Part 1 of 3 in my series about why our bodies are shaped the way they are.

The science of the multicolored dress.

Hank talks about space shuttle Discovery's retirement, a private space "taxi cab" service, a breakthrough with man-made DNA, and the similarities between religion and pornography in your brain.

Scientists have developed a way to grow miniature versions of human organs; some of the weirdest organoids are the mini brains.

Neuroscientist Greg Gage takes sophisticated equipment used to study the brain out of graduate-level labs and brings them to middle- and high-school classrooms (and, sometimes, to the TED stage.) Prepare to be amazed as he hooks up the...

When talking about the brain, neurons have been dazzling scientists for a long time. But behind every successful neuron is a glial cell - particularly one type of them: microglia.

Some parasites can hijack the brains of their victims and cause them to behave in strange ways, but how they do it, and do we humans need to be worried?

Hypnosis: that's just a fun gimmick for stage shows and plot twists, right? Well, turns out there might be more to it.

The human brain is one of the most sophisticated organs in the world, a supercomputer made of billions of neurons that control all of our senses, thoughts, and actions. But there was something Charles Darwin found even more impressive:...

Our immune systems aren't just critical to our physical health. It turns out they may play a big role in our mental health, as well. And learning more about how these two aspects of our health are interconnected can help us develop...

Babies are amazing, tiny humans. They’re so fascinating that we’ve done a lot of videos about them, so we’ve collected a bunch of our favorites here for you to enjoy!

First thing’s first: what is media literacy? In our first episode, Jay breaks this question down and explains how we’re going to use it to explore our media saturated world.

Your brain relies a lot on context to tell you what sounds are bouncing around in your ears, and without enough of that context it can get a little confused.

Today, about a third of the world's population is infected with a strange disease called toxoplasmosis - and most of them never even know it. And while the parasite can multiply in practically any host, it can only reproduce sexually in...

The average 20-year-old knows between 27,000 and 52,000 different words. Spoken out loud, most of these words last less than a second. With every word, the brain has a quick decision to make: which of those thousands of options matches...

When it comes to what you bite, chew and swallow, your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body: your brain. So which foods cause you to feel so tired after lunch? Or so restless at night? Mia...

A common misconception is that evolution is a long chain of progress, where organisms gain cool, new features over time. However, if a trait doesn't help with survival or reproduction, eventually it can disappear. Here are a few...

With hard work and perseverance, we can change the way we process the world, and if you’ve learned how to read, you’ve successfully re-trained an entire area of your brain!

Some people can truly feel other people’s pain! But even if you aren't someone who can literally feel someone else’s sensations, your connections with people can still do some powerful things.

Psychopathic killers are the basis for some must-watch TV, but what really makes them tick? Neuroscientist Jim Fallon talks about brain scans and genetic analysis that may uncover the rotten wiring in the nature (and nurture) of...

So... how big is the Universe? It's big... really big... no, bigger than that... it's big. In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina gives us some perspective on this whole Universe thing and how we fit into it.

Hank explains the gift that your brain gives you every day: the gift of neural plasticity -- the ways in which your brain actually changes at the cellular level as you learn.

The idea that our reality is a simulation is not as far-fetched as you may think. Many philosophers, scientists and tech-billionaires are seriously considering not just the possibility but the high probability that our civilization may...

How the night sky tricks our brains!