Awesome Learning

Bees are an important part of our ecosystem, pollinating the plants that give us food and making their own delicious honey. Ze Frank explains how intelligent these insects are despite their tiny brains. They not only know how to make perfect hexagons for their hives, they can be trained to solve puzzles and simple math problems when motivated.

We all know about movie sets and theme parks. But throughout history, fake cities have existed and still exist all over the world. They often occupy acres of space, many with elaborate structures and roads, but are purpose-built for testing, deception, or distraction. YouTuber Stewart Hicks breaks down the different types of these bizarre locations.

Like most longstanding structures, the New York City Subway is an urban Ship of Theseus, gradually expanded and reshaped over the last 120 years. This evolution inevitably led to several once coveted corridors and tunnels being rendered obsolete. It’s History takes us through some of these forgotten paths and the stories behind them.

Mind The Map discusses the fake bus stops outside several senior homes in Germany. Supposedly, they have prevented patients with dementia from wandering off and getting lost should they happen to escape. It seems like a simple ruse, but the longer we think about it, the more we are met by a novel’s worth of metaphors and meanings.

xckd takes on another ridiculous hypothetical question: “What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?” While it probably won’t kill you the second you dive into a tank filled with spent nuclear fuel rods, it’s not something we would recommend. Also, we can’t believe somebody actually has that as a job.

NileBlue wanted to recreate grapples: apples that taste like grapes. You’d think it would be a complicated process involving genetics and plant breeding, but it turns out to be a hilariously simple task. We’re not going to spoil it, but the video ends up explaining why grapples are not around anymore and why you shouldn’t try making your own.

“And we said nay, we are but men.” Polyphonic’s April Fools’ video is only partly silly. In it, he explores the references, metaphors, and themes in Tenacious D’s seminal song Tribute. It’s a surprisingly rich dive with lots of interesting trivia. It ends with a pragmatic reflection on chasing perfection versus finding fulfillment in the act of creation itself.

As we’ve learned before, shrimp can be fascinating creatures. Nature show host Ze Frank takes another look at these weird crustaceans to teach us about some unusual adaptations they have developed. From their jumble of gangly legs to their food-specific pincers to their camouflage abilities, each attribute helps them survive and thrive.

You probably know that Nintendo came up with the A and B buttons in video game controllers. But did you know that they were not the first to use Start and Select? Or that we have Sega to thank for the ergonomics of the Xbox controller layout? Learn all that and more from YouTuber Lextorias’ deep dive into the origins of video game controller buttons.

Animals come in all shapes and sizes. In this video from Posit Pixel, they use pixel art to describe some of the extremes of the animal kingdom, from diminutive parasitic wasps to a 42-foot-long snake. Along the way, you’ll learn about a fingernail-sized frog and Quetzalcoatlus, an extinct flying animal with a wingspan as big as a single-engine airplane.

Accented Cinema neatly sums up the fundamental difference between Godzilla films: “American Godzilla is about Godzilla; Japanese Godzilla is about Life.” Giant monsters beating the crap out of each other can indeed make for a fun movie. But Japan’s Godzilla films show that the kaiju’s ultimate power is helping people reflect on real-world catastrophes.

From A to Z, every letter in the English language has a story behind its shape. Language expert Olly Richards digs into the origins of all 26 letters we use today, including how “E” started as a little dude with his hands in the air and how “H” was a fence flipped on its side.

There are a few items you should always carry in your pack when camping or hiking, among them a multitool, duct tape, a firestarter, and paracord. Bryan Lynch’s book offers 60 projects that can help you survive, along with creative ways to carry paracord wrapped around tools, worn as a bracelet, or woven into a pouch, and more.

TED-Ed Animations shared this enlightening illustrated overview of how coffee spread and affected societies, cultures, and places all over the world. Learn about the first farms in Ethiopia in the 14th century, the first coffeehouses in London in the 17th century, the rise of coffee breaks in the US in the 50s, and more.

For over 40 years, legendary music producer Rick Rubin has been helping a diverse array of artists create their seminal and most significant works. The Creative Act: A Way of Being sees Rubin share his observations on creativity and how being creative isn’t about what you make but how you see the world.

We’ve heard the phrase “singing sands” but never really knew what it meant. James from Atomic Frontier headed to Australia to explore why some sand makes a squeaking noise when you walk on it. After putting some of the rare squeaky sand beneath a microscope, he explains how sand dune can make a much larger sound under the right conditions.

If you browse YouTube regularly, you might have noticed certain trends and similarities between the most popular videos, from how their titles and thumbnails are presented to their duration. MinuteEarth explores this convergence and how video creators adapting to algorithms works kind of like animal evolution.

The Paint Explainer made a concise explanation of the various tricks that businesses, ads, and marketing agencies use to convince us to purchase or remember their wares. Many of these terms describe understandable practices, but many are infuriatingly deceptive and manipulative.

Astrophysicists estimate that our universe came into existence roughly 14 billion years ago, and it’s been expanding ever since. Kurzgesagt ponders the question whether the universe is truly infinite if it keeps growing, or if it has an edge somewhere that we just can’t see.

Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animal because they spread diseases like malaria and dengue. Scientists have developed a fascinating way to reduce this threat – infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia, a bacteria that limits mosquitoes’ ability to carry other diseases. To jumpstart the process, they’re releasing millions of infected bugs. AsapSCIENCE explains.

We always thought about time in very linear terms. However, scientists have theorized that the past, present, and future simultaneously exist. Kurzgesagt explores the theory that the entire history of the universe has already happened, and we’re just experiencing our tiny sliver of it. Warning: your brain might hurt after watching this.

Insects are weird, so we’re not surprised by some of the strange things we learned about butterflies and moths in this video from Ze Frank. Lepidoptera are attractive prey for birds, reptiles, wasps, and other animals. To help survive against these threats, these insects have evolved defenses, including unpredictable flight patterns, toxins, and mimicry.

Captain Disillusion’s latest educational video about video explains how the speed and way a shutter opens and closes affects still and moving images. You’ll learn how shutters work in film cameras, CCD camcorder sensors, and modern CMOS-based digital cameras. Plus, why rolling shutters cause image distortion and the tech that can minimize it.