Awesome Kurzgesagt

Sending cargo and ships into space is extremely expensive and resource-intensive. But there’s an idea that’s been bandied about that would use endlessly-moving tethers to catapult ships into space from Earth’s orbit. Kurzgesagt explains how this relatively simple concept could dramatically improve space travel.

If you find space science fascinating, check out this clip from Kurzgesagt, in which they explain how neutron stars work. These phenomena may only be a few kilometers in diameter, but have an insanely dense atomic nucleus and powerful gravity, thanks to their origins as massive stars which have collapsed and gone supernova.

It’s a terrifying thought, but in the interest of keeping us educated about the dangers of nuclear weapons, Kurzgesagt is here to teach us just how awful it would be if humans ever were ever to detonate a nuclear weapon in a city. Even worse, we actually did this to people back in WWII.

“There are more phages on Earth than every other organism combined.” Kurzgesagt takes a few minutes to educate us on the finer points of the bacteriophage, a type of virus which is constantly killing off billions of microscopic organisms all around and inside of us.

Kurzgesagt already taught us how ants thrive on war. But it turns out that one particular ant species has used their fighting and strategic skills (with a little help from humans) to build a truly global empire. We wouldn’t doubt if their numbers were actually in the trillions.

For as much as we think of our planet as good old terra firma, there is so much more to be seen and explored at the beneath the surface of our oceans. Kurzgesagt takes us on a deep sea journey to learn about some of the many species that dwell in the darkest waters.

The typically informative Kurzgesagt takes a break from fact to present a work of animated fiction. Based on an original short story by Andy Weir, The Egg is a hopeful tale of what might happen after we leave our bodies behind, and how we are all interconnected in a way.

Kurzgesagt asks some of the most difficult questions that will become exponentially more relevant in the years to come. Do robots deserve rights? Would they even need or want the same rights that humans have?

Think that humans fight and kill a lot? Kurzgesagt aims its magnifying glass at the tiny world of ant colonies, where billions of the bugs violently battle against other kinds of ants and insects every single day of their lives. From decapitations to cannibalism, life as an ant can be brutal.

Kurzgesagt once again dives deep within our bodies, this time to explore the complement system, a part of our immune system which can activate to help defend us from disease, but that also needs to be kept in check to keep from destroying us from the inside.

There’s been a long-held concern that the electromagnetic radiation that emanate from cell phones, power lines, and other devices could cause harm to our bodies. But is there any truth to this concern? Kurzgesagt attempts to separate the fact from fiction in this controvertial topic.

You might think that mammals always ate meat, but it turns out it was an evolutionary necessity due to changes in Earth’s climate. Kurzgesagt explores whether or not this change in our diets was actually good for us, or if eating meat truly has a negative impact on our health.

Kurzgesagt takes on one of the most bizarre and terrifying objects in the universe: neutron stars. Formed when certain giant stars collapse, neutron stars are made of strange matter, which are theoretically “perfectly stable.” And that’s where Physics and English disagree.

Another day, another happy thought about the end of the world from the guys at Kurzgesagt, as they asked scientists to put on their thinking caps about what might happen if we gathered up the approximately 15,000 known nuclear bombs and blew them all up at once.

We often feature videos from Kurzgesagt. Like many of you, we take what they say at face value. But it’s always smart to question things. Now, the channel offers insight into their research and writing process, admitting to mistakes and biases along the way.

Kurzgesagt takes a break from its lesssons on theoretical science to focus on something a little closer to home – the sense of feeling alone or disconnected from people, a sociological problem that’s been disturbingly on the rise as the world has modernized.