When evolution favours a stable ratio of traits rather than one dominant trait.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Animation by The Lyosacks: https://www.youtube.com/TheLyosacks

Hosting Neil Degrasse Tyson, info and tickets: http://bit.ly/NDTandVe
Aug. 22 in Sydney
Aug. 23 in Canberra

Special thanks to Richard Dawkins

Filmed at Academia Film Olomouc with help from Martyn Marek

Music by Kevin MacLeod www.incompetech.com 'Marty Gots a Plan' 'Sing Along with Jim'

Cell biology gives clues to why we age and lobsters don't.
I made another video! The future of energy: http://bit.ly/1MAiJKm
Check out Breakthrough, Sundays at 9/8c on Nat Geo with GE #ad

Animations are from Emmy-winning film 'Immortal', reproduced here courtesy of December Media and Genepool Productions (previously Pemberton Films)

Check out Immortal here: http://bit.ly/VeImmortal

Find out more about telomeres and telomerase here: http://bit.ly/WakeTelomeres

Special thanks to Dr. Fiona Ginty, Principal Scientist in the Life Sciences and Molecular Diagnostics Group at GE. Her research focuses on imaging different proteins within the cell. It's both a very powerful technique and it's beautiful.

Filmed by Raquel Nuno and Vasilios Sfinarolakis
Aging makeup by Heather Grippaldi: http://bit.ly/1Xebikh
Music by Kevin MacLeod, www.incompetech.com "Past the Edge" and "Lightless Dawn"

Aerogels are the world's lightest (least dense) solids. They are also excellent thermal insulators and have been used in numerous Mars missions and the Stardust comet particle-return mission. The focus of this video is silica aerogels, though graphene aerogels are now technically the lightest.

At one point Dr. Steven Jones literally held the Guinness World Record for making the lightest aerogel and therefore lightest solid. If you're interested in learning more about aerogels, let me know in the comments as there is a potential trilogy in the works...

Huge thanks to Dr. Stephen Steiner and the crew at Aerogel Technologies. To find out more or buy your own aerogel sample, check out: http://www.aerogeltechnologies.com/

Thanks to Dr. Steven Jones and Dr. Mihail Petkov at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

And thanks to FLIR for loaning us the awesome high definition thermal camera. The footage is amazing! https://www.flir.com

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd, Penward Rhyme and everyone who provided feedback on an early draft of this video.

Filming by Raquel Nuno
Animations by Maria Raykova
Drawings by Mariel Solsberg

Music From http://epidemicsound.com "Seaweed" "Swagger Stagger"

How do you measure big forces accurately? By calibrating your force transducer on the world's biggest weight - 1,000,000 pounds of force. This machine ensures planes don't break apart, jets provide required thrust, and rockets make it to their destination.

Thanks to the people at NIST for showing me around: Rick Seifarth and Ben Stein. Animations here are by Sean Kelley and additional footage by Jennifer Lauren Lee.

Special thanks to Patreon Supporters:
Tony Fadell, Donal Botkin, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Nathan Hansen

Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://ve42.co/patreon

Before visiting NIST in Washington DC I had no idea machines like this existed. Surely there's an accurate way to measure forces without creating such a huge known force?! Nope. This appears to be the best way, with a stack of 20 x 50,000 lb masses creating a maximum force of 4.45 MN or 1,000,000 pounds of force. I also wouldn't have thought about all the corrections that need applying - for example buoyancy subtracts about 125 pounds from the weight of the stack. Plus the local gravitational field strength must be taken into account. And, the gravitational field varies below grade. All of this must be taken into account in order to limit uncertainty to just five parts per million (.0005%)

Music from The Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com "Serene Story 2"

Aerogel has extraordinary properties but it can be tough to work with. This video looks at modifying aerogels to take advantage of their unique characteristics.
Subscribe to Veritasium: https://ve42.co/sub

Huge thanks to Dr. Stephen Steiner and the crew at Aerogel Technologies. To find out more or buy your own aerogel sample, check out: http://www.aerogeltechnologies.com/

Thanks to Dr. Steven Jones and Dr. Mihail Petkov at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

And thanks to FLIR for loaning us the awesome high definition thermal camera. The footage is amazing! https://www.flir.com

Aerogel’s extraordinary properties are due in large part to its structure. Aerogel is a solid but on the nanoscale it has a mesh or sponge-like structure. The struts of this structure are nanoscale, as are the pores at around 20nm across. This makes silica aerogel incredibly light (it was once the lightest solid but has now been superseded by graphene aerogel), transparent and adsorbent.

An ice-cube sized piece of aerogel has an internal surface area roughly equal to half a football field. Aerogel is used in high end museum cases to regulate humidity. Plus it helps maintain the vacuum on the Mars Insight seismometers - it adsorbs moisture and other outgassed volatiles that come from the spacecraft itself. Proposed uses include as a physical insecticide by ‘drying out insects’ reducing the need for chemical and toxic pesticides.

