Aleš Hrdlička is known as the founder of forensic anthropology, and remains a huge part of the story of the history of anthropology as a science. But his legacy of racism and just bad science is one that this field has been reckoning...

When we think of the ocean and what's in it, you probably think of stuff like fish, or salt, or seaweed. But there's a crystal that is so vital to marine life that they take dissolved materials in that salty water and build it...

Despite centuries of death records to the contrary, “dying of old age” is not medically possible; instead, it’s just a convenient catch-all.

Almost everything we know about the reproductive practices of European eels comes from a genius study conducted more than 100 years ago.

Optimal foraging theory means that turning down food is sometimes more efficient than eating it - but even then, what’s “wasted” doesn’t necessarily go to waste.

Our oceans don’t technically contain salt, but the ions salt is made of play a critical role in planet-wide processes that make the Earth habitable.

Most trees reach for the sun – but not the weeping willow. Why?

On the Internet, koalas get an unnecessary amount of hate, so let's debunk some of the most pervasive koala myths!

Many of the greatest biological dispersal events in history likely happened because animals inadvertently traveled across the oceans on floating debris.

In this collection of classic MinuteEarth videos, we keep score on the winners and losers of the animal kingdom.



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00 - Intro

0:10 - Why Only Some Monkey
s Have Awesome...

Elephants might be strong, but they are weak compared to ants because ants have certain advantages that allow them to outlift their larger competitors.

In the future, humans will likely die of a very different suite of causes than we do now, thanks to advances in healthcare, an aging population, and changes in the environment.

It’s not just how much you take in; it’s how fast your body can purge it.

Every species on Earth has a fingerprint - whether or not they have fingers at all.

While the rest of the world’s megafauna are still foundering in the anthropocene era, these two big animals have used little animal strategies to bounce back. Way back.

Because eclipses are powerful and frightening events, ancient cultures went to great lengths to understand eclipses, leading to remarkably accurate predictions and helping invent the science of astronomy.

The Acheulean handaxe was the most common tool of early humans, but we still don’t know what the heck they used it for.

Conceptual artist Tavares Strachan creates the kinds of projects that make you stop in your tracks, like a 4.5-ton block of Arctic ice he brought back to his birthplace in the Bahamas or a gold, Egyptian-inspired sculpture he launched...

For 46 years, South Africans lived under Apartheid, a strict policy of segregation that barred the country’s Black majority from skilled, high-paying jobs, quality education, voting, and much more. So, how did these laws come to be? And...

There's a saying that comedy is tragedy plus time. Perhaps that's why some of our biggest problems feel easiest to manage with a dose of humor. Comedian, journalist and actor Roy Wood Jr. has spent his career finding the silly in the...

Cancel culture launched a reckoning that was long overdue — but that doesn't mean it's getting everything right. Filmmaker and actor Sarah Jones slips in and out of various characters as she shares her personal experience with cancel...

Achilles, just slain in the Trojan War, arrives in the Underworld and is greeted by Sibyl of Cumae— a prophetess and also the realm’s local guide. Though it gets a bad rap, Sibyl is determined to prove to the newcomer that hell is...

From World War I to the 2008 economic collapse and beyond, history shows that economists don't always see the future as clearly as they think they do, says economist David McWilliams. Using the words of W.B. Yeats, McWilliams makes the...

Since humanity’s earliest days, we’ve been plagued by countless disease-causing pathogens. Invisible and persistent, these microorganisms and the illnesses they incur have killed more humans than anything else in history. But which...