Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart
Sand Dunes Shouldn’t Exist (Here’s Why They Do)
Season 9
Episode 13
How can sand, blown by the wind, form such intricate and beautiful patterns as ripples and dunes? The answer is a surprising secret of self-organization. In this video, we travel to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado to climb the largest sand dunes in North America and bring you the science of how wind and sand combine to create ordered landforms out of chaos. The science must flow.
Support Provided By
16:47
If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
10:51
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
24:25
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
22:37
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?
14:52
How thousands of tiny brains, obeying simple rules, solve problems no individual can understand.
19:50
Joe visits a flavor lab to uncover how our senses shape our taste.
22:36
How did the mass extinction of the dinosaurs play out, moment by moment?
12:37
Think traits like eye color or tongue-rolling are simple genetics? Think again.
11:08
Why is the Martian sky red by day… but blue at sunset?