Skip to main content

Up Next

What is Luck?

What is Luck?

Season 5 Episode 8
5:10
How Much Plastic is in the Ocean?

How Much Plastic is in the Ocean?

Season 5 Episode 10
4:43
Why I ❤ PBS

Why I ❤ PBS

Season 5 Episode 11
2:32
Where Did Humans Come From?

Where Did Humans Come From?

Season 5 Episode 13
6:18
Why Are We The Only Humans Left?

Why Are We The Only Humans Left?

Season 5 Episode 14
6:09
Why Does Hair Grow The Way It Does?

Why Does Hair Grow The Way It Does?

Season 5 Episode 15
4:18
Are We All Related?

Are We All Related?

Season 5 Episode 16
6:06
De-Extinction: A Mammoth Undertaking

De-Extinction: A Mammoth Undertaking

Season 5 Episode 18
4:42
Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart

How the Meter Became The Meter

Season 5 Episode 6

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.

Support Provided By
Season
Why 8 Eyes Are Better Than 2 (…If You're a Spider)
15:07
We learn how spider vision works.
The Unbelievable Story of Earth’s Most Epic Flood
12:44
Let's learn the story of one of the worst natural disasters that’s ever happened!
The Biggest Myth About Climate Change
27:56
We learn about all the reasons that Earth’s climate changes, natural and otherwise.
The Crime Wave We Can Blame on… Neutron Stars?
12:31
Turns out, we can blame it all on neutron stars and some oddities of the periodic table.
Why is Puberty so Weird?
10:00
Join Joe in this whirlwind tour of the endocrine system to find the answers.
Why No One Can Agree What’s Really the Tallest Mountain
8:29
Is Everest the tallest mountain on Earth? The answer is not as simple as you might think.
Trying to Land a Plane (to Prove a Point)
17:59
Turns out we’re all at risk of being overconfident about something.
Why You Can’t Smell Yourself?
19:10
There's an absolutely weird, but surprisingly common phenomenon called sensory adaptation.
Making a Hurricane Indoors (For Science)
11:50
Scientists in Florida can recreate a Category 5 hurricane in a box the size of a bedroom.
Are Humans Still Evolving?
10:41
Are humans still evolving? And how have our technological advances affected the process?
How Illusions Can Explain Reality
19:07
Illusions teach us how our brain constructs a three-dimensional reality using 2-D images.
Can Life Really Be Explained By Physics?
22:18
Joe talks biology with science communicator extraordinaire Prof. Brian Cox.
Active loading indicator