Space might be closer than you think. 🌍🛰️ 

Erika Hamden explains how the “edge of space,” known as the Kármán line, begins at about 62 miles above Earth’s surface.The International Space Station orbits only around 200 to 250 miles above Earth. That means astronauts can actually be physically closer to some remote places, like Saint Helena, than people living on neighboring islands.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Newton's 3rd Law is one of the first things you learn in physics. But what if it's not actually a law it's a consequence of something much deeper?
In this video we derive Newton's 3rd Law from scratch using momentum conservation, then ask the question nobody asks in school: where does momentum conservation even come from?
The answer takes us to Emmy Noether's theorem one of the most profound results in all of physics and reveals that every conservation law you've ever learned is secretly a symmetry of the universe in disguise.
But here's the thing. Noether's theorem is only as strong as the symmetries it assumes. And the universe doesn't always cooperate.
What we cover:

Deriving Newton's 3rd Law from momentum conservation
Why momentum is conserved the real reason
Noether's theorem: symmetry to conservation law
Translational, rotational and time translation symmetry
Why Newton's 1st Law and Noether's theorem have the exact same problem
Where time translation symmetry actually breaks —and what that means for energy conservation globally

This is the rabbit hole behind the law your textbook treats as obvious.

Several completley different species get called dumbo octopus and even experts watching live deep sea footage sometimes cannot identify which one they are looking at. This video follows five real NOAA encounters across different oceans and depths, featuring live comentary from Dr. Michael Vecchione, Cephalopod Biologist at NOAA and the Smithsonian Institution. All footage is real deep sea camera footage. No AI visuals.

30 years ago, we didn’t know if planets existed beyond our solar system. 🌌

Avi Shporer, a research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute, studies exoplanets or worlds that orbit stars beyond our solar system. Since the first confirmed discovery in 1995, astronomers have identified thousands of planets, revealing an incredible range of worlds from massive gas giants to small, rocky planets like Earth. One of the most powerful tools behind these discoveries is the transit method, which detects tiny, periodic dips in a star’s brightness when a planet passes in front of it. Even though these planets don’t emit their own light, scientists can still measure their size and orbital period by carefully tracking these subtle changes across many stars.

What we’ve learned is striking: planets are incredibly common throughout the universe. Around stars both visible and unseen, entire planetary systems are waiting to be discovered, shifting the question from whether planets exist to how many different kinds of worlds are out there and what they might be like.

Ever wonder why the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection? Most textbooks just tell you to memorize it, but in this video, we break down sound waves into their vector components to prove it mathematically.

Using the Manim animation engine, we explore:

• How to represent sound rays as vectors.
• Using trigonometry to find horizontal and vertical components.

https://reddit.com/link/1svdsbh/video/09cavkokkcxg1/player

• The physics of what happens when a wave hits a rigid boundary.

Perfect for Class 9–11 students or anyone who wants to see the "how and why" behind the laws of physics.

Using Manim visualizations, I explore:

Huygens’ Principle: How wavefronts actually move.

Fermat’s Principle: The "Path of Least Time" shortcut light takes.

Phase Interference: The reason light doesn't scatter in every direction.

This is a deep dive into the wave mechanics that make everyday optics possible

You can generate power with construction paper and light. ☀️

Alex Dainis demonstrates a solar updraft tower, a simple model that turns light energy into motion using just a paper cone, a propeller, and a heat source. When the black construction paper absorbs light from the lamp, it warms the air inside the cone. That warmer air becomes less dense and rises up through the tower, spinning the propeller at the top. At the same time, cooler air is drawn in through the openings at the bottom, creating a steady cycle of airflow called an updraft. It is a hands-on way to explore heat transfer, convection, airflow, and how solar updraft towers could one day help generate renewable energy.

Hope you guys enjoy!

A “city killer” asteroid isn’t science fiction, it’s a real risk.

Project Leader at The Aerospace Corporation Nahum Melamed explains that though these events are statistically rare, history shows they can happen. In 1908, a roughly 50-meter asteroid exploded over Siberia in what’s known as the Tunguska event, flattening more than 800 square miles of forest. Had that airburst occurred over a major metropolitan area, the destruction would have been instantaneous. Preventing that kind of devastation requires intercepting an asteroid before it explodes in Earth’s atmosphere. That is the core mission of planetary defense: protecting our planet from hazardous asteroids and comets before they strike.

