How does your immune system work? - Emma Bryce
Adults ScienceThe immune system is a vast network of cells, tissues, and organs that coordinate your body's defenses against any threats to your health. Without it, you'd be exposed to billions of bacteria, viruses, and toxins that could make something as minor as a paper cut or a seasonal cold fatal. So how does it work? Emma Bryce takes you inside the body to find out.
What are mini brains? - Madeline Lancaster
Adults ScienceShielded by our thick skulls and swaddled in layers of protective tissue, the human brain is extremely difficult to observe in action. Luckily, scientists can use brain organoids - pencil eraser-sized masses of cells that function like human brains but aren't part of an organism - to look closer. How do they do it? And is it ethical? Madeline Lancaster shares how to make a brain in a lab.
Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature?
Adults ScienceAmong living things, the color blue is oddly rare. Blue rocks, blue sky, blue water, sure. But blue animals? They are few and far between. And the ones that do make blue? They make it in some very strange and special ways compared to other colors. In this video, we'll look at some very cool butterflies to help us learn how living things make blue, and why this beautiful hue is so rare in nature.
How do fish make electricity? - Eleanor Nelsen
Adults ScienceNearly 350 species of fish have specialized anatomical structures that generate and detect electrical signals. Underwater, where light is scarce, electrical signals offer ways to communicate, navigate, find, and sometimes stun prey. But how do these fish produce electricity? And why? Eleanor Nelsen illuminates the science behind electric fish.
How long will human impacts last? - David Biello
Adults ScienceImagine aliens land on Earth a million years from now. What will these curious searchers find of us? They will find what geologists, scientists, and other experts are increasingly calling the Anthropocene, or new age of mankind. David Biello explains how the impacts that humans have made have become so pervasive, profound, and permanent that some geologists believe we merit our own epoch.
How does your body know you're full? - Hilary Coller
Adults ScienceHunger claws at your belly. It tugs at your intestines, which begin to writhe, aching to be fed. Being hungry generates a powerful and often unpleasant physical sensation that's almost impossible to ignore. After you've reacted by gorging on your morning pancakes, you start to experience an opposing force: fullness. But how does your body actually know when you're full? Hilary Coller explains.