THE BEST Science

Time isn’t as simple as what shows up on your phone’s screen. Erin McCarthy of Mental Floss offers up a number of interesting tidbits about the nature of time, how humans perceive its passage, how space and time relate, and the different ways of measuring time itself.

Everything you’re watching and reading has already happened – even if it was just a few seconds ago. It’s Okay To Be Smart gets really deep with an exploration of how time is relative, and therefore experienced differently for each person depending on their place in the universe.

The average person blinks roughly 28,800 times per day. You might not think a lot could happen during just a single blink, but that’s not the case. Melodysheep’s short film explains some of the millions and millions of events that happen in the universe in the time it takes to blink. They also made us feel really, really small.

Tardigrades may only measure about 0.5mm long, but these teensy water-dwelling critters are some of the toughest organisms known to humankind, having survived exposure to nuclear radiation and the vacuum of space. Zefrank provides an in-depth look at these strange, see-through dudes and what makes them tick.

If you’ve been to the beach, you know the ocean has a distinctive smell. While salt and dead fish are certainly part of the aroma, host Rose Bear Don’t Walk of SciShow explains what’s responsible for the water’s primary aromas, and how those organisms meaningfully impact the Earth’s ecosystem and climate.

In this episode of the List Show from Mental Floss, editor Erin McCarthy talks about seven strange and unusual happenings. From people waking up from comas speaking a foreign language to a massive explosion in the skies over Siberia, not everything that happens is easy to explain by science.

Solo Slow-Mo Guy Gavin Free turned his macro lens towards a piece of lab equipment called an ultrasonic homogenizer, a device that rapidly vibrates to combine liquids. To capture it moving up to 30,000 times per second, he had to get out the big guns, a Phantom V2511 camera to record movements at 170,000 fps.

Filmmaker Seán Doran processed about a week’s worth of data captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to create this awe-inspiring UHD video of the Sun’s activity. Max out the resolution, go full screen, dim the lights, and crank up the audio for a truly hypnotic journey to our Solar System’s number one life-giver.

Cognitive Surplus offers all kinds of great gifts for lovers of science, engineering, nature, and the world around us. We love their festive flasks which feature detailed illustrations with a tactile feel. They’re made from stainless steel with a wide mouth opening, and hold up to 18oz of hot or cold beverages.

Carbon fiber is an amazing material, combining strength and weight efficiency. When set into resin and woven properly, it can be used to build airplanes and cars. But this clip from JPRC shows the dramatic difference in strength that carbon fiber exhibits when its fibers are pulled in a straight line versus tied into a knot.

This series of three jigsaw puzzles come together to form the major anatomical structures of a 5-foot-tall human being. Choose from head, thorax, or abdominal sections, each certified for accuracy by medical illustrator Mesa Schumacher. They make a great gift for biology students, or just anyone interested in science.

If you’ve ever visited one of Disney’s theme parks, you have been tricked. The parks frequently employ an optical illusion known as forced perspective to make structures look bigger or smaller than they actually are. Art of Engineering explains the trickery and why our brains get so easily fooled by it.

Launching a rocket to the Moon isn’t quite as simple as just going straight up and into the sky. Exploring Space provides a great layperson’s explanation of the mechanics at play, starting with an orbit around Earth, a gradual transition to the Moon’s orbit, and descent to the lunar surface. Lear more about orbital mechanics here.

Most airplanes run on some kind of fossil fuel. But physics expert Tom Stanton recently built an airplane that runs entirely on compressed air. The model plane is based on the diaphragm air-powered engine that Tom previously built, and its fuel tank is an ordinary plastic soda bottle.

Volvox (aka “globe algae”) are a genus of bright green algae that like to hang out in freshwater. Now spend a minute living in their world, courtesy of Shigeru Gougi, who shared this amazing footage of the spherical green lifeforms dancing about under the lens of a microscope.

Auroras create some of the most awe-inspiring visuals you can see on our planet. SciFri introduces us to Don Fairbanks, a scientist who has dedicated the last two decades to studying these polar lights. His recent research is focused on how they can impact communications satellites and the Earth’s power grid.

The ability to upload one’s knowledge, experiences and even consciousness into a computer is a frequent concept in science fiction. In this Cyberpunk 2077 inspired episode, Kurzgesagt explores what would be necessary to store and simulate our minds, along with some of the ethical concerns about digitizing humanity.

Conventional wisdom might lead you to believe that the largest living thing on Earth was some kind of whale. But scientists say there’s something much larger, and it’s land-locked in the middle of Utah. Alex Rosenthal of TED-Ed digs into the story of Pando, what caused it to become so enormous, and the risks it now faces.

(Loud) Making a metal sphere usually involves stamping or spinning sheet metal. But this video shows a process where they start out with a shape made out of polygons, then turn it into a sphere by bending the metal with an explosion at its center. We’re not sure of all of the science, but we found a paper on the subject.

A while back, YouTuber Mr. Michal showed off a simple railway he built from coils of wire, batteries, and magnets. Now, he’s back with a much longer and more complex train set that still operates on the same electromagnetic principles. This time, the track measures in at over 20 meters long, or about 66 feet.

Did you know that the chemical energy released by burning a marshmallow can be three times more than an equivalent mass of TNT? MinuteEarth dives into these two very different chemical reactions and explains why marshmallows don’t blow up when ignited.

After watching a video from Plasma Channel which explored the possibilities of levitating objects with electrostatic energy, Mehdi from ElectroBOOM decided to see if he could replicate the experiment. Naturally, it’s not an ElectroBOOM video without delivering a jolt or ten to its host.

Each of our bodies is teeming with trillions of bacteria at any given moment. Thankfully, these microscopic organisms generally work in harmony with our cells. But how did evolution prevent bacteria from becoming as big as a whale? Kurzgesagt explores this question in the latest episode of their Life & Size series.

Nibbling on crushed ice can produce a satisfying and cooling sensation. But we can’t advise doing the same with dry ice. What If explores what kind of terrible things would probably happen to you if you downed a big hunk of the solidified carbon dioxide that likes to maintain a temperature around −109.3 °F.

The opposing forces of magnets can produce a tremendous amount of energy, and can even be used to levitate and move trains along a track. In this clip from Magnetic Games, he demonstrates these physics at work, though on a smaller scale using a bunch off-the-shelf neodymium magnets he got from Supermagnete.

Physics can be so much fun. The Lutetium Project shows how a dropper filled with a mixture of water, alcohol, and dye dripped into an oil bath can create beautiful and unexpected patterns thanks to their differences in surface tension. For more droplet fun, check this out.