Awesome Science

SciShow offers up a brief, yet informative look at nature’s electric fury. Learn what conditions make lightning occur, and the differences between some of the various types of lightning that we experience here on our planet, some of which most of us have never seen.

Chemistry teacher Andy Brunning’s website is packed with amazing scientific infographics which educate and entertain. The charts explain everything from the composition of spirits, foods, and products, to the origins of element names. Be sure to check out Andy’s book too!

Maker johnnyq90 was playing around with a ceramic bearing and compressed air to see how fast he could make it spin, when he discovered something pretty awesome. As the bearing approaches extreme speeds, some phenomenon causes it to glow.

Artists Prokop Bartoníček & Benjamin Maus created Jller, a fascinating machine that is capable of automatically identifying the geologic age of individual stones, then sorting and organizing them according to their era. Its slow and methodical approach is hypnotic.

The theremin is one of the strangest musical instruments of all time. SciShow takes us inside the process that lets you play this retrofantastic electronic instrument without ever touching it. It’s all about using your body as part of a giant capacitor.

The King of Random, Grant Thompson conducts a simple experiment to see what happens if you pour liquid nitrogen into a balloon, with an explosive result. We’re just surprised that he wasn’t wearing protective gloves to handle this ridiculously cold stuff.

Practical Engineering shows off a construction technique called Mechanically Stabilized Earth to strengthen material that would normally crumble under even the slightest of weight. The trick is adding thin, stiff layers like screen to confine the loose grains of sand.

Life Noggin explains how despite our brains’ best efforts to only believe inputs from our sensory organs like eyes, ears, nose and skin, that things can go wrong causing us to see and hear things that weren’t actually there. Also, we can now use “fusiform gyrus” in a sentence.

Amazing first-person footage of the Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft as it makes its way through Earth’s atmosphere and safely lands on the ground 339,178 feet below. We loved hearing all the sounds it makes on its journey. See just how fast it was coming in here.

CrazyRussianHacker demonstrates a cool science experiment which uses a glass water bottle coated with a small amount of isopropyl alcohol to create a totally cool flame which travels down the walls of the bottle. Kids, don’t try this at home.

E-commerce platform Shopify digs into the science and psychology which drives us to blow off work and not get things done, and even though we might think you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, there is hope for chronic dilly-dalliers.

AsapSCIENCE looks at one of life’s many imponderables… when you let one rip, is it possible to get out of the way fast enough that you neither hear nor smell it? We all know we can’t run at the speed of sound, but what’s the speed of stench?

While he was hanging out at the pool with The Backyard Scientist, engineer and YouTube celeb Mark Rober conducted a scientific experiment which demonstrates whether it’s better to be underwater or on land to escape a grenade blast. The results might surprise you.

The Backyard Scientist continues his literally and figuratively sloppy experiments by “testing” oobleck (cornstarch mixed with water). Like ketchup, quicksand and silly putty, oobleck is a Non-Newtonian fluid. It flows like a liquid but behaves differently when force is applied to it.

It used to be that most airplane wings were straight, but it turns out the design caused instability as flight speeds increased. Real Engineering takes a look at the science behind the swept wing design which is commonplace on today’s planes. Learn more here.

A brief demonstration of what happens when you submerge a styrofoam cup in acetone. The solvent properties of the acetone dissolves the polystyrene and the cup vanishes into a pile of goo. One commenter pointed out this chilling reference from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Applied Science takes a look at an intriguing bit of tech that uses piezoelectric waves to move objects. This allows for low-profile, hubless, magnet-free motors and theoretically could create motors which aren’t round. The motor shown in the demo is from PCBMotors.

Destin of Smarter Every Day shows off a fascinating technology which allows magnetic fields to be printed into custom configurations. With this tech, engineers at Polymagnets can now “program” magnets that do exactly what they want them to do.

A demonstration of just how intense the heat of the Sun can be when concentrated through a fresnel lens. It takes less than a minute to turn what was once a solid metal penny into a molten pile of goo. Also, we’ve just subscribed to Let’s Melt This.

Kurzgesagt looks at the problem that science has created with the very cure that has saved millions of lives. The widespread use of antibiotics is resulting in evolutionary changes that are creating antibiotic resistant “superbugs.”

(PG-13: Language) Folding paper in half exponentially increases its strength. At seven folds, it’s as thick as 128 sheets of paper. You can go beyond seven if you use a really long sheet, but Hydraulic Press Channel tried it with a small piece – with unexpected results.

After teasing us with a tiny bit of video of his explosive experiment with molten salt poured into water, The Backyard Scientist walks us through what he did to facilitate the destructive blast, and ultimately concludes that it’s strictly a thermal reaction, and not a chemical one.

The Backyard Scientist shows off what happens when salt is melted (at ~1400ºF) and then poured into in an aquarium filled with room temperature water. The end result is a shockingly big boom that sends glass and water flying everywhere. (Thanks Paul!)