something called a giga goose, there were some pretty amazing giant fossils announced in 2024. Plus, Kallie from our sister channel Eons reminds us to give some...

The deepest hole we've ever been able to dig is just 0.2 percent of the way to the center of the Earth. What would we encounter if we could drill all the way?



Correction: We mislabeled these! These are ammonite fossils, not...

When it comes to things that affect sperm counts, there's a lot of rumors out there. Anything from diet and exercise to choice in underwear and even how you sit are all debated as possible behaviors that can cause an individual to...

A decade after Vantablack took the internet by storm, where are we in terms of the blackest black? It turns out Vantablack doesn't hold the record, anymore. So what have scientists done differently?



Hosted by: Savannah Geary...

The Vikings were renowned navigators at a time before magnetic compasses were invented. So how'd they manage it? Their secret may have been these pretty-pointed crystals of calcite called Iceland spar, and this month's SciShow Rocks...