This is a James Webb Space Telescope image of NGC 604, a star-forming region about 2.7 million light-years from Earth. NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI Adi Foord, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. How does […]
Yellowcake is a concentrated form of mined and processed uranium. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, CC BY André O. Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology When most people hear the word uranium, they think of mushroom clouds, Cold War standoffs or the glowing green rods from science fiction. But uranium isn’t just fuel for apocalyptic fears. It’s also […]
In the classic card game War, the higher number wins. Simple enough, right? But in the microbial version, the rules keep changing, and spoiler alert: humanity is losing. In this smart, unsettling, and often darkly hilarious explainer video, PBS’s Reactions dive into the real war happening at the microscopic level: the battle between antibiotics and […]
The shark in ‘Jaws’ became a terrifying icon. Universal Pictures via Getty Images Gareth J. Fraser, University of Florida The summer of 1975 was the summer of “Jaws.” The movie was adapted from a novel by Peter Benchley. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The first blockbuster movie sent waves of panic and […]
In their never-ending quest to answer questions no sane person should ever act on, Randall Munroe of xkcd and Henry Reich of MinutePhysics tackle this extremely normal thought experiment: What if you tried to funnel all of Niagara Falls through a straw? Spoiler: You’d break every law of physics, several international treaties, and eventually, the […]
Every now and then, a school exam delivers not just a test of knowledge, but a work of genius. Case in point: a legendary bonus question reportedly posed on a University of Washington engineering midterm: “Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?” Most students approached it using the scientific method: applying Boyle’s […]
In space, there are four dimensions: length, width, height and time. scaliger/iStock/NASA via Getty Images Plus Rob Coyne, University of Rhode Island About a century ago, scientists were struggling to reconcile what seemed a contradiction in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Published in 1915, and already widely accepted worldwide by physicists and mathematicians, the […]
You might’ve seen xylitol on the back of a gum wrapper and thought, “That’s gotta be a made-up Star Trek element.” But guess what? This oddly named sweetener is the real deal, and it might just be one of the most surprisingly helpful things in your snack drawer. In this new video from SciShow, you’ll […]