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Honeycomb. Strawberries. Flower pods. Some people find these things incredibly scary. We call this extreme fear trypophobia. But why does it exist?

What motivates someone to disguise their race, gender, religion, etc.? Today Danielle explores the complicated history of passing in the United States.

Strange geologic landmarks in the Pacific Northwest are the lingering remains of a mystery that took nearly half a century to solve. These features turned out to be a result one of the most powerful and bizarre episodes in geologic history: this region experienced dozens of major, devastating floods over the course of more than 7,000 years.

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.

In order to understand where hearts came from, we have to go back to the earliest common ancestor of everything that has a heart. It took hundreds of millions of years, and countless different iterations of the same basic structure to lead to the heart that you have today.

Say you’re looking to buy a car. How do you pick the best car for the planet? There’s already a lot to consider when choosing a new ride, and factoring in climate change makes it even trickier. Well we’re here to guide you through it… even if we can’t come to the dealership with you.

We understand why we have first names and how our surnames tie us to our family heritage, but what's the deal with middle names? What's the purpose of a middle name and when did different cultures start using them?

What's the difference between race and ethnicity? Can a person have more than one ethnic identity? Today Danielle explores the history and evolution of different ethnicities that make up America.

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.

As more and more fossil ancestors have been found, our genus has become more and more inclusive, incorporating more members that look less like us, Homo sapiens. By getting to know these other hominins--the ones who came before us--we can start to answer some big questions about what it essentially means to be human.

Blood is one of the most revolutionary features in our evolutionary history. Over hundreds of millions of years, the way in which blood does its job has changed over and over again. As a result, we animals have our familiar red blood. But also blue blood. And purple, and green, and even white.

Why does the government care about race? If we're all more than our race, why is the federal government keeping track of it?

Did you drink milk in school? Congrats, you drank the results of a government subsidy program!

What is culture? Can it even be appropriated? Is there a difference between appreciation and appropriation? Join Danielle in the theoretical minefield!

What really crashed down to Earth in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947? Can we trust the government when they say it was just a weather balloon? Today Danielle looks at the history of alien conspiracies and what they teach us about the legacy of modern warfare, globalization, distrust of the government, and paranoia about foreign invaders.

Clothing is something we have to think about every day, but we don’t always think about how our clothes impact the planet. Fashion designers like Justine Leconte are transforming the industry by creating sustainable, ethical clothing and showing everyone that fashion can be about more than having the latest trends.

Not too long ago, our early human ancestors were under constant threat of attack from predators. And it turns out that this difficult chapter in our history may be responsible for the adaptations that allowed us to become so successful.

Legend has it this monster could take down ships, grab sailors off decks, and create whirlpools. Meet the Kraken in the latest episode of Monstrum from PBS Digital Studios!

Medusa has inspired art for centuries, whether as a symbol of protection or a monster. Explore her literary and cultural history in this episode of Monstrum from PBS Digital Studios. #GreatReadPBS

If you haven't had a chance to play with Microsoft's Kinect, you're missing out on some great video games and some amazing art! The Kinect is a crazy awesome piece of XBox 360 hardware that maps your physical movements onto any screen. Artists of all stripes have embraced the Kinect to create fantastical works of art. Is it Microsoft's greatest contribution to art?

You've probably heard of the risque novel "50 Shades of Grey," now the best selling paperback of all time. But you may not know that it's actually fan fiction! It seems shocking that a fan fiction novel has become so popular, but 50 Shades isn't the first book to break through the fan community boundaries into mainstream culture. Over 100 years ago, Sherlock Holmes spawned a similar phenomenon.

While some people may hear noise, some hear amazing musical genius in the creativity of Dubstep. There is a long history of avant garde musicians and thinkers promoting the concept of noise and non-instrumental sounds as music, much to the horror of their audience. But over the past century, changes in technology and music genres may have changed attitudes to accept these once-fringe music genres.

Everyone is obsessed with the Olympics right now, watching these geniuses push the boundaries of their field. Wait, did we say GENIUSES? Yes! We normally associate the word "genius" with intellectual accomplishments, but athletes are geniuses at pushing their bodies to new heights, making the impossibly difficult seem easy and effortless.

We all know the Mario Brothers. But have you ever stepped back and tried looking at those games from a fresh perspective? They're bananas! There are armored turtles who stand on their hind legs and steal princesses! There are bullets with FACES! We make a case for Mario's inclusion into a canon of art wider than "Video Game": we think Mario is a piece of surrealist art.

Miku Hatsune is a computer generated pop star from Japan who has performed to sell out crowds. Lana Del Rey is a rising singer-performer who has encountered controversy over her alleged authenticity as an artist. IDEA channel raises the question: what does authenticity really mean in the world of popular music?