Over the last few years astronomers have been doing more and more research based on string theory, and thanks to modern telescopes the results are... less than encouraging

Do you remember the exciting rumor about NASA’s EMdrive? Well, now it’s official: NASA has created their own EM drive! Meanwhile, SpaceX has a plan which will make the internet more accessible.

The earliest time measurements were observations of cycles of the natural world, using patterns of changes from day to night and season to season to build calendars. More precise time-keeping eventually came along to put time in more...

Quantum field theory is notoriously complicated, built from mind-bendingly abstract mathematics. But are the underlying rules of reality really so far from human intuition? Or are physicists just showing off? For better or worse, the...

There are some pretty out-there explanations for the processes at work behind the incredibly successful mathematics of quantum mechanics - things are both waves and particles at the same time, the act of observation defines reality, cats...

In the first two lessons of this series on space-time, we've dealt with objects moving at constant speeds, with straight world lines, in space-time. But what happens when you throw gravity into the mix? In this third and final lesson,...

America's first great science battle wasn't the space race or the atom bomb, it was fought between Thomas Jefferson, a French nobleman, and in the middle a giant moose. Some people call Jefferson our only scientist-President, and T.J....

Our consciousness is a fundamental aspect of our existence, says philosopher David Chalmers: “There’s nothing we know about more directly…. but at the same time it’s the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe.” He shares some ways to...

This week, Emily Graslie is teaching you about human ancestry and geneaology, how we got to be the species we are, and why that matters in our zoomed out look at Big History.

The early 1900s was an amazing time for Western science, as Albert Einstein was developing his theories of relativity and psychology was born, as Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis took over the scientific mainstream. Karl Popper observed...

Black holes are everywhere, including at the center of our galaxy. But because they’re invisible they’re quite difficult to study. Looking at the disks of material surrounding them, however, can give us tons of clues about how they...

The universe is huge and getting bigger all the time, and we have we have dark energy - the most mysterious force in the universe - to blame/thank for it. Thought to make up more than 70% of the energy in the whole universe, Hank...

A theory of physics 100 years in the making.

Quantum mechanics is weird and seems a bit...complicated. But understanding it can help us to understand the universe.

Why do your fingers and toes get wrinkly when they've been in the water too long? Short answer: Your nerves. Longer answer: Evolution.

UPDATE: We got a couple of things wrong when it comes to gravity (particularly that it has nothing to do with photons). Science is working tirelessly night and day to disprove its own theories about how the universe works (or at least,...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how inertial mass and gravitational mass are equivalent. He shows you too simple methods for calculated individual inertial mass and gravitational mass. Albert Einstein used this principle to build...

Making a black hole in a particle accelerator sounds… a bit dangerous, to say the least, but scientists think that it could be possible! Here's why it probably wouldn't be dangerous -- and might even teach us something.

We pretty much know for sure that the universe was once extremely small, and extremely hot. And we know that something set it in motion, expanding rapidly and continuing to do-so today. But the actual moment of 'the Big Bang' is still a...

Although science has provided astounding insights into the origins of the universe, we're still not quite sure what happened in those very first few moments.

This week on Crash Course: History of the Scientific Revolution—astronomical anomalies accrued. Meanwhile, in Denmark—an eccentric rich dude constructed not one but two science castles! And his humble German assistant synthesized a lot...

Neurofeedback therapy claims to help you change behaviors by monitoring your brain waves - but how does that actually work? And what does the science behind it look like?

In honor of October 13th, International Skeptics Day, Hank has put together this playlist of some of the most interesting science-y, skeptic-y videos from all around YouTube.

This week we explore final ethical theory in this unit: Aristotle’s virtue theory. Hank explains the Golden Mean, and how it exists as the midpoint between vices of excess and deficiency. We’ll also discuss moral exemplars, and introduce...