Can Evolution Make an Eye? - 12 Days of Evolution #4
Some of the biggest evolution questions finally answered.
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Why Are Some People Left-Handed?
We've got two perfectly good hands attached to two perfectly good arms, so why do most people prefer to use one over the other for common tasks?
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Do Fish Pee?
You know you’ve wondered. Do fish actually pee? And what does that make the ocean… one big toilet?
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Why Do We Get Dizzy (…and Astronauts Don’t?)
We’ve all gotten dizzy before… but have you ever gotten WEIRD DIZZY? I teamed up with Vanessa Hill from BrainCrat to answer the question “why do we get dizzy?” and in the process we learned about some very strange and hilarious ways to get extra-special dizzy! Get ready to learn about your vestibular system, the system that lets you know where your body is in space.
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The Mystery of the World’s Greatest Butterfly Migration
The monarch butterfly migration is one of nature’s greatest events. This orange-winged wonder travels up to 4,500 km from all over North America to spend the winter hanging from oyamel fir trees in central Mexico’s mountain forests. But how does an animal with a brain the size of a poppy seed navigate to this one special place?
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How to be Crushed by the Atmosphere!
Air. I bet you never even notice that it’s there. Yet you are swimming in an ocean of it every day. If there’s a literal ton of air pressing down on you all the time, so why don’t we feel it? We look back at the history of physics to learn how we figured out air pressure, why vacuums don’t suck.
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Why Are So Many People Allergic To Food?
More people have food allergies than ever before. Peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, and even milk… the list of possibly dangerous foods seems to get longer every day. But why do some people’s bodies have deadly reactions food? And why are food allergies on the rise? In this video we explain what food allergies really are, and what the difference is between food allergy and food intolerance.
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Where on Earth do you weigh the least?
You may have heard that a kilogram of feathers weighs the same as a kilogram of steel, but that all depends on where you weigh them. This video is all about the difference between mass and weight, and how weirdly awesome Earth’s gravity really is.
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Are You Afraid of Holes?
Honeycomb. Strawberries. Flower pods. Some people find these things incredibly scary. We call this extreme fear trypophobia. But why does it exist?
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The Impossible Hugeness of Deep Time
Humans have a hard time with really big numbers, especially when it comes to DEEP TIME. The history of the Earth took a lot longer than you think, trust me. But I’m here to help you put it in perspective. With some string.
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Is There Life on Earth
If we lived light years from Earth, how would we know there’s life here? Let’s take a look at the search for extraterrestrial life on habitable exoplanets, and discover what biosignatures would show someone else that we’re here.
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Does Someone Else Have Your Face?
They say everyone has a doppelgänger, but is that really true? This week we meet a young woman who found her own look-alike, and figure out how we actually recognize faces.
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We're Mainly Microbe: Meet Your Microbiome
Ever not felt completely like yourself? There's a good reason for that. Because a large part of you isn't actually you. Our bodies are home to ten times as many microbes as human cells. We are walking ecosystems, each of us home to thousands of different species on and inside of us. Meet your microbiome!
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Why Music Moves Us
How can simple sound waves cause so much emotion? I went from my comfy chair to the streets of Austin to investigate how it might be written into our neuroscience and evolution. Modern neuroscience says our brains may be wired to pick certain emotions out of music because they remind us of how people move!
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Which Life Form REALLY Dominates Earth?
Are humans really Earth’s most dominant species? Let’s put all of the planet’s living things on a scale and see what has amassed the most mass. This week we break down the concept of “biomass” to judge Earth’s living things from top to bottom, and see how humans have changed the world.
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It's Okay to Fart
Farting is hilarious and gross and everyone is doing it so why can’t we talk about the science of it?! Flatulence, passing gas, cutting the cheese, toots… whatever you call it, it's natural and here's how it works.
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The Surprising Reason We Eat Spicy Food
People who live near the equator use more spices per recipe than people who live far from the equator. But that isn't for the reason you think. Spices and other plant ingredients have special powers that make them a truly magical superfood!
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The Only Animal That Weeps
Why do we cry? It’s weird. Humans leak water out of their faces when they get sad. Are we the only animals that do this? What does it mean? What is it for? Here’s the science of human tears!
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3 Incredible Examples of Evolution Hidden In Your Body
Humans are special, and we got that way thanks to evolution and natural selection. The proof is right there in our bodies! From anatomy to genes, here are some stories of how you got to be the way you are.
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Why Do Disney Princesses All Look Like Babies?
I noticed something weird about Disney Princesses lately. Naturally, I had to examine it through the lens of science. The answer led me to new knowledge about human development, the domestication and taming of animals, and why we find things cute in the first place. You’ll never look at cartoons the same way again
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How Some Words Get Forgetted
English is a confusing language for many reasons. But the irregular verbs might be the most confusing part. Why is “told” the past tense of “tell” but “smold” isn’t the past tense of “smell”? It turns out that the study of irregular verbs can teach us a lot about how languages evolve. This week, we look at how the era of Big Data is unlocking secrets behind the weirdness of words.
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How Habits are Formed
Got a bad habit you just can’t seem to break? That’s because it’s literally wired into your brain.
Every single thought, action, and feeling changes your brain. When repeated enough times, a habit is formed. This week we’ll talk about how an advertiser in the early 1900s got half of Americans to pick up a new behavior - and make it a habit we all know today.
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Will You Still Eat Raw Fish After Watching This Video?
Have you ever noticed that warning about raw or undercooked seafood at the bottom of restaurant menus? Ever wondered why it’s there? Because fish carry a ton of parasites, and if they aren’t prepared correctly then those parasites can make it into your body. But it turns out, this intersection can teach us a lot about how these moochers help keep ecosystems healthy, and why we should protect them.
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Is Height All in Our Genes?
I’m tall. Most of the people in my family are tall. Does that mean my son will be tall? Turns out the inheritance of height is a lot more complicated than we thought. Scientists know that nature (genes) and nurture (environment) both play a role, but after more than a century of questions, we’re only just now starting to get some answers
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What Do Raindrops Really Look Like?
What do raindrops look like? Exactly how we drew them as kids, right? Wrong! Teardrop-shaped rain is physically impossible. This week I went inside a vertical wind tunnel to bring you the true shape of rain.
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