When scientists talk about turning on and off specific regions of the brain without doing any surgery it sounds like science fiction (and kinda scary). But the reality is it's an incredible new technology that promise to improve the lives of many many people who suffer from neurological disorders. It's research that takes place at the boundary of neuroscience and physics.
2018-12-10 19:15:27 +0000 UTC View Post
InSight has landed successfully! Now it can get down to the business of sciencing.
If you want to find out about the five firsts the mission aims to accomplish, check out the video.
2018-11-26 21:29:16 +0000 UTC View Post
I feel like I've been waiting for this moment for six years or so. As of tomorrow (assuming a vote goes to plan) the kg will no longer be the mass of a metal cylinder.
Along with the kg, the kelvin, mole, and ampere will all get tweaks to tie them to fundamental constants.
2018-11-15 19:28:17 +0000 UTC View Post
In this video, I worked with my friend Samy Kamkar to understand how garage doors open and how a simple messaging toy could be used to create the same signal and open almost any garage door in seconds. I learned a lot through making this video about common types of codes and security features and also how they can be tricked. I think there's a lot of fascinating stuff here so I hope you agree.
This is a sponsored post and therefore not a Patreon-supported post. The life of a YouTuber is precar...
2018-09-19 21:46:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Ever since I was working on radioactivity I wondered how non-ionizing radiation like UV light could cause cancer and damage to our cells. What I found out is that even though UV is not technically ionizing, it does have effects similar to ionizing radiation.
2018-09-04 16:24:01 +0000 UTC View Post
This video is a companion piece to the Vitamania documentary, looking into the declines observed in nutrients in plant foods and what might be causing it. From the comments, it looks like a controversial topic - many good points are raised. I had to focus, in this 7-minute video on only a few things so there is definitely a lot more to talk about. Look forward to your feedback.
As a post connected to Vitamania, this is another unpaid clip.
2018-08-25 19:31:05 +0000 UTC View Post
As you may be aware, I've recently launched a feature-length (90 min) documentary all about the sense and nonsense of vitamins. Not only was I the presenter, I was also an executive producer (for the first time ever on a big production!)
The purpose of this post is to give you access to the deluxe edition of the film for free. After all you've done to support Veritasium, this is the least I can do.
To redeem your copy, simply click the link below and enter your patreon-associated email a...
2018-08-21 15:32:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for the delay in posting here, but I am recovering from jet lag having braved the 14 hour flight to Sydney with two kids who are two and under.
This video has been in the works for over a year. I got the impetus to finish it when Physics Girl casually mentioned she had shot some footage with a UV camera. So I crammed up to the hours before I left for the airport to finish this clip and get it uploaded.
I'm thinking about discussing how to do this sort of photography in a 2veritasiu...
2018-07-23 09:24:13 +0000 UTC View Post
This experiment in Washington DC aims to recreate the conditions in Earth's outer core (to a degree) and attempt to create a self-sustaining magnetic field in the lab.
I also spoke to another scientist about Earth's magnetic fields and have his explanation in a 2veritasium video if you can't get enough of Earth's magnetic field: https://youtu.be/lWHxmJf6U3M
Which explanation did you like better?
2018-07-14 23:30:06 +0000 UTC
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Almost certainly the most personal video I will ever make. I thought about calling it "Video My Life" after the "Draw My Life" craze some years back but I wasn't sure anyone would get it.
Anyway, there are not enough ways to say thank you for all your support so this video is my best attempt to do just that. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to your feedback.
2018-06-18 16:30:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! So I have been quiet of late when it comes to videos because a lot of other things have been going on... This is why I use patreon on a per video basis, rather than per month so you don't have to support when I don't make videos.
This is a video I've been thinking about making for years, ever since I made the Uranium documentary. There's something I've been meaning to say about the whole discovery of radioactivity and its development into a the most powerful technology we've ever develo...
2018-05-01 01:20:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Most people point to the second law of thermodynamics as the only law of physics that doesn't work the same way forwards and backwards in time. But in this video I explore how a single particle can break time reversal symmetry. I worked on the script and animations for this video for months with my friend Jorge Cham, the creator of PhD comics and his co-author physicist Daniel Whiteson. I'm glad to get to share it with you in time for Christmas in case you want to cancel vacation plans and perfo...
2017-12-13 13:28:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Way back in 2010, before Veritasium even existed, I attended my first TEDx event in Sydney. There I saw a great talk by a super talented animator, Drew Berry. He had animated the inner workings of our cells and I couldn't believe what I was seeing was real. Years later I finally got the chance to interview him about his work and we collaborated on this video to share the wonders of our tiny molecular machines with the world. So I hope you enjoy these visuals as much as I did.
2017-11-21 08:10:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The big science news of the day is the detection of a neutron star merger 130 million light years away using gravitational waves and all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is one of the things I (and a lot of other people) have been waiting for LIGO to detect and announce.
