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How To See Colors That Aren't Real
What color is a banana? Duh, it’s yellow. But what is yellow? Now that you mention it, how do we see color in the first place? That’s the series of questions that led me to making this video. It started simple and took me down a rabbit...
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What's The Most Successful Species on Earth?
There are now more than 7 billion human beings on Earth, and that got me wondering: How successful are we compared to other species? I take a look at out how our numbers stack up to some other domains of life. It turns out that biomass,...
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The Surprising Species That Everything Else Depends On | IN OUR NATURE
Seemingly distant ecosystems, even half a world apart, are connected in surprising ways. In this special limited series, Emily Graslie and Trace Dominguez join me as we explore the universal rules of life that tie together Earth’s living...
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Why the Heck Are We Ticklish?
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...
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Why Is Sex a Thing?
Why does sex exist? You might think the obvious answer is “reproduction” but there are plenty of organisms on Earth that don’t require sex to reproduce. And the more that scientists examined sex, they more they realized that it’s an...
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Why is Puberty so Weird?
There is no phase of a human’s lifetime that is as strange and disgus....er....magical as the transition from childhood into adulthood - that handful of years that we call . . . PUBERTY. Why does it happen? How does it work? Why is it so...
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Why Is Our Skeleton On the Inside?
Having bones is pretty cool. They make our blood, let us hear, and keep us from being just a squishy puddle on the floor. But for every species with bones, there are at least 20 species on Earth with exoskeletons instead. And those...
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Why Don't Birds Lay Square Eggs?
What is ”egg-shaped” even? I used to think it was the shape of a chicken egg. Then one day I saw a collection of eggs from lots of different bird species, and I realized just how many different kind of egg shapes there really are! I had...
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Why Does Every Animal Look Like This?
In the race to survive, both predators and prey use visual tricks to get ahead. One nearly universal trick is countershading, a color pattern that helps animals erase their own shadows or blend into different backgrounds. It’s worked...
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Why Deadly Viral Pandemics Are Becoming More Common
Viruses keep jumping out of nature and into humans and getting us very sick in the process. So why do zoonotic spillovers like SARS-CoV-2 happen, and why are they becoming more frequent? We asked an expert.
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Why Are We Warm-Blooded?
A human with the metabolism of a hummingbird would need to eat about 80,000 calories a day to survive. That’s because staying warm by making your own heat takes a ton of energy. And that brings up a paradox, because creating your own...
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What's the Largest Living Thing On Earth?
The biggest thing that has ever lived on Earth… is a tree? Hard to believe, but it’s true. Travel with me to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to go inside the most massive species on our planet, and learn what unique and special...
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What is Impossible in Evolution?
Could humans ever evolve to have wings? Why don’t fish have propellers? Why don’t tigers have wheels? Why don’t zebras have laser turrets? These might all seem like stupid questions (and maybe they are!) but they can teach us a lot about...
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This Face TOTALLY Changes the Human Story
Greetings, fellow Homo sapiens. Our species is the only remaining member of the genus of upright, walking apes known as Homo. Where did we come from? Our history just got a whole lot more complicated (in a good way) thanks to some...
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These Butt-Tickling Ants Are Endangered Butterfly Bodyguards | IN OUR NATURE
Seemingly distant ecosystems, even half a world apart, are connected in surprising ways. In this special limited series, Emily Graslie and Trace Dominguez join me as we explore the universal rules of life that tie together Earth’s living...
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You'll Never Guess Where Earth's Largest Migration Happens
The biggest (and most mysterious!) migration in the world happens every night in the ocean as 10 billion tons of zooplankton swim to the surface to feed. This undersea journey is known as Diel vertical migration, and it occurs in every...
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The Mathematical Code Hidden In Nature
How do zebras get their stripes? How do leopards get their spots? And how do giraffes get their giraffe-shaped thingies, whatever they are called? Would you believe the answer is… math? This is the story of a WWII wartime codebreaker and...
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Here's What I Learned From Getting COVID
I’m vaccinated. I’m boosted. And I still got infected with the omicron variant of COVID-19. Here’s what I learned, and what it means for the possible end of this pandemic.
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Could You Be a Chimera?
Ever feel like you aren't totally yourself? Well, maybe you aren't. In this video, we explore the idea of human chimeras. In mythology, the "Chimaera" was a beast made from different animals combined into one. But in biology, a chimera...
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Are Humans Still Evolving?
We’re living longer. Dying less. Human life expectancy has doubled in just a couple centuries. Machines and meals and medicines keeping us alive long past the age where we can make babies. Does this mean our species is no longer under...
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A Brief (Scientific) History of Butts
Hold on to your butts. This episode is about… butts. The science and evolutionary history of your rear end, the down-low on your derriere, shining a little light where the sun don't shine… you get the picture. But(t) seriously, we don't...