Awesome Kurzgesagt

Kurzgesagt explores string theory, and how it attempts to explain the nature of the universe. It’s supposed to solve the incompatibilities between quantum and gravitational physics by describing particles as “strings” rather than points. Yeah, we’re still confused.

“Faith can move mountains, but sugar water can’t cure cancer.” Kurzgesagt explains the basics and origins of homeopathy. It’s often touted as an alternative to expensive treatments, even though it often does nothing except make you think it’s doing something.

Kurzgesagt sums up the Great Filter – a possible answer to why we’ve never detected the presence of aliens. It could be something that prevents life from developing. Or something that ends civilizations before they have a chance to expand beyond their planet.

There is growing evidence that giving citizens (or at least the poor) a stipend will make people healthier and happier without tanking the economy or productivity. But it can also be abused – not just by lazy or entitled individuals, but by governments and businesses as well.

Kurzgesagt teamed up with CGPGrey to explore the moral, ethical, and practical concerns about our longevity as humans, and whether being able to control our mortality is a good or a bad thing. Be sure to watch the second part here.

It’s a nasty thought, but our bodies are teeming with billions of bacteria all of the time. At times, these microbes are helpful partners, doing things like digesting food, and at other times, they want to kill us. Kurzgesagt explores the delicate balance of the human microbiome.

Kurzgesagt explores the crazy notion that perhaps what we’re experiencing isn’t real at all, and that we’re all part of a massive simulation in some ultra-powerful computer system. Vsauce 3 has their own take on the thought experiment here.

Kurzgesagt’s latest thought experiment explores what might happen to us if we somehow managed to load up bits of the Sun brought them right here to Earth. Depending on which part you captured, it could simply vanish, or destroy life as we know it.

Kurzgesagt simplifies two thought experiments stemming from black holes. The universe being a “hologram” is too literal though. Saying that you can describe a cube by drawing a cube is not the same as saying that a cube is indistinguishable from a drawing of a cube.

Kurzgesagt kicks off a multi-part lesson that explains how an organism’s size drastically affects its evolution. For instance, droplets of water could be lethal to insects. So some of them evolved to repel even tiny particles of water.

Kurzgesagt turns self-referential in its latest clip, exploring their own tendency to create videos about bad things that may someday befall our universe, but still managing to have a positive outlook on humanity.

Automation has been around for centuries, but the rise of machine learning has led to new industries that need relatively few people to operate. As Kurzgesagt and many others have pointed out, this is an unsustainable trend that needs to be answered swiftly.

They sound cute and cuddly, but the white dwarfs that Kurzgesagt is talking about here will be the last bastions of light and energy in the universe as our universe eventually expires. These highly dense objects are basically the remnants of stars after they burn out.

Kurzgesagt sums up the basics of genetically modified organisms or GMOs. Technically, we’ve been modifying the genes of plants and animals for thousands of years, from corn to dogs. GMOs are powerful tools – it’s how and why we wield them that matters.

Many scientists believe that the future of humanity lies somewhere outside of Earth. It’s just that escaping from our planet is literally rocket science. Kurzgesagt, that crying duck got to us harder than you probably thought it would.

…or rather, debunked. Kurzgesagt, Our World in Data and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation point out that nightmare scenarios involving global overpopulation are unlikely, and that human population will likely never exceed 12 billion.

Kurzgesagt talks about Neglected Tropical Diseases or NTDs. These communicable diseases affect over a billion people in 149 countries, mainly indigents living in remote areas. Fortunately, we have shown that we can eradicate NTDs by working together.

“Imagine it like setting a sea of gasoline the size of the universe on fire.” Kurzgesagt sums up vacuum decay, a theoretical catastrophe that would wipe out the universe at the speed of light and reconfigure it into a state where life as we know it would be impossible.

Kurzgesagt presents a vexing conundrum. Scientists have created genetically-engineered mosquitoes that are immune to the microorganisms that create malaria. But we don’t know if letting these “newsquitoes” loose has dire consequences.

Kurzgesagt takes a look at what seems like science fiction, but could quite possibly revolutionize the world. With the ability to manipulate genes, we could create just about anything we want, from made to order babies, to better foods, to the fountain of youth.

Kurzgesagt’s happy little video looks at the science of Gamma Ray bursts, and how these extraordinarily powerful beams of energy that are capable of ripping apart the very atomic bonds that keep together everything in our universe, including all life on Earth.

Kurzgesagt lists the major breakthroughs that have taken humans to this point. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that we all benefit when we communicate, cooperate, and preserve and share knowledge, not when we deceive, enslave or censor each other.

Kurzgesagt mulls the Ship of Theseus, a paradox that asks whether an object – in this case, the human body – is still the same if you gradually replace all of its parts. And how many of your parts can be removed before you’re no longer you?