The secrets of Mozart's "Magic Flute" - Joshua Borths
AdultsArtHistoryMusic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute") is widely regarded as one of the most influential operas in history.
Why do we feel nostalgia?
AdultsHealthHistoryPsychology Nostalgia was once considered an illness confined to specific groups of people. Today, people all over the world report experiencing and enjoying nostalgia. But how does nostalgia work? And is it healthy? Clay Routledge details the way our understanding of nostalgia has changed since the term was first coined in the late 17th century.
How the sandwich was invented
AdultsFoodHistory Today, it is estimated that 50% of Americans eat at least one sandwich every day. And while it's all but impossible to imagine a world without them, sandwiches have only been around since 1762.
Plato's best (and worst) ideas
AdultsHistoryPhilosophy Few individuals have influenced the world and many of today's thinkers like Plato. He created the first Western university and was teacher to Ancient Greece's greatest minds, including Aristotle.
How much of human history is on the bottom of the ocean?
AdultsEcologyHistoryNatureOcean... Sunken relics, ghostly shipwrecks, and lost cities aren't just wonders found in fictional adventures. Beneath the ocean's surface, there are ruins where people once roamed and shipwrecks loaded with artifacts from another time.
How a single-celled organism almost wiped out life on Earth
AdultsBiologyLifeWorldScienceHistory... There's an organism that changed the world. It caused the first mass extinction in Earth's history
How coffee got quicker
AdultsFoodHistoryNutrition For the 64% of Americans that drink coffee daily, an expedient cup is practically essential. But preparing coffee hasn't always been easy.
Real life sunken cities
AdultsCitiesHistoryScienceNature... Though people are most familiar with Plato's fictional Atlantis, many real underwater cities actually exist. Peter Campbell explains how sunken cities are studied by scientists to help us understand the lives of our ancestors, the dynamic nature of our planet, and the impact of each on the other.
Why the metric system matters
AdultsHistoryPhysicsPoliticsEducationScience... For the majority of recorded human history, units like the weight of a grain or the length of a hand weren't exact and varied from place to place.
Rosalind Franklin: DNA's unsung hero - Claudio L. Guerra
AdultsGeneticsHistoryHumanScienceBiology... The discovery of the structure of DNA was one of the most important scientific achievements in human history.
How North America got its shape
AdultsHistoryWorldGeology North America didn't always have its familiar shape, nor its famed mountains, canyons, and plains: all of that was once contained in an unrecognizable mass, buried deep in Rodinia, a huge supercontinent that lay on the face of the Earth.
What Happened Before History? Human Origins
AdultsHistoryHumanWorld Humans. We have been around for a while now. When we think about our past we think about ancient civilizations, the pyramids, stuff like that. But this is only a tiny, tiny part of our history.
Celsius Didn't Invent Celsius
AdultsHistoryScience Celsius never devised nor used the scale that now bears his name.
Did The Past Really Happen? Vsauce
AdultsHistoryWorldPhilosophy Greece is full of wonderful new things and wonderful old things. But when WE become old things, will our ruins also be tourist attractions?
A History of Pizza in 8 Slices
AdultsFoodHistoryCulture Pizza might be an Italian invention, but it is a worldwide phenomenon. Pizza has managed to evolve from a simple, rustic food item to something much more impactful.
Which Fish Did We Evolve From?
AdultsBiologyHistoryHuman Today's oceans are full of fish with fins that couldn't evolve into limbs like ours. So, who are our ancestors and where did they go?
Why are some people left-handed?
AdultsData ScienceHistorySocietySciencePsychologyHuman... Today, about one-tenth of the world's population are southpaws. Why are such a small proportion of people left-handed -- and why does the trait exist in the first place? Daniel M. Abrams investigates how the uneven ratio of lefties and righties gives insight into a balance between competitive and cooperative pressures on human evolution.