Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart
Why Some of the Rainbow is Missing
Season 11
Episode 14
Over 200 years ago, scientists were looking at sunlight through a prism when they noticed that part of the rainbow was missing. There were dark lines where there should have been colors. Since then, scientists have unlocked the secrets encoded in these lines, using it to uncover mind-boggling facts about the fundamental nature of our universe and about worlds light-years away.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By

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.

10:00
Join Joe in this whirlwind tour of the endocrine system to find the answers.

8:29
Is Everest the tallest mountain on Earth? The answer is not as simple as you might think.

17:59
Turns out we’re all at risk of being overconfident about something.

19:10
There's an absolutely weird, but surprisingly common phenomenon called sensory adaptation.

11:50
Scientists in Florida can recreate a Category 5 hurricane in a box the size of a bedroom.

10:41
Are humans still evolving? And how have our technological advances affected the process?

19:07
Illusions teach us how our brain constructs a three-dimensional reality using 2-D images.

22:18
Joe talks biology with science communicator extraordinaire Prof. Brian Cox.

9:42
We explore why animals like whales, elephants, and other large animals not get cancer.

10:16
The real magic of mirrors is far stranger and more interesting, as you’re about to learn.