Special thanks to all my Patreon supporters especially those who contributed feedback to an earlier draft of this video:
a human, Albert Jachowicz-Brzeziński, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Brent Stewart, Chris Vargas, Chuck Lauer Vose, Clip Tree, Coale Shifflett, Colin Bellmore, DALE HORNE, Eric Velazquez, Fedor Indutny, Fran Rodriguez, James Wong, Jasper Xin, Joar Wandborg, Johnny, Jorge Angel Sandoval, June Kang, Kevin Beavers, Kishore Tipirneni, Levan Ferr, Listen Money Matters, Manuel Zürcher, Mark Bevilacqua, Mathias Göransson, Michael Bradley Wirz, Michael Krugman, Mohammed Al Sahaf, Nicholas Hastings, OddJosh, Patrick Čalija, Peter Tajti, Philipp Volgger, Roberto Rezende, Robin DeBank, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Swante Scholz, Tiago Bruno, Tige Thorman, Warrior8252

Filmed by Paul Gramaglia

Thumbnail by Ignat Berbeci

Animations by Catherine Chooljian

Music from https://epidemicsound.com “Tonic Zone” “Betelgeuse” “Insidious Mice” “Seaweed” “It’s not that serious” “Platin00m - Sum It”

This is an educational, scientific video.

This is what a nuclear disaster area looks like.
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Broadcast locations and times:

North America: PBS, July 28 & 29 @ 10pm ET / 9pm Central
Europe: ZDF/arte, July 31 @ 10pm
Australia: SBS, August 6, 13, 20 @ 8:30pm EST

Not broadcast in your country? Contact your local broadcaster and/or email www.genepoolproductions.com

Music by Kevin Macleod http://incompetech.com 'Come Play With Me' & 'Lost Frontier'

If you drop a heavy object and a light object simultaneously, which one will reach the ground first? A lot of people will say the heavy object, but what about those who know both will land at the same time? What do they think? Some believe both objects have the same gravitational pull on them and/or both fall to the ground with the same constant speed. Neither of these things is true, however. The force is greater on the heavy object and both objects accelerate at the same rate as they approach the earth, i.e. they both speed up but at the same rate.

On the surface of Earth all objects accelerate downwards at the same rate - at least, they're supposed to. But we all know dust, pieces of paper, and feathers fall slower. This is of course due to the influence of air resistance. In this experiment we use an evacuated cylinder to test whether a coin and feather really do accelerate at the same rate.

In 2020, NASA will send a new rover to the Martian surface with one of its objectives to search for evidence of ancient life on the planet. I made this clip as a correspondent for Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix.

Touring the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena was an awesome experience. I didn't think we were going to get into the control room but we got lucky. Some of the greatest moments in the history of space exploration have taken place there. They have a giant vacuum chamber where they can take the rover down to the atmospheric pressure on Mars (roughly .01x Earth's atmosphere) and test all of the devices to make sure there are no electrical discharges due to the reduced pressure. I also enjoyed seeing how the rocks will be cored and stored in tubes and deposited on the Martian surface awaiting pickup by the following mission.

Images courtesy of NASA.

Filmed by Raquel Nuno from 3:30 onwards.

Music: http://epidemicsound.com "Serene Story 2"

Force is a central concept in physics. By analysing the forces on an object, its resulting motion can be determined. But what exactly is a force? The word force is used in everyday language in a variety of contexts, only some of which reflect the scientific definition of force. In this video, people at Victoria Park in Sydney are interviewed on their ideas of force and the forces that act on them.

Thank you to Rodney Fox for sharing his story. He was attacked by a shark 50 years ago - Dec. 8 1963. If you're interested in his book or in going shark cage diving in South Australia, check out: http://bit.ly/rodneyfox

Grant Thompson - the King of Random - teaches me how to start a fire with a Sandwich bag. And we tried to melt glass in my backyard: https://goo.gl/zb0uE0
Check out his channel: http://ve42.co/KoR

The intensity of sunlight on Earth is about 1300 Watts per square meter. When you focus the sun's rays using a magnifying glass (or in this case sphere of water) you can increase the intensity roughly ten thousand fold. This increases the temperature of wood to its autoignition point starting the reaction with oxygen in the atmosphere. By protecting the hot embers and adding more energy and fuel, you can get these hot coals to start a roaring fire.

Special thanks to Patreon Supporters:
Tony Fadell, Donal Botkin, Jeff Straathof, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Nathan Hansen

Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://ve42.co/patreon

How can you Yo-Yo without the string attached?
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
For more Ben Conde: http://bit.ly/VeBenConde
For Beyond Slow Motion: http://bit.ly/VeBeyondSlowMo

For more on yo-yos check out: http://bit.ly/290wR3a

How to yo-yo without a string attached... So many crazy tricks and the science that makes it possible.

Edited and animated by Daniel Joseph Files

Veritasium second channel: http://bit.ly/2Veritasium
Rodney Fox Shark Attack Story: http://bit.ly/1frAwlI
Check out Audible: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe

For this video I went off the coast of South Australia to an island frequented by great white sharks. Here they hunt seals and fish. I've never been scuba diving before but I got into a cage and filmed the sharks under water. It was an incredible experience. Then we came back on the surface to tag the sharks.

