Up Next
Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart
Traffic Lights Are So Much Weirder Than You Realize
Why are stop lights red? The common explanation about red light traveling farther through fog is actually wrong. The real story involves early railroads, deadly accidents, an exploding gas traffic light, forgotten inventors, and even the evolution of primate color vision. Here’s how history and biology accidentally created the nearly perfect traffic signal.
Support Provided By
17:48
New ideas come from chance events and unexpected connections involved in working together.
11:18
Our universe locked incredible secrets in a code written in rainbows.
13:54
Butterfly metamorphosis is one of nature’s most magical transformations.
14:03
Scorpions are an evolutionary marvel with venom that could save lives.
14:29
Join me on my visit to the most advanced cultivated meat production facility in the world.
14:03
Life on Earth may have stayed boring and small if it weren’t thanks to one deadly element.
17:58
How the CIA used Cold War technology to study and combat climate change
13:58
The secret physics at the core of every syllable, starting with the first words we speak.
9:56
The glow from faster-than-light particles gives us a unique way to explore the universe.
10:40
A mysterious and highly impactful phenomenon that scientists are still learning about.
9:10
Countershading is everywhere, and it may be nature’s most successful form of camouflage.
12:59
Global warming means more air conditioning…causing more warming 🤦. Could new chemistry he