Veritasium
usually delivers
Based on 62 recent long-form videos · updated as YouTLDR reads more
What we read
Why Women Are Stripey
Why do women have a stripey skin pattern hidden on their bodies? Random X-chromosome inactivation
Why Being Delusional is a Superpower
Why do people falsely believe they are fully in control of their success? Egocentric bias and hidden luck
You've (Likely) Been Playing The Game Of Life Wrong
What fundamental rule change distinguishes a power law world from a normal distribution world? Optimize for extreme outliers
Why Super Glue Is Perfect For Gluing Skin
moisture and proteins
Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found
Open the answer in the extension
The Device Built to Prove Einstein Wrong
Can any device truly prove Einstein wrong about gravity's effect on time? Einstein's theory holds
The Insane Engineering of Fiber Optics
How does fiber optic cable actually work? Total internal reflection
The Insane Real Engineering of the Nazi Enigma Machine
How did the Allies actually break the Nazi Enigma code? Turing's Bombe machine
We sent a camera to space to film the solar eclipse
What causes the sun to turn white only during totality? It's just a filter
Is spider web really stronger than steel?
Is spider web really stronger than steel? Stronger by weight, tougher
Veritasium
What biological mechanism causes nearly all mammals to have around one billion heartbeats in their lifetime? Metabolism scales with size
The Scariest Chart in Electrical Engineering
What makes the Smith Chart so scary and useful in electrical engineering? Graphical impedance matching tool
We've Been Using The Wrong Science In Court For 50 years
What forensic science has been wrongly used in court for 50 years? Most forensic science
We're 99.9% sure this pattern is true, but no one can prove it
What is the proof that twin primes exist infinitely? Bounded gap of 70 million
Google Maps is unreasonably fast. Let me explain
How does Google Maps find the fastest route so quickly? Contraction hierarchy algorithm
The CIA's new tech doesn't make sense
Can the CIA really track a heartbeat from kilometers away? No, not feasible
The Crystal That Could Destroy All Medicine
What caused the drug ritonavir to suddenly become a useless crystal? Seeding by new polymorph
How easy is it to steal $10,000 from a locked phone?
How easy is it to steal $10,000 from a locked phone? Easy, with a device
What happens if you drop 0.125 grams of antimatter?
What would happen if you dropped 0.125 grams of antimatter? Vaporizes Vatican City
The Secret Spy Tech Inside Every Credit Card
What secret spy tech is inside every credit card? Contactless chip
We Made A Giant Zipper To Explain How It Works
How does a zipper actually work? Y-shaped slider mechanism
This Paradox Splits Smart People 50/50
What is Newcomb's paradox, and why does it split smart people? Predictor accuracy vs. causality
The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster And No One Knew
What was the near-disaster on the internet that nobody knew about? A hidden backdoor in XZ
The asbestos problem is worse than we thought
How much worse is the asbestos problem than we thought? Millions will die
Why Cold Drinks Were Deadly Before 1914
Why were cold drinks deadly before 1914? Contaminated natural ice
Do we know how magnets work yet?
What tiny donut experiment proved we still don't understand magnetism? Donut magnet experiment
What Happens If You Keep Slowing Down?
What happens if you keep slowing down time? Attosecond x-ray pulses
The World's Most Important Machine
What actual machine is so complex it defies belief? ASML extreme ultraviolet lithography
The Future of Veritasium
Is Derek Muller retiring from Veritasium? Stepping back, not retiring
There Is Something Faster Than Light
What is faster than light? Quantum entanglement influences
Why is there antimatter?
Why is there antimatter? Dirac's equation predicted it.
The Ridiculous Engineering Of Jet Engines
How do jet engines run at temperatures hotter than their melting point without turning into a puddle? Internal air cooling and ceramic coatings
Why People Are So Confident When They're Wrong
Is Australia wider than the Moon? Moon is wider
The Most Controversial Idea In Biology
What is the most controversial idea in biology? Genes are the unit of selection
Can you really reach anyone in 6 steps?
Is it really possible to connect with anyone on Earth in just six steps? Yes, via hubs
Alfred Nobel: The Man Who Fooled The World
How did Alfred Nobel fool the world into remembering him for peace instead of destruction? Created Nobel Prizes
Why Do Escalator Steps Have Teeth?
Why do escalator steps have teeth? Comb plate interlocks grooves
Exposing Why Farmers Can't Legally Replant Their Own Seeds
Why are farmers legally banned from saving and replanting harvested seeds? Patented technology use agreements
This is the natural disaster to worry about
What natural disaster is the most concerning? Natural rubber collapse
The Perfect Battery Material Is Dangerous
What makes the perfect battery material so dangerous? Self-contained combustion
The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything
What strange math concept allows us to predict dependent events like text, neutrons, and web traffic? Markov chains
This mechanism shrinks when pulled
What makes this mechanism shrink when pulled? Springs flip series to parallel
The Obviously True Theorem No One Can Prove
Can every even number greater than 2 be written as the sum of two primes? Strong conjecture unproven
The Biggest Misconception in Football (ft. Tom Brady)
What is the biggest misconception about throwing a football? Spirals always wobble
How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet
What caused the massive worldwide chemical contamination and coverup? DuPont's Teflon forever chemicals
How a Student's Question Saved This NYC Skyscraper
How did a student's question save the Citicorp Building? Wind load vulnerability discovered
The Biggest Misconception in Physics
Why does energy appear to not be conserved on a cosmic scale? Loss of time symmetry
The Most Controversial Idea In Math
What controversial mathematical idea leads to paradoxes like a sphere becoming two spheres? Axiom of choice
How this helicopter survived 1004 days on Mars, then disappeared...
How did the Mars helicopter Ingenuity disappear and what happened to it? Rotors snapped on landing
Something Strange Happens When You Trust Quantum Mechanics
What does quantum mechanics imply about the path a particle takes from point A to point B? Every path simultaneously
RAINBOLT Challenged me to reach Impossible Coordinates...
How do you escape a blender when shrunk to the size of a nickel? Jump out, you're strong
AlphaFold - The Most Useful Thing AI Has Ever Done
How did AlphaFold solve the protein folding problem so quickly? Using transformers and evolutionary towers
Can You Keep Zooming In Infinitely?
Can you actually zoom in infinitely? No, 0.13 nanometers
Why Is MIT Making Robot Insects?
Why is MIT developing robot insects? Curiosity and applications
Why Don’t Railroads Need Expansion Joints?
Why don't railroads need expansion joints anymore? Mechanical stress counteracts thermal expansion.
The Man Who Took LSD and Changed The World
How did a student high on LSD revolutionize DNA research? Invented the PCR technique
This Is the Oldest, Weirdest Instrument On Earth
What is the oldest, weirdest instrument on Earth? Cave lithophone organ
The Most Important Material Ever Made
Is glass truly unbreakable? No, it still cracks
The Equation That Beat Wall Street
What is the equation that beat Wall Street? Black-Scholes-Merton equation
Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED
What specific breakthroughs finally made the blue LED possible after decades of failure? Two-flow reactor and thermal annealing
I got buried in concrete to explain how it works
What is concrete, and how does it work? Cement, sand, and gravel
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Gravity
What is gravity actually, if it is not a force? Curved spacetime geometry