When ITER's tokamak finally comes online (as of July 2024, that's 2034 for its first round of research, and 2039 for deuterium-tritium fusion), it will become the world's biggest fusion reactor. But don't hold your breath for a green...

Cells need energy to power the chemical reactions that keep their microscopic cities running, and most of that energy comes from a chemical called ATP. In this episode of Crash Course Biology, we’ll learn how our cells use energy, what...

Springtime means the arrival of green grass, bright flowers, and buzzing bees. But for many of us, it's also about sneezing, watery red eyes, and a runny nose, thanks to allergies. In this week's video, you'll learn why we get allergies,...

Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But...

The Moon is typically 380,000-ish kilometers from the Earth, so it doesn't seem like they have that much of a direct influence on one another. However, the presence of hematite on the lunar surface suggests our planet is causing the Moon...

One of the most famous elements in the periodic table doesn't really belong anywhere chemists would like to put it.

When you're enjoying an intimate moment with that special someone, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you ate for lunch is probably the last thing on your mind. But sexually transmitted allergens are a thing, and nut allergies aren't...

More people have food allergies than ever before. Peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, and even milk… the list of possibly dangerous foods seems to get longer every day. But why do some people’s bodies have deadly reactions food? And why...

I’ve explained a lot of weird bodily functions on this show but there’s one that we haven’t covered that’s always confused me: Tickling. What are you for, tickling? What’s the point of you? Why do you exist? Why do you make us laugh even...

Scientists working at a nuclear fusion facility in Oxford announced a record-breaking result. And while there's still a lot to figure out to make fusion viable, this brings us one step closer to realizing a technology with huge potential...

Hank profiles this year's Nobel laureates in science, whose achievements have helped us understand questions as small as how our cells transport materials, and as big as why matter exists at all.

While not used much any more as a primary source of light, candles are still everywhere, from an aroma in a bathroom to a mood during dinner. That is, until they’re gone.

The chemistry behind film photography is pretty fascinating. How do film cameras help us turn light into a physical image?

From poking their own eyes, to drinking a patient's vomit, some extremely passionate scientists have done pretty outrageous things to themselves in the name of science.

New evidence suggests some fossils as the oldest known sign of life on Earth, and scientists may have a way to speed up the process of carbon neutralization in the ocean!

If it smells like delicious buttered popcorn when you are in a middle of the forest, it’s not because there’s a movie theater nearby, but Binturongs, arboreal carnivore, might be.

Sharp black-white divide on perceptions of Ferguson

The backdrop of Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the city's downtown. What̥s the story behind such monuments and why do we continue to struggle with...

For children in the U.S., unsupervised play is largely a pastime of previous generations. Hanna Rosin of The Atlantic writes about the consequences of guarding children from perceived dangers in her article, ÐThe Overprotected Kid.Ó...

Things have been getting more and more complicated here in Crash Course Organic Chemistry, and as we deal with more complex molecules, parts of molecules we don’t want to react will start reacting along with the parts that we do....

In this video Paul Andersen explains how atoms are conserved in a chemical reaction. This can be seen in a chemical equation where the subscripts represent the atoms in the molecule and the coefficients represent the molecules. The...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how reaction intermediates are created in elementary steps and may not appear as either a reactant or product. Experimentation is used in Chemistry to identify reaction intermediates.

Paul Andersen explains the importance role of coupled reactions in biology. He starts by explaining how the power of a river can be harnessed by a water mill to grind grains. He describes the importance of ATP and how it is used within...

Going out in the sun can work wonders for your mood, but unfortunately too much UV exposure can do serious damage to your DNA. This damage occurs through a type of organic reaction called a pericyclic reaction. In this episode of Crash...