Browsing Tag
veritasium
86 posts
Why Our Entire World Depends on This One Tree
The modern world relies on natural rubber, a material that cannot be fully replicated, sourced from a single tree species at risk of being wiped out by a devastating disease.
The Battery: An Invention That Almost Never Happened
Discover the unlikely, decades-long story of the three Nobel-winning scientists who overcame explosive failures and corporate indifference to invent the revolutionary lithium-ion battery.
The 100-Year-Old Math Feud That Invented The Future
Find out how a bitter 100-year-old feud between two Russian mathematicians unexpectedly led to the creation of a mathematical tool that now powers everything from nuclear physics and Google Search to modern artificial intelligence.
No One Can Throw a Perfect Football Spiral—Here’s Why
Even elite quarterbacks can’t defy physics—subtle wobbles and directional drift in a spiral pass reflect deep aerodynamic principles at work.
How ‘Forever Chemicals’ Took Over the World
The story of “forever chemicals” began with the serendipitous discovery of Teflon in the 1930s. While transforming various…
The Structural Mistake That Nearly Took Down a New York Landmark
A hidden flaw in New York’s Citicorp Center nearly caused a catastrophic collapse—until a daring, secret repair operation turned a potential disaster into a landmark engineering ethics case.
The Hidden Break in Einstein’s Relativity — And How Emmy Noether Solved It
A hidden flaw in Einstein’s relativity led to Emmy Noether’s groundbreaking discovery that symmetries in nature underpin the universe’s conservation laws.
The Man Who Studied Infinity
By proving that some infinities are larger than others, Georg Cantor revolutionized mathematics—introducing the idea of countable and…
The Fall of “Ingenuity”
Ingenuity, initially designed for just five flights over 30 days, completed 72 missions across nearly three years, helping…
How Does Light Move?
Contrary to everyday intuition, particles such as photons and electrons do not follow a single path but instead…