Awesome Science

It happens to all of us. You get a bottle of ketchup and you can’t get it to come out at all. Then you slap the bottle hard and it pours out all over the table. TEDucator George Zaidan explains the physics behind ketchup’s bad behavior.

YouTuber spumwack uses the simple graphics and programmable physics of Minecraft to better explain some of the complicated concepts of light speed. Like any good physics video he takes time to make us feel incredibly insignificant too.

Derek Muller from Veritasium show off how you can easily lift a 42 pound weight at the end of a metal rod, thanks to the wonders of gyroscopic precession. If only everything we ever had to lift was spinning at 2500 RPM. More here.

In this animated TED-Ed lesson, Rose Eveleth walks us through the physiology that make things seem spicy. Interestingly enough, it’s not a taste, but an aversion reaction to perceived heat. Say it with us, now: “polymodal nociceptors!”

A fascinating look at the Leidenfrost effect, in which heated water droplets move towards each other and coalesce, as well as scenarios in which water droplets can actually climb uphill, or even be self-propelled along a pre-arranged path.

Vsauce explores the complex science of human vision, our ability to distinguish fine details, and when the gadget megapixel/pixel density war stops mattering. And at the end of the video, Michael starts to sound a bit like Rust Cohle.

What if I told you that the image above was shot on Earth? You’d probably believe us because it’s not that crazy. Video footage of the Morpheus vehicle’s successful test flight and landing at the Kennedy Space Center on the other hand is.

Want to know why we tear up? Educator Alex Gendler and TED-Ed’s animators explain not only what makes us cry, but how we have different kinds of tears for different situations. And here we thought that onions just made us sad.

There’s something oddly satisfying about watching this red hot nickel ball sear its way through a stack of DVDs. If only we had thought of this when AOL used to spam us with all those stupid compact discs.

What’s most fascinating about this clips isn’t the footage of the flies fighting in slow motion, it’s that there’s something called “Substance P” that could be used to decrease (or increase) aggression in humans. Supervillains, get cracking.

This brief demonstration of Lenz’s law shows how the magnetic field created by currents in this large copper tube resists the magnetic field of a falling neodymium magnet, causing it to drop in what seems like slow motion.

Probably not the happiest video you’ll watch today, Kurzgesagt provides an animated explanation of some of the possible ways our universe will ultimately meet its demise. The good news is that it’s all theoretical.

SkyNet sounds more and more possible as autonomous robots could take the place of humans on the battlefield. The Verge takes a look at the fascinating ethical and scientific debate behind letting robots do our dirty work.

It’s a simple head of a match that’s been set ablaze, but the way it acts when recorded at 4,000 frames-per-second makes it look like the surface of a planet which has spontaneously caught on fire and then collapsed upon itself.

Time-lapse footage of one of nature’s more unusual and somewhat disgusting processes, as a giant spider crab discards its old shell to make way for a new one to grow. Jump to 0:53 in the video for the big reveal.

CGP Grey starts out by messing with our heads, then moves on to explore the idea of the “nocebo effect” – a psychological effect which makes people experience pain, discomfort and other symptoms from non-existent causes.

Scientists have uncovered some fascinating behaviors of ant colonies. When poured through a funnel, they act as a liquid, moving around each other – but when picked up or pushed down they become a sort of solid, clinging to each other.

We never thought too literally about the iron in our diets, until the Crazy Russian Hacker did this experiment, in which he uses a magnet to extract the tiny metal filings found in breakfast cereal. Yes, this has been going on for a long time folks.

Professor Dan Burns uses a sheet of spandex, some bearings, marbles and weights to demonstrate the basic principles of gravity, and how planetary orbits were established. It’s how to play with the fabric of space, literally.

Engineering prodigy Wesley Sousa proves that it doesn’t take fancy equipment to demonstrate ingenuity. Using wood and plastic tubing, he built a functional model of an excavator arm, which uses syringes in place of hydraulic machinery.

Dramatic video captured this past weekend as Italy’s Mount Etna erupted, showering nearby towns in Sicily with black volcanic ash, and creating a surreal scene that looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

TechRadar explores two handfuls of modern technologies which are both awesome – and potentially deadly. While some of the inventions give us pause, we’re not too worried about being devoured by a swarm of nanobots.

George Zaidan and Charles Morton teach us about biochemistry using a tiny robot factory which illustrates how all living organisms are created from the same basic building blocks. View the full lesson here. Animation by Pew36.