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It's Okay to Be Smart
What Makes Birds, Beetles, and Bubbles Shine So Beautifully?
Season 11
Episode 3
Why is a soap bubble rainbow? What makes an oil slick beautiful? Iridescent colors, which transform depending on the angle you look at them, are all over nature. How does physics make these shifting rainbows? We’re going to find out with the help of the National Museum of Natural History's most spectacular specimens – from bird feathers and beetle wings to fossils and gemstones.
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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
11:53
Under house arrest in Egypt, one mathematician transformed how we examine the world.
13:10
We explore why embarrassment has lasted through evolution and its function.
13:49
We are in search of the blackest black things on Earth and why.
14:24
Knowing exactly what a “second” is is more complicated than you might think!
13:41
The secret is In order to know WHERE you are, you need to first know WHEN you are.
12:44
Let's learn the story of one of the worst natural disasters that’s ever happened!
27:56
We learn about all the reasons that Earth’s climate changes, natural and otherwise.
12:31
Turns out, we can blame it all on neutron stars and some oddities of the periodic table.