Skip to main content

Up Next

What Is Nothing?

What Is Nothing?

Season 9 Episode 15
14:06
Why Do We Dream?

Why Do We Dream?

Season 9 Episode 16
14:29
Here's What I Learned…

Here's What I Learned…

Season 9 Episode 18
16:20
The Unbelievable Science of How We Read

The Unbelievable Science of How We Read

Season 9 Episode 20
16:14
Why Don't Big Animals Get More Cancer?

Why Don't Big Animals Get More Cancer?

Season 10 Episode 2
9:42
How Illusions Can Explain Reality

How Illusions Can Explain Reality

Season 10 Episode 4
19:07
Are Humans Still Evolving?

Are Humans Still Evolving?

Season 10 Episode 5
10:41
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.

Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Season
Why You See Faces in Things
10:23
People see faces everywhere thanks to a quirk of the brain called visual pareidolia.
Why trees look like rivers and also blood vessels and also lightning…
10:00
Why do the same, self-repeating patterns appear in trees, rivers, lightning, and even our bodies?
The Real (Weird) Way We See Numbers
15:25
Our animal brains deal with quantities in very specific, and fascinating, ways.
Computers Can Predict When You're Going to Die… Here's How
12:54
Can new technologies make death prediction even more accurate?
Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales?
21:33
AI may help us talk to whales soon. But should we?!
Measuring the Universe With a 14-Billion Light-Year Ruler
10:40
The cosmic distance ladder is the world’s longest ruler, built to measure the universe.
Why the 2024 Solar Eclipse is Such a Big Deal
15:17
On April 8, North America is getting a total solar eclipse. Here’s what you need to know.
Space is Full of Junk. Here’s How to Clean It Up…
12:09
Learn about the space junk problem and the giant space claw named ClearSpace-1 that might
Why NASA Punched an Asteroid
14:28
These tiny pieces of an ancient asteroid could hold the secret to the origin of life.
Maybe We've Already Made First Contact…
10:28
What do scientists think are the best ways of reaching out to aliens?
I Don’t Know How to Feel About 2023
9:40
How bad is climate change in 2023? Can we do anything about it?
How Scientists Made the Hottest Thing Ever
13:38
A cosmic soup hadn’t existed in 13.8 billion years. Now, scientists cook it up in a lab.
Active loading indicator