Awesome Science

At some point in the distant future, the Sun will exhaust its nuclear energy and gobble up planets as it turns into a red giant. But what might happen if the Sun just flicked off like a switch? xkcd’s What If? shines a light on this frequently-asked question, and offers nine surprising upsides (and one major downside) of living in the darkness on Earth.

For the curious among us, SciShow host Hank Green is here to explain the wonders of fluorescence and phosphorescence. Along the way, you’ll learn why your teeth glow under black light, how different wavelengths of light travel, and how fluorescence has become so important in science and medicine.

Forty Ways to Know a Star breaks the cosmos into bite-sized chunks for easy digestion. Astrophysicist Jillian Scudder delivers 40 star-studded short essays with diagrams and NASA visuals. From the Milky Way to distant nebulae, it’s space science made fun. This 192-page guide is packed with fascinating facts for astro-newbs and astro-nerds alike.

Everything you experience in life results from your brain doing massive amounts of data processing from your eyes, ears, nose, and other body parts. Kurzgesagt explores the wonderful world of human perception. It’s incredible how our minds rapidly edit together information and fill in the blanks using memories and predictions to create our realities.

Turn your smartphone into a powerful microscope with DIPLE 2. This next-gen science gadget offers 25x to 1500x magnification, polarized optics, and illumination for studying biology, minerals, coins, and more. The portable kit includes an adjustable smartphone stand, light sources, and two or four lenses. Available for pre-order on Kickstarter.

Perhaps inspired by Thor, engineer G.E. Leyh of LightningOnDemand created a device that directs a beam of electricity toward a target. After years of waiting for the right capacitors, he built a massive, 240,000-volt version of his Lorentz Plasma Cannon that puts on quite the light show as it blasts targets from 35 feet away.

If you fill a hose with air or water and don’t hold onto it, it flails around wildly. But why is that? Science educator Steve Mould helps us get a grip on the physics of this flailing behavior. Along the way, he examines air tubes, fire hoses, and wacky waving tube men to see what their chaotic dances have in common.

The idea that an object or a human can spontaneously catch fire or explode seems unlikely. Engineer Xyla Foxlin explores the science behind freak fires that seem to come out of nowhere and explains what makes these fiery phenomena possible. While there are stories of people self-igniting, it seems there’s a rational explanation for each of these fires.

If you zoom in closer and closer on an object, you will eventually see individual atoms. Veritasium explains how technology allows us to achieve just that. But it’s not just a matter of magnification – atoms can’t be seen under visible light. Fortunately, scientists figured out how to manipulate electrons to help us observe these building blocks of the universe.

Most science fiction would have us believe that aliens look like animals we might find on Earth, with features like eyes, ears, arms, and legs. But there’s a good chance creatures on other planets would be unrecognizable to us. Kurzgesagt digs into this imponderable and provides some thoughts on what alien life might look like on three very different planets.

Balls are essential – and not just the ones between your legs. This educational video from New Mind delves into the physics of ball bearings and how critical they are to modern life. The rolling efficiency of spheres is unparalleled, making them perfect for all sorts of machines and manufacturing applications.

xkcd’s What If? Answers the question of what it might be like if astronauts installed a swimming pool on the Moon. Our first thought was that the low gravity would make the water float away, but it turns out that you could swim in it just like on Earth, but with a few awesome bonus features. Time to get to work on this, SpaceX.

Cavallini & Co. makes a variety of jigsaw puzzles based on their library of vintage illustrations. This 28″ x 22″, 1000-piece puzzle features a detailed image of a periodic chart of the elements that dates back to the 1950s. It’s a great gift for science geeks, and its tiny numbers and letters make it a challenge to complete. The design is also available as wrapping paper.

Earth faces many existential threats. Melodysheep’s upcoming film fast-forwards into the distant future to imagine how human ingenuity might serve to improve our planets chances of survival. From megacities to off-world colonies on rings encircling the planet, we just might engineer our way to a bright future for millions of years to come.

What’s the best gift? Is it something unique? Expensive? Or just straight up cash? SciShow shares a few studies done on the psychology of gift-giving to share tips that could make your special someone be a happier recipient. And while money is indeed one of the top ideas, there’s a free gift that you should feel free to give as many times as you want.

The product of over 6,000 hours of research, writing, and drawing, Hungry Minds’ The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization covers many “incredible inventions and discoveries throughout human history.” The coffee table book contains 400 pages of text and hand-drawn Medieval-style illustrations to entertain and educate kids and adults alike.