Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That's the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is...

Improving batteries is a tough problem, but it’s also an important one because in many ways the future of our planet also depends on the future of batteries. Luckily, scientists are on the case, figuring out ways to give this essential...

How is it possible for air-breathing marine mammals like sperm whales and elephant seals to hold their breath for so long?

Our need for data storage grows everyday... but by how much?

Climate change is happening we all need to get serious about limiting our carbon dioxide emissions! At the same time, scientists are looking for plan B because we might need it.

Since Joseph Marie Jacquard’s textile loom in 1801, there has been a demonstrated need to give our machines instructions. In the last few episodes, our instructions were already in our computer’s memory, but we need to talk about how...

You may feel a bit grumpy when you're hungry, but hunger can affect us in more powerful ways than we realize.

Birds can communicate with each other in lots of ways, but some types of birds can learn human words! But just because they learn human words, does that mean that they can understand them?

Honeybees are some of nature's finest mathematicians. Not only can they calculate angles and comprehend the roundness of the earth, these smart insects build and live in one of the most mathematically efficient architectural designs...

Carbs are pinned to be the villains in many diets, but those poor guys are just misunderstood.

The moon may be 1.3 light-seconds away, but why on earth do we measure distances using time?

Every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil. This massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth, and it won't last forever. On the other hand, we have abundant sun, water and wind, which are all renewable energy...

If you live in the United States, you might have recently gotten a credit card with a microchip on it. But what does this chip do that makes it any different than the magnetic strip on the back of the card?

Today we’re going to look at how our computers read and interpret computer files. We’ll talk about how some popular file formats like txt, wave, and bitmap are encoded and decoded giving us pretty pictures and lifelike recordings from...

Soil doesn't seem like it's "alive", yet it functions like a living thing in lots of key ways.

Co-ops are a big part of the global economy: they employ 10% of the world's workforce and over two trillion dollars flow through their doors every year. At a co-op, there's no single person with overarching, top-down power over everyone...

In this episode of SciShow, we're going to investigate a murder. But first, we're going to have to learn all about forensics, the use of science in criminal law -- and the real-life version is a little different from what you might see...

In 1955, a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi. The white men who murdered him killed him for being Black. Emmett Till's mother chose to have an open casket funeral, and show the world what had...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how water is unequally distributed around the globe through the hydrologic cycles. Seawater is everywhere but is not useful without costly desalination. Freshwater is divided between surface water...

In 2010, 30 billion dollars worth of fruits and vegetables were wasted by American retailers and shoppers, in part because of cosmetic problems and perceived spoilage. But what are these spots, anyway, and are they okay to eat? Elizabeth...

In this brief talk from TED U 2009, Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity -- one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion...

For those of you looking to go out and actually do your holiday shopping in a store, you might want to be wary of the tricks businesses may use to encourage more spending.

In this video Paul Andersen explains the vital role that water plays in the processes on the Earth's surface. Water has several unique properties including high heat capacity, transparency, polarity and the ability to change the...

There's a chill in the air where Jessi and Squeaks live, and that means it's time for some animals to start the long, yearly nap called hibernation! Learn why animals hibernate and how they get ready to sleep for months at a time!