Awesome Kurzgesagt

What could be more terrifying than a regular volcano? A supervolcano, that’s what. Kurzgesagt explains how these massive ash, lava, and gas-spewing volcanoes form, and what sort of catastrophic consequences they might have on the Earth and its inhabitants for if the planet’s superheated insides erupted.

The Universe is enormous. But here on earth, there’s a seemingly endless universe inhabited by insects, bacteria, plants, microorganisms, molecules, and atoms. Kurzgesagt zooms in beneath our feet for a journey to these tiny worlds among us, using the size of our world as a frame of reference.

There’s a lot of crazy and negative stuff going on in the world these days, but is it really the end times? Kurzgesagt asks the hypothetical question of when the last human might be born by examining population growth, birth rates, and animal extinction rates. But human ingenuity, technology, and space travel are serious wildcards.

Let’s face it. Change is hard. Even if you have solid goals and desires, you might find it difficult to adapt your behaviors to get there. Kurzgesagt explains the physiological reasons that make it hard to change and some practical advice on how to break through when you’re stuck in a rut.

You might feel like you’re standing still right now, but we are always moving. But our place in the universe isn’t absolute. Instead, our location is entirely relative to other objects. Kurzgesagt explores this concept, and how each person, place, and thing has its own point of view for its position and movements.

Every now and then, you might see a story in the news about a “brain-eating amoeba” that turned up somewhere. But is this microscopic organism as terrifying as it sounds, or is it all just hyperbole? Kurzgesagt digs into the true story of the naegleria fowleri, and what it’s likely to do should it enter your body.

We still don’t know if there are other species out there in space, but it certainly seems possible that we’re not the only life forms in the universe. Kurzgesagt goes one step further to explore the possibility that aliens life once roamed the Earth long before the dinosaurs.

Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall envisions what might happen if the Moon came out of its orbit and crashed into the Earth. Kurzegesagt takes a more scientific approach, and explains what might happen if the moon gradually got closer to the Earth, and the big problems we’d experience long before the Moon ever got here.

While we’ve never found evidence of intelligent life outside of our planet, scientists hold out hope that someday we might. Kurzgesagt looks at one particularly dark theory that says other civilizations could be out there and intentionally hiding, ready to eradicate us at the first sign of contact.

Kurzgesagt explores the complex systems at work to help keep our 40 trillion cells alive and well, adapting and facing off countless times each day against foreign organisms teeming inside of our bodies. For a deeper dive, grab a copy of Kurzgesagt founder Phil Dettmer’s new book IMMUNE.

Thanks to movies like Jurassic Park, we have some very specific notions of what dinosaurs looked like. But as Kursgezagt explains, between missing fossils and misinterpreted skeletal reconstructions, it’s quite possible that these prehistoric animals appeared very different than we thought.

While we sit here staring at our screens, a war is being fought all around us. Trillions of microorganisms are battling it out for resources while viruses attack and take over. While it’s was believed that viruses aren’t alive, recent discoveries point to giant viruses that act more like living organisms. Kurzgesagt explains.

Kurzgesagt provides a layperson’s explanation of human immunity, the amazing and complex system that helps keep us alive – and sometimes needs a little help to build a memory against disease. Be sure to check out Kursgesagt’s new book Immune for more on the topic, and keep your eyes peeled for episode 2.

After Kurzgesagt schooled us on how black holes work, we’re ready for some serious space exploration. In this video, the explain the relative sizes of these planet-eating phenomena, from coin-sized primordial black holes to city-sized stellar black holes to our favorite Muse song, Supermassive Black Hole… and beyond.

We’re a long way from reaching the limits of space exploration. But scientists say there is a finite limit to how far future generations of humans will be able to go. Kurzgesagt explains just how much universe there is, and why so much of it is permanently out of our reach.

Because of their power and extreme nature, black holes are some of the most awe-inspiring objects in the universe. Kurzgesagt offers a deep dive into these regions of spacetime and ponders what might happen if their immense gravity got a hold of you. Also, we just learned an awesome new word: spaghettification.