Should You Let A Dog Lick Your Face?
Adults HumanCanine and human mouths are bacterial ecosystems, but can they harm one another? "Sometimes, the oral contact between dogs and their owners can be more extensive than that between parent and child. Dogs kiss and lick their owners to express amiable emotions. This raises the possibility of transferring bacteria from the oral microbiome of dogs to their human owners."
What are mini brains? - Madeline Lancaster
Adults HumanShielded by our thick skulls and swaddled in layers of protective tissue, the human brain is extremely difficult to observe in action. Luckily, scientists can use brain organoids - pencil eraser-sized masses of cells that function like human brains but aren't part of an organism - to look closer. How do they do it? And is it ethical? Madeline Lancaster shares how to make a brain in a lab.
Why Do You Love Your Family?
Adults HumanWhy do we love people we're related to? Compared to strangers, why do we feel such a deep sense of connection with our family members? Sure, they're nice to us, we take care of each other, and we often live with them, but there has to be a deeper biological reason. That reason, unsurprisingly is evolution. In this video, I explain why taking care of our family, or even dying for them, makes sense in the eyes of evolution.
How long will human impacts last? - David Biello
Adults HumanImagine aliens land on Earth a million years from now. What will these curious searchers find of us? They will find what geologists, scientists, and other experts are increasingly calling the Anthropocene, or new age of mankind. David Biello explains how the impacts that humans have made have become so pervasive, profound, and permanent that some geologists believe we merit our own epoch.
How does your body know you're full? - Hilary Coller
Adults HumanHunger claws at your belly. It tugs at your intestines, which begin to writhe, aching to be fed. Being hungry generates a powerful and often unpleasant physical sensation that's almost impossible to ignore. After you've reacted by gorging on your morning pancakes, you start to experience an opposing force: fullness. But how does your body actually know when you're full? Hilary Coller explains.