Awesome Biology

Everything you experience in life results from your brain doing massive amounts of data processing from your eyes, ears, nose, and other body parts. Kurzgesagt explores the wonderful world of human perception. It’s incredible how our minds rapidly edit together information and fill in the blanks using memories and predictions to create our realities.

When you think about how small insects are, it’s pretty amazing that they can fly around when they’re being pelted with raindrops. The PBS series Be Smart explores the amazing biological adaptations that allow bugs to handle a downpour and not come crashing to the ground when the rain hits.

Most science fiction would have us believe that aliens look like animals we might find on Earth, with features like eyes, ears, arms, and legs. But there’s a good chance creatures on other planets would be unrecognizable to us. Kurzgesagt digs into this imponderable and provides some thoughts on what alien life might look like on three very different planets.

Do you suffer from allergies? From flowers to shellfish, our bodies can react with anything from a sneeze to anaphylactic shock. Kurzgesagt digs into what causes our bodies to reject things that seem like they should be totally harmless. It’s an unexpected explanation, but it may be a remnant of how our bodies evolved to fight off parasitic worms.

Our planet is teeming with life on its surface and in its oceans, but did you know that some organisms live beneath the Earth’s crust? Kurzgesagt drills deep to explore some of the microbes and other life forms that thrive in the world’s most inhospitable environments. Scientists are just beginning to understand what’s going on in the deep biosphere.

Ever wondered why cats have vertically elongated pupils, while their bigger cousins like lions and tigers have round ones? Or why geckos seem to have multiple round pupils? What about the W-shaped ones on cuttlefish? And what is up with those creepy goat eyes? Wondrous Walk explains the perks of different pupil shapes in this fascinating video.

The way you feel when you have a fever can really suck. But our bodies are doing some very important things by raising our temperature when we’re sick. Kurzgesagt explains why we get fevers and how they help fight off infections. Along the way, they explore the pros and cons of suppressing fevers with medicine.

Many spiders are harmless and even helpful, but you don’t want to mess with a black widow. That didn’t stop The Action Lab from getting up close with one of these venomous arachnids to test whether their web-spinning silk is as strong as steel or if that’s just a myth. Today, we learned that spiders produce different kinds of silk depending on their needs.

If you’re like us, you’ve probably tried to lose weight at some point. It’s never easy to shed those pounds, and it can be frustrating to work out so much and hit a plateau. Kurzgesagt explores the science of weight loss and the way our bodies burn energy. Bottom line: cutting your food intake is critical for dropping weight, while exercise is for your overall health.

Plants need to spread their seeds to procreate. While some rely on birds or the wind, others use explosive force to send seeds flying. Ze Frank explores a variety of plants that blow their tops and shoot their pollen, spores, and seeds. It’s fascinating to see how they store the mechanical energy needed to explode.

The biggest spiderwebs we’ve encountered are a few feet across. BBC Earth introduces us to the Darwin’s bark spider, an orb-weaver that can shoot bridging lines for webs up to 25 meters (82 feet) across. That’s not the only extraordinary fact—this spider’s silk is also regarded as the world’s strongest natural fiber.

Thanks to their sturdy exoskeletons, claws, and ability to regenerate limbs, crustaceans are some of the most interesting animals on Earth. TierZoo takes an in-depth look at these hard-shelled arthropods and stacks up the offenses, defenses, and other abilities of these crusty creatures, from the lowly barnacle to the mighty mantis shrimp.

Cheese can get its flavor from flavor from things like bacteria or mold. But if you enjoy the lemony flavor of French Mimolette or German Milbenkäse cheese, you’ve enjoyed a little bonus protein in the form of cheese mites. Journey to the Microcosmos explains how these tiny organisms add flavor to these cheeses.

Nature can be truly amazing, bestowing creatures with all kinds of wondrous capabilities to help them survive and thrive. Ze Frank looks at creatures with superpowers like transparency, squeezing prey to death, and the ability to sling slime.

Journey to the Microcosmos explores whether it is possible for microorganisms to spontaneously generate out of thin air. With the help of a powerful microscope and modern scientific knowledge, host Hank Green explains what’s really going on when microscopic organisms seem to show up where there was no life before.

Scientists estimate that life began on Earth about 3.7 billion years ago. But it’s quite plausible that life existed before this, shortly after the Big Bang created the universe. Kurzgesagt explains why this might have been possible and what sort of life forms might have been cooking in the universe’s primordial soup.