PBS_ItsOKToBeSmart

How successful are we compared to other species? It turns out that biomass, or what things weigh, can be more important than how many of something there are. Find out how our numbers stack up against everything from bugs to bacteria, and get ready for some mind-blowing numbers!

Love is a complicated combination of brain chemicals and behavior that scientists are only just beginning to figure out. And it's remarkable that in every society that we have looked at on Earth, romantic love exists. So if love is so universal, and there are 7 billion other people out there looking for it, why can it seem like it's so hard to find?

Space might seem like an empty place, but the area surrounding Earth is constantly being bombarded by waves of charged particles released by the Sun: The solar wind. Luckily, thanks to Earth's swirling, molten core (and the magnetic field it provides), we are protected from this planet-sterilizing onslaught like an invisible force field. The visual result? The Auroras.

Why is the sky blue? It's a question that you'd think kids have been asking for thousands of years, but it might not be that old at all. The ancient Greek poet Homer never used a word for blue in The Odyssey or The Iliad, because blue is one of the last colors that cultures pick out a word for.

Earth's atmosphere is big, but not as big as many people think. All the air that keeps us alive is just a thin candy shell around our planet. In this episode, echoing the words of John F. Kennedy, I'll show you the science of how we all share the same air. So let's be careful about what we're putting in it.

Wind is everywhere. The air is constantly moving, sometimes gently, sometimes violently. Why? Pressure, temperature and rotation come together to make wind. Here's how.

It seems like every week someone tells us how the internet and the digital age are overloading our brains. Sure, sometimes it feels like we're being fed more information than we can handle, that we're paying attention to the wrong things. Are we giving our brain a fair shot?

Bees are amazing social insects, and their relationship with flowers is one of nature's coolest examples of "mutualism". It got me wondering: How do bees see the world? Enjoy this look at how bees see in ultraviolet and even sense electric fields!

There is no sound in space. In the near-vacuum of space, there is nothing to transmit the physical waves that we need to perceive sound. But that doesn't mean we can't MAKE sound from space.

Dorothy went over one. LeVar Burton read to us under one. In a song, Kermit the Frog connected us to one. Even Mork's suspenders were made of them. Our culture, and our skies, are full of rainbows, but do you know how they form? Do we all see the same rainbow? Could cyborg-enhanced mantis shrimp eyes ever see a bigger rainbow?

Teeth. We’ve all got ‘em (most of us, anyway). But how do they grow? Teeth are made from some biological nanotechnology that will blow your mind. They are strong enough to last hundreds of millions of years. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered how adult teeth replace your baby teeth, get ready to see something terrifying.

What’s the largest river on Earth? If you said “the Amazon”… you’re only half right. Scientists have discovered an even bigger river in South America, and it’s in the sky above the Amazon rainforest. Turns out, this sky river is the reason there’s a rainforest at all…

The flu might feel like some minor illness that you don’t need to worry about much, but tens of thousands of people still die from it every year. And back in 1918, Flu killed up to 5% of the world’s population. Could a flu that bad happen again?

The edge of everything used to be the edge of the map. But now, thanks to what we know about astrophysics and the universe, the edge of everything might not even exist…

Eating turkey this holiday season? Chowing down on a roast chicken? You’re eating a dinosaur! Entertain your family and friends with a little science lesson this year, and show them why bird bones tell us that birds are actually living dinosaurs.

Nothing is guaranteed in life except death, taxes, and entropy. What do other life forms have to teach us about staying alive as we get old, and will we ever conquer death?

The bottom of the cereal box is a disappointing place. But at least now you know why. Where do you see the Brazil Nut Effect around you?

Nuclear weapons represent the darker side of E=mc^2. Science has given us the ability to understand what will happen if these weapons are ever used again… and what will happen if they are *never* used again.

How does memory work? And how does… un-memory work? Our brain does a lot of remembering and forgetting every day, so you should probably make room for som info on how it works. You’ll also get to meet some people who can’t make memories, and also never forget anything.

Axolotls are special salamanders. Not only to they stay in their juvenile form their whole lives, they can regenerate entire limbs! Studying how they do it could change the way we treat human limb injuries.

Why is Earth is a blue planet? Because it’s covered in water! Where did Earth’s water come from? Of course, water isn’t unique to our planet. The origin of water traces beyond the solar system to the earliest days of the universe. Here’s the story of the galaxy’s H2O.

Until the early 20th century, Tasmania was home to a very weird wolf-like creature. Except that it wasn’t a wolf. Even though it looked like a wolf. How did that happen? Here’s the science of convergent evolution!

The hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe are rarely witnessed, but in these rare spots, our understanding of physics is challenged. Weird things happen at extreme hot and absolute cold.

It’s one of the most annoying sensations our bodies can feel, but does anything feel better than when you scratch an itch? Ok, maybe *some* things. But itching and scratching are up there. How does this weird sensation work? And what is itching for?

Do 97% of climate scientists really agree that humans are the main cause of climate change? Yep! Here’s what the 97 percent statistic *really* means.