I haven't talked to Prof. Rana Adhikari yet but when I do I'll let you know how excited he is.
2017-10-17 05:12:57 +0000 UTC View Post
A few months back I asked for your suggestions of what to put in front of my Schlieren setup. I have now tried a few, even lighting a ping-pong ball on fire. I adjusted the setup so it is now a color schlieren (although in a budget sort of way because I used cellophane). I am still keen to image the Leidenfrost effect in Schlieren so I will do my best to make that happen.
In the first part of this video I try to answer a lot of the questions I received after posting the first video. I also sho...
2017-10-01 03:54:33 +0000 UTC View Post
This video would not have been possible without you. Literally.
It involved buying solar filters, sky-trackers, a return flight between Boston (where I'm currently shooting a documentary) and Portland, rental car, exorbitant Air BnB, food, batteries etc. Without your support there is no way I could do this.
It was a once in a lifetime experience. (Again, literally, this was my first ever solar eclipse - but it hopefully won't be my last). I hope many of you got the opportunity to see thi...
2017-08-22 00:41:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Scientists have just published their best numbers for Planck's constant and Avogadro's number. The requirement to redefine the kilogram was three measurements with under 50 parts per billion uncertainty and one measurement under 20 parts per billion uncertainty. What has been published is in fact three measurements under 20ppb with the smallest being 9ppb.
This paves the way to redefine the kg next year as planned using a fixed value of Planck's constant (and the existing definitions of the se...
2017-07-12 15:39:35 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a post on the second channel about my perception of how the YouTube algorithm is changing. It seems to me that it is now prioritizing more frequent, rather than better quality content...
2017-06-29 15:32:55 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm currently filming in London for Netflix but I found some time to edit this video, which I'm pretty excited about because it includes some beautiful slow-mo and a very cool fluid dynamics effect. I hope you enjoy it!
2017-06-27 17:42:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for the clickbaity title but it's not really bait when the footage is this good. These are some of the most beautiful images I have ever shot of bubbles, matches, lighters, helium... with Schlieren imaging you can see what's invisible to the naked eye.
And this video wouldn't have been possible without you because that mirror was expensive... not to mention the slow-mo camera hire. So thank you for making this step up in production value possible! Also note the 4k and motorized gimble. 2017-06-15 13:42:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I teamed up with Grant Thompson who makes an amazing DIY hack channel called the King of Random to see if we could start a fire with a spheroid of water...
2017-06-08 13:14:44 +0000 UTC View Post
I got an early heads up on this one. I went out to interview the scientists yesterday at Caltech to get the scoop on results they just released this morning!
2017-06-01 16:41:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Sure there may be larger things out there but this is the heaviest calibrated weight on Earth, creating a force ten times greater than the most powerful jet engine and a significant fraction of Saturn V rocket thrust.
When I went to National Institute of Standards and Technology I was expecting to meet a lot of type A personalities who cared about the eighth decimal place with an unrelatable zeal. What I found instead is that a passion for accuracy and precision reflects a core desire to get t...
2017-05-24 18:22:13 +0000 UTC View Post
I went to the Jet Propulsion Lab to learn about the Mars 2020 mission to search for evidence of past life on the Red Planet. The first 3:30 are from my field segment for the show Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix...
2017-05-19 18:12:22 +0000 UTC View Post
A couple weeks ago in Washington DC I got to visit THE American kilogram - that is the object on which all measurements of weight have been based for the last 130 years. And that includes measurements made in pounds.
Did you know the Utah constitution included a requirement to teach the metric system in all schools? That requirement was repealed in 1987
2017-05-10 14:49:22 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been wanting to share this video with you ever since I got off the plane. Being weightless was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. And I managed to do some experiments with fire and a slinky (not at the same time). Thank you for making trips like this possible!
2017-05-03 15:20:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I have the photic sneeze reflex, which means I sneeze in bright light. Roughly one in four people are like me. In this video I try to figure out what makes it happen and whether it could be evolutionarily beneficial.
2017-04-28 19:17:04 +0000 UTC View Post
This week I'm posting the solutions to the riddles from last week. Generally these questions were well answered. The bike question was the trickiest. Did you get all 4 correct?
Oh, and there's no charge for this video since it is just part II of the original riddle video.
2017-04-18 15:33:33 +0000 UTC View Post
This video includes a number of puzzles that have been proposed to me over the years including number 4 (Neil deGrasse Tyson) and number 3 (Simon Pampena). Check it out and let me know how many you get right!
2017-04-12 15:45:29 +0000 UTC View Post
I didn't say it explicitly in the video, but in my view the Bayesian trap is interpreting events that happen repeatedly as events that happen inevitably. They may be inevitable OR they may simply be the outcome of a series of steps, which likely depend on our behaviour. Yet our expectation of a certain outcome often leads us to behave just as we always have which only ensures that outcome. To escape the Bayesian trap, we must be willing to experiment.
2017-04-05 15:01:31 +0000 UTC View Post