SciShow
How Safe Are Food Preservatives, Really?
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...
SciShow
How Not Sleeping Actually Kills You
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...
SciShow
A Quarter Of All Your Bones Are In Your Feet
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 it...
SciShow
We Can't Find the Most Important Fossils Ever
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...
SciShow
Hobbits Were Real. Why Were They So Small?
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 hominins...
SciShow
How One Hurricane Could Lead To A Global Tech Shortage
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 cell...
SciShow
What The Ig Nobel Prize Says About Us
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. Hosted by: Tom Lum (he/him)
SciShow
The Most Poisonous Paints Ever
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...
SciShow
The Birds That Eat Fire
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 name...
SciShow
Mad Cow Disease Mostly Infects Teenagers
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. Over...
SciShow
Which Essential Oils Actually Work?
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 oil...
SciShow
Why We've Only Cured HIV Seven Times
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. Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him)
SciShow
The 10 Weirdest Ways Animals Have Sex
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. Hosted by: Hank Green
SciShow
The Top 10 Space Pictures of 2024 (and What They Mean)
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 @NotesbyNiba (she/her)
SciShow
These Are The Coolest Fossils From 2024
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...
SciShow
What Would Happen If We Just Kept Digging?
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 trilobite...
SciShow
Does Underwear Affect Sperm Counts?
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...
SciShow
The Hunt for the Blackest Black
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 (they/them)
SciShow
Did Vikings Use These Crystals To Navigate?
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 Box...
SciShow
Does Red Wine Really Go with Steak?
Whether you're an amateur sommelier or just a fan of the occasional glass, if you drink wine, you've heard of rules on how to pair it with food. But how many of those actually hold up? Let's get into the details of the best ways to pair...
SciShow
JWST Made a Cosmological Crisis Worse
Astronomers have two main ways to calculate how fast the universe is expanding. Unfortunately, they don't agree with one another. The JWST was supposed to help solve this discrepancy, known as "The Hubble Tension" or "The Crisis in...
SciShow
How Ancient Glass Could Transport Life Between Planets
There's a rare material called Darwin Glass that Tasmanian Aboriginals have prized for centuries. And while it took Western researchers a while to figure out what it was and where it came from, once they got their heads around it, they...
SciShow
Sound DOES Travel in Space (and 10 Other Space Things You Got Wrong)
No, technically Earth doesn't orbit the Sun. Yes, technically sound can travel through space. Over the years we've built up a lot of myths and misconceptions about astronomy. But of course some are more flat-out false than others. Hosted...
SciShow
Thrill Seeking is Genetic (And Good For Humanity)
If you've ever watched a video of someone doing some crazy parkour daredevil stuff, you might have wondered how they're still in the gene pool. But it turns out that all that dangerous behavior may be a pretty good thing after all, and...