Be Smart

Think traits like eye color or tongue-rolling are simple genetics? Think again. From Mendel’s peas to modern DNA science, let’s talk about why most human traits aren’t just “dominant” or “recessive.” Eye color, red hair, earlobes, even cilantro—genetics is way messier (and cooler) than you learned in school.

Why is the Martian sky red by day… but blue at sunset? And how did it used to look more like Earth? The strange story of Mars’ skies can reveal a lot about the Red Planet's past, and the surprising ways it is more like Earth than you may know.

Is autism really on the rise—or are we just recognizing it more? This video breaks down what ASD is, explores real vs rumored causes, and examines how science separates fact from fiction. A clear, evidence-based look at autism amidst the noise from media, government officials, and online speculation.

Seedless fruits are delicious, convenient… and completely unnatural. In this video, we explore the science, history, and hidden risks behind seedless bananas, watermelons, and grapes — and why they literally can’t survive without us.

Coin tosses aren't truly random. Lava lamps help secure the internet. And quantum physics might break encryption—or save it. This is what randomness really means, and why your digital life depends on it!

Across life on Earth, blood comes in blue, green, purple, even clear. But why? And what makes your blood different from mine? This is the strange world of blood—what it does, why it varies, and why we can’t live without it.

How did dinosaurs become birds—and what good is half a wing? Join Joe and a few brave chickens as they recreate a brilliant experiment that helps solve one of evolution’s greatest mysteries: the origin of feathered flight.

The James Webb Telescope just took a photo of a newly discovered exoplanet. Exciting stuff but the raw image just looks like a small, faint dot—not a fully detailed world. The question is, just how big would a telescope need to be to actually see an alien world in detail? Let’s explore diffraction, resolution, wild telescope tech, and one mind-blowing idea that could change everything.

Dire wolves are back—sort of. Colossal Biosciences claims to have resurrected this extinct predator, but what did they really do? Joe talks with the scientists behind the headlines to explore the truth, tech, and ethics of “de-extinction.”

Plants eat sunlight and air to make life. But the key enzyme behind it all, called RuBisCO, isn’t actually all that great at its job. Let’s talk about how photosynthesis really works, why oxygen isn’t coming from where you think, and whether we can fix the biggest flaw in one of Earth’s most essential processes.

The oldest rocks on Earth are more than just ancient—they’re time machines, holding clues to Earth’s missing history and revealing what happened in the unknown times after the Big Bang. We’ll work with our Adam and Joss from Howtown to learn more and visit our friends at The Smithsonian to examine some of these beyond-ancient rocks ourselves.

This is one of the weirdest mysteries of human evolution: Why do we have grandmas? From menopause to our slow maturation and super-long lifespans, humans are quite unique in the animal kingdom. Could grandma be an evolutionary secret weapon? Or is she just a quirky side effect of living long lives?