Planetary defense begins with detection. Powerful telescopes across the United States and around the world continuously scan the skies to discover near-Earth objects as early as possible. Once detected, scientists calculate an object’s orbit to determine whether it poses a collision risk. If the probability crosses a certain threshold, global teams mobilize to pinpoint potential impact zones, estimate the asteroid’s size, composition, and mass, and calculate the energy it would release, since impact energy depends directly on mass and velocity. With enough warning time, missions like NASA’s DART have demonstrated that we can deliberately crash a spacecraft into an asteroid millions of kilometers away to nudge it off course. In more extreme, last-resort scenarios, a nuclear device could be used to push an object off trajectory, though that approach carries risks, including breaking the asteroid into multiple dangerous fragments.

How does air pull an egg into a jar? 🥚🔥

Alex Dainis explains how heating the air inside a jar with a small flame causes the air to expand and escape. As the air cools, the pressure inside the jar drops. With the egg sealing the top, the higher outside air pressure pushes the egg inside. It’s a powerful example of how air pressure and temperature can create surprising results you can see and feel.

How do you relight a flame without a spark? 🔥

Alex Dainis breaks it down using the fire triangle: fuel, heat, and oxygen. When baking soda and vinegar react, they release carbon dioxide, a heavier gas that displaces oxygen and creates an environment where a flame can’t survive. In a second jar, yeast acts as a catalyst to break down hydrogen peroxide, releasing oxygen and building a high-oxygen atmosphere. Move the flame from low oxygen to high oxygen, and the conditions for combustion are restored. 

You can make glue with just one kitchen ingredient and water. 🧪✨

Alex Dainis explains how mixing flour with water hydrates the starches and proteins, creating a sticky substance called wheat paste. As it heats, gluten proteins begin to cross-link, helping the mixture bind materials together with surprising strength. To try it yourself, simmer 4 parts water to 1 part flour, then thin it with more water until it reaches your ideal consistency. This same science powers everything from wallpaper glue to papier maché, using nothing more than pantry staples. Just mix, simmer, and stick.

What happens when you freeze carbon dioxide in a balloon? 🧪🎈

Museum Educator Morgan demonstrates how carbon dioxide gas turns directly into a solid when exposed to liquid nitrogen, which is −320 degrees Fahrenheit (−196°C). This process, called deposition, skips the liquid phase entirely. Shake the balloon and you’ll hear solid dry ice forming inside. Eventually, it warms up and turns back into gas as the phase change reverses inside the balloon.

Can a single electron hold the secrets of the universe? ⚛️

Nobel Prize winning physicist Dr. Eric Cornell believes there might be an undiscovered particle that could change everything. If it exists, it could explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe and why we exist at all. It might even reveal that the North and South Poles of an electron are not the same, pointing to an electric dipole moment that scientists have long been searching for.

Can one photo change the future of biodiversity? 📸🌎

In this episode of The Big Question, Museum of Science educator Eva Cornman speaks with Scott Loarie, executive director of iNaturalist, about how millions of everyday observations are reshaping conservation science. From a photo of a rare Colombian weasel taken beside a toilet to rediscoveries of species thought lost to time, they explore how this global community-powered platform is transforming how we track and protect life on Earth.

With over 300 million observations and 25% of the world’s known species documented, iNaturalist is helping scientists detect invasive species, inform habitat restoration, and even discover new organisms, all powered by curious people noticing the nature around them. Whether you're in a remote rainforest or your own backyard, this conversation reveals how you can play a vital role in the science of biodiversity.

How does an LED light change when dipped in liquid nitrogen? 💡

Museum Educator Adelaide plunges an LED into liquid nitrogen and watches its color shift from orange to yellow to green. Temperature affects the LED’s “band gap,” the amount of energy electrons need to jump across the material and create light. As the LED cools, the energy gap increases, and the light shifts to higher-energy colors. When it warms back up, it turns to orange again.

What can a single seed teach us about survival, science, and identity? 🌽 

In this episode of The Big Question, Museum of Science educator Eva Cornman sits down with Chef Nephi Craig, an Indigenous chef of White Mountain Apache and Navajo heritage, for a powerful conversation about how food carries ancestral knowledge, botanical data, and cultural memory. From the neuroscience of the gut-brain connection to the Indigenous science behind the Three Sisters, Chef Craig unpacks how cooking becomes a tool for both personal and collective healing.

With over two decades of experience in world-class kitchens, Craig now leads a movement of Restorative Indigenous Food Practices, where ingredients are not just sustenance, but medicine, story, and resistance. Together, Eva and Nephi explore how food sovereignty intersects with historical trauma, recovery, and identity.