Russian Multiplication, an astonishing way to multiply
How do you multiply numbers? Try doubling and halving. Forget fractions and any rows with even numbers in the left column. Add up the right column and you’ve got Russian Multiplication, an astonishing...
View ArticleThe Story of Physics, an animated historical summary
Balls, pendulums, apples and magnets all played their part in the story of modern physics, but then things got weird. And when Albert Einstein combined time and space, things got even weirder – step...
View ArticleKatherine Johnson, the girl who loved to count
“They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon, and she gave it to them. Wielding little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country…” These are the first lines...
View ArticleHidden Stories: Dorothy Vaughan
Dorothy Vaughan was a mathematician, a human computer, and an electronic computing pioneer who helped send satellites into space and put the first man on the moon. Back when NASA was called NACA,...
View ArticleVisualizing the Pyramids of Giza
With an accurate reconstruction of the Sphinx and “each and every structure” included, this model provides a fresh visualization of the Giza necropolis. Harvard Professor Peter Der Manuelian provides a...
View ArticleChiako Yamamoto and the ancient art of Bonsai
Bonsai is the ancient Japanese art of shaping trees into potted miniature marvels that represent majestic full-size trees on a landscape. It takes painstaking attention and artful pruning over many...
View ArticleShould we eat bugs?
What’s tasty, abundant and high in protein? Bugs! Although less common outside the tropics, entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs, was once extremely widespread throughout cultures. You may feel...
View ArticleGaylord Nelson and how Earth Day got started
“Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.” But how did Earth Day get started? It was inspired by the student anti-war movement...
View ArticleMilly Zantow: Recycling Revolutionary
When Milly Zantow learned about a problem in her Sauk County community – a landfill closing much earlier than it should – she took action. Seeing for herself that there was too much plastic waste, she...
View ArticleHow is toilet paper made?
How is toilet paper made? Go behind the scenes of a Swansea Sofidel paper mill in Wales to see how cellulose is mixed with water and refined into a pulp that can be made into a gigantic toilet paper...
View ArticleWhat is Magna Carta? These British Library animations explain its 800-year...
What is Magna Carta? And why does Magna Carta still matter 800 years after it was first sealed? Travel back in history to 13th century England with narrator and Monty Python alum Terry Jones to witness...
View ArticleAn 18th-century No-Nails Survival Shelter
Watch eighteenth-century lifestyle YouTube host and Indiana-based proprietor Jon Townsend build a “Frontiersman’s Survival Shelter” with no nails. “The wilderness is a very harsh environment and...
View ArticleChief Oshkosh and a history of Menominee Forest conservation
During a time when many American Indian nations were being forced off their lands by the United States government, Chief Oshkosh worked to negotiate treaties that would allow the Menominee to stay in...
View ArticleA drone tour of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (USAF)
Take a tour of the world’s largest military aviation museum with over seven minutes of mini quadcopter footage run backward and forward. First-person drone videographer Paul Nurkkala got the...
View ArticleRiding through the woodland on a mule
Listen to the clip-clop of hooves on the woodland floor, the squeak of leather from the saddle, and birds singing in the distance, all while watching the back of a mule’s head. This calming...
View ArticleSonia Boyce, Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama, Georgia O’Keefe, and Dayanita...
“Do it because you’re thinking it and feeling it and it’s got to be expressed. So just get on with it.” These are the words of British Afro-Caribbean artist Sonia Boyce on the creation of art. Boyce is...
View ArticleAlexander von Humboldt, renowned naturalist and explorer
This animated introduction of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), narrated by Jeopardy! champion and author Ken Jennings, chronicles how naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt mixed his passion...
View ArticleArt of the Marbler (1970)
Liquid colors are combed into intricate patterns before being carefully caught onto large pieces of paper. The resulting sheets are used to cover hand-bound books at Douglas Cockerell & Son...
View ArticleSucceed by Failing: Failure points and how to fix them
Failure is a huge part of learning and creating. When you fail at something, you’re collecting information, practicing, and coming up with new solutions that can help improve the project and your...
View ArticleInside the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben’s Restoration
Standing through the reigns of six British monarchs, the tenures of 30 different prime ministers and some of the greatest and darkest moments of its country’s history, Big Ben has witnessed the birth...
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