PBS_ItsOKToBeSmart

You know you’ve wondered. Do fish actually pee? And what does that make the ocean… one big toilet?

Birthday math has never been more fun.

So maybe we can't outrun cheetahs or antelope, but humans are uniquely adapted for long distance running. What does science have to say about marathon running? To find out, (and because I was feeling a little crazy) I decided to run one! Here's what I discovered about the science of long distance running

Since New Horizons flew by Pluto on July 14, 2015, it's completely redefined what we know about the dwarf planet and its largest moon Charon. New Horizons' mission will continue to be full of surprises, but here's what we've learned so far

Since the days of Ancient Greece, philosophers and scientists have been wondering: What is space? Is the absence of things… a thing? These questions continued to fascinate physicists in the modern era, leading Isaac Newton, Ernst Mach, and Albert Einstein to wonder about the true nature of the fabric of the cosmos. The search for an answer led them to some of the greatest theories in physics.

Is the science of Orphan Black realistic? Could we clone humans, or engineer them to have customized traits? We take a look at today's genetic engineering technologies to find out if designer babies and human cloning is, or should be, a reality

The origin of life is one of the most important mysteries in all of science. When did life begin? How did life first evolve from chemistry? Where did life get started? In some primordial soup or somewhere else? Let’s journey back to the origin of life, as best as we know it, from the RNA world do the last universal common ancestor of everything alive today.

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?

In 1970, British mathematician John Conway devised a way to quickly calculate the weekday of any given date without the help of calculators, computers, or calendars. It is called the doomsday algorithm and the best thing about this algorithm is that your friends will think you have a superhuman memory, when all you need to do is memorize a set of numbers and do a series of simple calculations. Conway <a href="https://rumble.com/v368l7-algorithm-for-crime.html" target="_blank">algorithm</a> bases on the fact that some dates always fall on the same weekday within any given year. These dates are called doomsdays. There are plenty of scary doomsday formulas out there, but how about those of us who don't hold a degree in mathematics? There are couple of steps to do this, the first one is to memorize weekdays as numbers because according to Conway, each weekday is represented by a number, for example: Sunday is 0, Monday is 1, Tuesday is 2 and so on. You need to memorize these numbers before moving on. As a mental anchor, it may be helpful to think of Tuesday as “Twosday”. To determine the <a href="https://rumble.com/v30os8-10-doomsday-predictions-that-didnt-come-true.html" target="_blank">doomsday</a> of the year in question, you have to follow a series of 6 simple calculations. Before you start, don't forget to memorize the weekday numbers and century anchor days and the most important thing is no to give up. This might sound awfully complicated at first, and most of us will need a good minute or three to go through all the steps. But with a little practice things will soon pick up speed. If you want to find out a more detailed info about any day, just watch the video to the end.

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?

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.

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.

How scientifically accurate is your favorite sci-fi space battle?

Ever wonder where your favorite Thanksgiving foods come from? Well the truth may be closer to home than you think.

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.

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…

Living things have engineered some pretty awesome materials, but I’m not sure anything measures up to spider silk. It’s as strong, as stretchy, and as resilient than even humans’ most advanced creations like Kevlar and steel. So how do these awesome arachnids weave such an incredible substance using nothing but their rear ends?

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

In part 4 of our special series on human ancestry and evolution, we look into the future. Now that genetic engineering tools like CRISPR allow us to edit our genes, how will that impact human evolution going forward? Are designer babies or eugenics around the corner? Welcome to a world of nonrandom mutation and unnatural selection.

With all 86 billion neurons at our disposal, humans are pretty smart beings. We are the most intelligent species on the planet. But what about lesser species, say, how smart is a pulsating wad of yellow gue? Physarum polycephalum, or better known as slime mold, can be found sometimes on stale <a href="https://rumble.com/v471q5-this-is-what-happens-to-bread-in-water.html" target="_blank">bread</a> but it is not a fungus, it is a jelly-like protist. Best is to imagine it as one big cell holding millions of nuclei and they might seem like much but slime molds are smarter than they look. Just watch the video. Slime molds can solve mazes. It does so by first exploring every path and then when it has found the food at every end, it retracts the paths that don't connect the points. Solving mazes involves remembering where you have been. Where does a single cell ball of <a href="https://rumble.com/v471q5-this-is-what-happens-to-bread-in-water.html" target="_blank">bread</a> hold memories? Physarum does this by leaving chemical trails to mark dead ends, so it can remember where it has already explored. When slime molds are presented with a <a href="https://rumble.com/v4tw83-sunflower-maze-draws-tourists-to-philippines.html" target="_blank">maze</a> that has more than one solution, they will even figure out the shortest one. No matter the shape of the maze, they will almost always manage to connect the distributed food sources by the shortest path. If that does not impress you, realize that once you start adding points, mapping efficient networks becomes an incredibly complex problem and humans use powerful computers to accomplish just the same. What other wonders can this simple organism accomplish? We wouldn’t want to spoil your fun by saying anything more! Grab yourselves a cup of coffee and enjoy the rest of the video!

What have we learned from exploring Earth’s harshest locations? That pretty everywhere we look for life, we find it. From smoking hot hydro-thermal vents to icy deserts, up in clouds and inside rocks, extremophiles have found a way to survive. These survivors and adapters are not only teaching us about life on Earth, but expanding the possibilities of where life can exist elsewhere. <a href="https://rumble.com/v368lv-earth-moving-research.html" target="_blank">Earth</a> mysteries are a wide range of spiritual, quasi-religious and pseudoscientific ideas focusing on cultural and religious beliefs about the Earth, generally with regard to particular geographical locations of historical significance. Believers in Earth mysteries generally consider certain locations to be "sacred", or that certain spiritual "energies" may be active at those locations. The term "alternative archaeology" has also been used to describe the study of Earth mystery beliefs. The study of ley lines originates in the 1920s with Alfred Watkins. The term "Earth mysteries" for this field of interest was coined about 1970 in The Ley Hunter journal, and the associated concepts have been embraced and reinvented by movements such as the New Age Movement and modern paganism during the 1970s to 1980s. Some New Age believers engage in travel to locations they consider important according to their beliefs; for example, Stonehenge is a popular destination among New Age seekers. For those of us who are over run by our curiosities this just might be the video in which you are introduced to life forms of all different <a href="https://rumble.com/v35xud-new-ancient-croc-species.html" target="_blank">species</a> that by human standards are over all hazardous and dangerous, to say the least. Somehow, nature has made these specs of life in such manner to withstand abnormal surroundings. Take a look as this video is sure to broaden your horizons!

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.

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!

How the night sky tricks our brains!