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Edison’s 1877 Tinfoil Phonograph, a NMAH demonstration
“Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office,” a December 1877 Scientific American article describes, “placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our...
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Cottage Pudding and Lemon Sauce, a Victorian era recipe
What was it like to bake a Victorian era dessert in Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo region during the early 1900s? Journey back in time with this serene video from Parcs Canada, featuring a recipe for...
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How did the colors get their names?
“The earliest humans didn’t have words for colors; they had words for objects and actions. It took tens of thousands of years for those words to evolve into the names of the colors we use today....
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Lozen: Fearless Apache Warrior
Born around 1840 near Ojo Caliente in present-day New Mexico, a young Chihenne Chiricahua Apache warrior and medicine woman challenged the traditional expections of the era’s Apache societies. Her name...
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Why did eclipses used to be terrifying?
“These days, we know exactly when eclipses are going to happen – we even look forward to them. But humans didn’t learn to predict eclipses because they were exciting – it was because long ago, eclipses...
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How did life on Earth begin?
“The dance between life and the planet has been going on for a long time,” entomologist Dr Samuel Ramsey explains in this Crash Course Biology video. And though Earth held the essential ingredients for...
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What does it mean when some of a rainbow is missing?
“In the early 1800s, a German physicist named Joseph von Fraunhofer noticed something strange. He was looking at sunlight as it passed through a prism and spread out on a wall when he realized part of...
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Why do pennies turn green?
A newly minted penny is a sight to behold. Its surface gleams with a brilliant shine, almost like a coin from a pirate’s treasure chest. The design on the front, typically featuring Abraham Lincoln’s...
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What are sponge cities?
What is a sponge city, and how can it combat the extreme flooding linked to fossil-fueled climate change? Sponge cities are reimagined urban areas that imitate the natural water cycle. They prioritize...
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The Story Behind The Word “Mesmerize”
“In the late 18th century, a doctor showed up in Paris practicing some very peculiar medicine. He would escort patients into dimly lit rooms, wave his arms over their bodies, and touch them with a...
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4.5 Billion Years in 1 Hour: Kurzgesagt animates “All of History”
“Earth is 4.5 billion years old – which is approximately the same amount of time it took us to create this video,” the Kurzgesagt team jokes about their animated one hour movie, an epic video that...
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Little Land by Diana Sudyka, a picture book storytime video
It’s hard to truly understand the changes that Earth has gone through over the last 200 years, let alone the last 500,000,000 or 4,500,000,000. But “from the prehistoric past to the dramatic...
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Making a four strand rope of tarred hemp using a historic ropewalk
In northern Europe during the 1600s, rope was made by hand from natural materials like hemp or flax using a ropewalk. By the early 1800s, the demand for longer and thicker ropes, particularly for ship...
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Making pastéis de Tentúgal the traditional way
Watch artisanal mastery and generations of culinary heritage come together in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. In a room with clean white sheets draped across the floor, paper thin layers of pastéis de...
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The Cell: Take a tour with Crash Course Biology
“The cell is the basic unit of life, and our understanding of it has advanced as science, and the tools available to scientists, has advanced. In this episode of Crash Course Biology, we’ll take a look...
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