I took a boat through 96 million black plastic balls on the Los Angeles reservoir to find out why they're there. The first time I heard about shade balls the claim was they reduce evaporation. But it turns out this isn't the reason they were introduced.

Huge thanks to LADWP for arranging this special tour for me. Next time let's put the GoPro on the submersible!

The balls are made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is less dense than water so they float on the surface of the reservoir even if they break apart. They are 10cm (4 inches) in diameter and contain about 210ml of water. So the main reason they are on the reservoir is to block sunlight from entering the water and triggering a chemical reaction that turns harmless bromide into carcinogenic bromate. This effect occurs with prolonged exposure to bromate so regulators insist that levels be kept below 10 microgram per liter on average over a 12 month period.

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd, Penward Rhyme and everyone who provided feedback on an early draft of this video.

Thanks to:
Las Virgenes Reservoir for footage of initial shade ball dump
Euro-Matic for bird into jet-engine footage

Researched and Produced by Casey Rentz

Animations by Maria Raykova

Music from http://epidemicsound.com "Colorful Animation 4" "Seaweed"

And from Kevin MacLeod "Marty Gots a Plan"

This is an educational video about the science of water quality.

Scientists have combined ultrasound, viruses and synthetic drugs to control regions of the brain.
Check out Skillshare: https://skl.sh/veritasium (first 500 get 2 months free)

Special thanks to Prof. Mikhail Shapiro and Dr. Jerzy Szablowski:
http://shapirolab.caltech.edu

Human brains are complicated - the most complicated thing in the known universe, many people say. So far we understand little - just that certain regions of the brain appear to be involved in certain activities and certain disorders. In extreme cases this has led to the practice of removing sections of the brain, or using electrodes or optical fibers to control activation rates. What is unique about this approach is it offers a way to turn on and off specific brain regions without invasive surgery. It has promise because it combines existing technologies: micro-bubbles, ultrasound, synthetic viruses, and synthetic drugs to achieve this goal.

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, James M Nicholson, Michael Krugman, Nathan Hansen, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd

Animations and editing by Alan Chamberlain

Music from http://epidemicsound.com "Experimental1"

Mosquitoes are attracted to me and it's likely due to my genes.
This video is sponsored by 23andMe https://23andme.com/veritasium
Huge thanks to Prof. Immo Hansen and team: http://ve42.co/hansen

References:
Genome Wide Association Study for self-reported mosquito attractiveness:
http://ve42.co/MossieGWAS

The twin study showing correlated attractiveness is stronger for identical twins:
http://ve42.co/MossieTwins

Some things we know make mosquitoes more attracted to you:
Exercising, higher metabolism, higher body temperature, more body odor, being pregnant, type O blood, infrequent bathing, lactic acid, ammonia, acetone.

There are a number of folk remedies people believe protect them from mosquito bites like drinking alcohol, eating garlic, or taking vitamin B. These do not appear to provide any benefit in lab studies and in fact drinking alcohol is associated with increased mosquito activity because it causes blood vessels near the surface of the skin to dilate.

And apparently some of your attractiveness to mosquitos is simply genetic. This may be mediated through your immune system, which is what a lot of the genes identified were associated with.

Molecular models are microSnatoms: http://snatoms.com

Filming in New Mexico by Raquel Nuno
Animations by Jacqui Robertson

The opinions and conclusions drawn in this video are those of Veritasium and not 23andMe.

In Queenstown, New Zealand, I jumped off the Kawarau Bridge - the site of the first bungy jump. It was a thrilling experience, preceded by a terrifying, gut-wrenching half hour wait. All in all an awesome adventure, even if the woman fitting my harness didn't know the first thing about the acceleration of free-falling bodies.

Subscribe to Veritasium - it's free! http://bit.ly/YSWpWm
Support Veritasium - get a t-shirt: http://dft.ba/-vetshirt
Happy Geek Week! http://bit.ly/16wdDuk

Everyone has played with a mixture of corn starch and water (or at least I hope they have). This was one of my favorite experiments as a kid. Your hand slides into the slime easily when moving slowly but the mixture behaves as a solid if you hit it quickly. That is what is meant by 'non-Newtonian' - the fluid's properties change depending on its relative motion. These properties can be exploited to dramatic effect as has been shown on speaker cones before. Here I wanted to understand what is going on, what frequencies and amplitudes work best so I used a slow-mo camera.

Thanks to everyone at the YouTube Space LA for helping me film this. I couldn't have done it without you.

Music licensed from http://www.cuesongs.com
Love Lost (Instrumental) by Temper Trap
A Life in the Day by Ghost of Otis
Fortune's Fool Instrumental by Hiatus & Shura
The Man by Audio Android

Innovative research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that a combination of neurotransmitters and electrical stimulation can restore movement to the lower limbs of previously paralysed rats. But in order for this motion to be made voluntarily the rats must be motivated to walk. This motivation comes in the form of cheering, visual cues, and of course, chocolate.

Why Trees Are Amazing: http://bit.ly/TFilQ8
Space Junk: http://bit.ly/XlLdjG
Why Astronauts Are Weightless: http://bit.ly/SuF2p1
Higgs Boson Update: http://bit.ly/Vw1Sgu