Over 200 years ago, scientists were looking at sunlight through a prism when they noticed that part of the rainbow was missing. There were dark lines where there should have been colors. Since then, scientists have unlocked the secrets...

If someone (say, a small child) asks you why the sky is blue, you might dive into an explanation of Rayleigh scattering. But if you want to give them a way cooler explanation, you can tell them it's because of bacteria.



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Fluorescence isn't just a cool effect that turns your white T-shirt neon purple under a black light. Its discovery opened our eyes to a whole new field of science and engineering. And it's all thanks to a crystal called fluorite....

Low-E windows have reduced the amount of energy required to heat and cool our buildings, a critical step in fighting climate change. But new research suggests we've lost something beneficial in the process.



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Plants can tell when competitors are nearby because they can see them.

A spy presses a button on their suit and blinks out of sight. A wizard wraps himself in a cloak and disappears. A star pilot flicks a switch, and their ship vanishes into space. Invisibility is one of the most tantalizing powers in...

Have you ever wondered why leaves are green and not red, blue, or even black? We did too!

Whether you grew up with a poster of the solar system on your bedroom wall or not, you've probably got a specific idea of what the planets look like. From brilliantly blue Neptune to the "red planet" Mars. But if you managed to actually...

Every species on Earth has a fingerprint - whether or not they have fingers at all.

On our search for alien lifeforms we scan for primitive biosignatures, and wait and hope for their errant signals to happen by the Earth. But that may not be the best way. Any energy-hungry civilization more advanced than our own may...

How do you see the unseeable - how do you explore the inescapable? Our cleverest astronomers have figured out ways to catch light that skims the very edge of black holes. Let’s find out what they learned.
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Right now, invisible signals are flying through the air all around you. Massive radio waves carry information between computers, GPS systems, cell phones, and more. And the sky is flooded with interference from routers, satellites, and,...

Over the past few years, astronomers have discovered their own kind of UFO called Odd Radio Circles, aka ORCs. They're a little too round, and a little too invisible at non-radio wavelengths, to immediately know what they are and...

The Sun is green, actually. We'll go into why the blackbody effect means the Sun emits more green visible light than any other color, and why evolution and color perception mean it's ok to see it as yellow, anyway.

Most of us can only see certain wavelengths of light our entire lives. So why can salmon switch on night vision? We'll learn how they can reshape their eyes to see into the infrared.

With an effective surface temperature of roughly 5,500 degrees Celsius, you might think water couldn't survive on the Sun. Well, scientists debated whether or not it was there for nearly a century, and it turns out, it can!

This video is about the "Kelvin wake" shape of water wakes behind boats - we talk about mach angle, dispersion, superposition of many waves, and how these all lead to the pattern of a wake. We don't get into Froude number though...

Plenty of animal eyes "glow" in the dark, but only one species has eyes that change color with the seasons.

For most living things the color you see when you look at them is determined by pigments. But some of the most vivid colors we see in nature get their signature looks WITHOUT colorful molecules. How do these intense colors get their power?

We know that not everyone's vision is perfect, which is why some of us need glasses. But some people can also just see more stuff than others! From seeing UV and infrared light, to even having bonus color receptors in our eyes, there are...

Ovens are great for baking, cooking, and.... discovering quantum mechanics? In this fascinating episode of SciShow, Hank takes you through the science of quantum mechanics, and how ovens played a big part in their discovery.

You've seen those viral videos of colorblind people putting on special glasses and reacting to colors they've never seen before! Today, we'll explore how colorblindness works and what those glasses try to do to fix it! Hosted by: Hank Green

From the ability to see “invisible” types of light to the power to taste all over their body, meet five incredible animals whose super senses far surpass our own! Hosted by: Michael Aranda

From favorite moons to the search for alien life, astronomer Heidi Hammel discusses the latest in astronomy and the breakthrough innovations behind her work with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. In conversation with science journalist...