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Awesome Science

Can You Blow Your Own Sail? and Other Physics Questions

Can You Blow Your Own Sail? and Other Physics Questions

If you put a powerful fan on a boat and blew it at its sail, would the boat move? Engineer Mark Rober channels Mr. Wizard with a series of experiments and easy-to-understand explanations of this and six other perplexing physics questions. He also debunks a viral video along the way.

The Infinite Universe Paradox

The Infinite Universe Paradox

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.

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How to Stop Mosquitoes from Spreading Diseases

How to Stop Mosquitoes from Spreading Diseases

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.

If You Could Throw a Baseball Near Light Speed

If You Could Throw a Baseball Near Light Speed

Imagine, for a moment, that it was possible to pitch a baseball at 90% of the speed of light. Not only would you easily eliminate the batter, but there would be other major consequences according to this hypothetical physics exploration by the mighty Randall Munroe of xkcd. Weapons makers, don’t get any funny ideas.

Visualizing Every Earthquake Over Time

Visualizing Every Earthquake Over Time

According to the National Earthquake Information Center, there are roughly 20,000 earthquakes around the Earth every year. This fascinating animation from the NOAA, NWS, and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shows every earthquake and tsunami recorded from January 1901 through December 2020. There’s also a spherical version that ends in 2000.

Throwing a Ball on Other Planets

Throwing a Ball on Other Planets

Have you ever wondered how the gravity on different planets might affect your ability to throw a ball? Dr. James O’Donoghue created this infographic that explores how far and high you could toss a ball, assuming no air resistance. Basically, on Mars, Mercury, and Pluto, you could hit a home run without a baseball bat.

Facts About Time

Facts About Time

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.

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True Facts: Animal Superpowers

True Facts: Animal Superpowers

Nature can be truly amazing, bestowing creatures with all kinds of wondrous capabilities to help them survive and thrive. Ze Frank looks at creatures with superpowers like transparency, squeezing prey to death, and the ability to sling slime.

Making a Vacuum-powered Dragster

Making a Vacuum-powered Dragster

Using large syringes, Tom Stanton shows us how the vacuum captured inside can be used to drive gears, a belt, and an axle. The result is a mini dragster that travels an impressive distance compared to the short distance that the syringe’s piston moves.

Can Life Appear Out of Nowhere?

Can Life Appear Out of Nowhere?

Journey to the Microcosmos explores whether it is possible for microorganisms to spontaneously generate out of thin air. With the help of a powerful microscope and modern scientific knowledge, host Hank Green explains what’s really going on when microscopic organisms seem to show up where there was no life before.

A Brief History of Batteries

A Brief History of Batteries

We rely on batteries to power everything from our watches to our phones to our vehicles. But where did batteries come from, and who invented them? Origins explores the history of batteries and their evolution since 1799. Along the way, you learn we don’t see “B” cell batteries and what frog legs and torpedo fish have to do with it all.

The Earth in One Day

The Earth in One Day

Imagine, if you will, that the entire 4.5 billion year history of the Earth was collapsed down to a 24-hour single day. Bright Side’s educational video does just that, taking significant events in the development of our world and giving us a relative sense of how closely together they played out.

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Simulating Evolution in Video Games

Simulating Evolution in Video Games

Video games have been simulating way that organisms thrive, evolve, and die ever since 1970 with John Conway’s, Game of Life. Over the years, simulations have become far more sophisticated but don’t always produce realistic results. Curious Archive looks at the strange evolution of games that simulate life.

How Spiders Fly

How Spiders Fly

Despite their lack of wings, spiders can actually take flight. This video from the University of Bristol video explains a process called ballooning, in which spiders take advantage of static electrical charges and wind currents to carry silk – and their bodies – through the air.

Comparing Microscopic Things on a Human Scale

Comparing Microscopic Things on a Human Scale

When you think about something being microscopic, it all seems the same size from our perspective. But this video from RED SIDE cleverly demonstrates the vast differences in the size of things we can’t see with the naked eye, from the tiniest atom to the relatively gargantuan amoeba. Also, there are way too many viruses.

How an Assassin’s Teapot Works

How an Assassin’s Teapot Works

An assassin’s teapot is a trick vessel that was designed to let its user serve a safe drink to themselves and a deadly one to their victim. And while you should never do such a thing, it’s fascinating to see how one works. Science educator Steve Mould shows us the physics at work, and inspired us to use one of these to serve drinks at cocktail parties.

Magnetic Accelerators

Magnetic Accelerators

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.

The Tiny Creatures That Live in Puddles

The Tiny Creatures That Live in Puddles

After a series of heavy downpours this week, our neighborhood has lots of puddles. In a couple of days, these stagnant pools of water will be teeming with minuscule creatures. Journey to the Microcosm gets us up close and personal with some of these tiny organisms through the optics of high-power microscopes.

Are We All Related?

Are We All Related?

When you think about how the whole six degrees of separation thing, it’s not a stretch to imagine that we’re all related in one way or another. It’s Okay to Be Smart explores the mathematical and genealogical complexities of our ancestral connections.

Ink-Powered Leaf Boats

Ink-Powered Leaf Boats

Did you know that putting ink from a ballpoint pen on the tail of a leaf turns it into a tiny, self-propelled boat? Science educator Steve Mould digs into this phenomenon and explores the chemistry and physics at work to make these leaf boats move and leave a trail of ink on the surface.

Metric Paper & Everything in the Universe

Metric Paper & Everything in the Universe

Unlike US paper sizes, metric paper sizes like A3 and A4 can be folded into quarters to make smaller standard size sheets. CGP Grey explains the satisfying math of this paper sizing standard, then zooms in and out to see how it relates to the exponential nature of the universe.

The Dark Side of Bioengineering

The Dark Side of Bioengineering

Kurzgesagt has a long history of exploring existential threats. Like many revolutionary changes, biotechnology can be used to improve civilization or bring it to its knees. In this video, they talk about how rapid advancements could wipe us all out by engineering an unstoppable virus, then propose some things we could do to limit those risks.

Can a Water Umbrella Keep You Dry?

Can a Water Umbrella Keep You Dry?

If you stand under an umbrella-shaped fountain, you can stay dry from the water over your head. But the idea of an umbrella made out of water seems ridiculous. James from The Action Lab tested the idea to see if the laminar flow of water coming from the umbrella would deflect raindrops away, or if they’d still get wet.

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