PBS_ItsOKToBeSmart

Even cells can be selfish.

The amazing legacy of animal cells.

Ocean plastic pollution is a massive environmental problem. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the ocean every year, even plastic that goes in the trash can often ends up in the sea! This week we learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and look at the dangers ocean plastic poses to ocean animals. Plus, a few tips for you to reduce your own plastic use!

The lingerling radiation from the ancient universe still surrounds us to this day.

From fire to food, check out these life-altering reactions that surround us everyday.

A theory of physics 100 years in the making.

The meter is the world’s ultimate measure, but how did it become “the” meter? What is this measurement based on? The story of this revolution in measurement traces its roots to the French Revolution. Scientists decided that an equal and united people should have equal and united measures. So they sent a pair of young astronomers out to measure the world, and invent the meter.

Is the equinox really when day = night, or is that a myth?

It may be an impossible questions, but we can at least get close.

Why do Africa and South America fit together? Anyone who’s ever looked at a map can see that Earth’s continents are kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. The idea that continents are constantly moving and weren’t always in their current spots is a pretty obvious idea, right? You might be surprised to learn that geologists only accepted that idea recently in the past few decades.

One of nature's most amazing recipes.

Epigenetic inheritance is really weird, but is it real?

Is luck real? It might feel like a mystical force tugging us toward good or bad fortune, but it turns out luck is really where probability runs into the human mind. That’s right, there’s a scientific side to luck, and if you study a few principles of math and psychology, you might even be able to create your own good fortune.

Video games are still on the rise. Can you take the heat?

A song of ants and fire… and ant-decapitating flies.

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Of all the species that humans have domesticated, dogs are our oldest animal friends. But how did a group of wolves become the furry pup at the end of the bed? New research is finally unlocking the paw-in-hand evolution of dogs and humans. In this episode we’re answering one big question: Did we domesticate dogs, or did dogs domesticate us?

The future of music is electric.

In part 1 of our special series on human ancestry, we tour through our family tree to meet our ancestors and distant cousins, and to find out what made us human along the way. The story of human ancestry is not a simple progression from primitive apes to us, with all the ape/human intermediates in between. The real human story is much richer and more complex.

Mosquitos have been dangerous for, well... forever. So what's new about Zika?

Vision impairment is common in humans, so why not the rest of the animal kingdom?

Join the #AnythingButPepper movement!

In part 2 of our special series on human ancestry, we ask why we are the only surviving branch on the human evolutionary tree. Just 50,000-100,000 years ago, Earth was home to three or four separate human species, including our most famous cousins: the Neanderthals. New research has shown that Neanderthals were not the brutish, unintelligent cavemen that cartoons make them out to be.

It’s okay to be… small?

No astronauts were harmed in the making of this video.