The discovery of King Tut and what we’ve learned from his tomb
Ever wonder how Egyptian royalty lived 3,000 years ago? In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter’s discovery of an intact tomb revealed a wealth of artifacts and information that turned King Tut...
View ArticleLives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Explore the personal stories of the people who were enslaved at Mount Vernon, George Washington‘s 19th century home on the Potomac River in Virginia. An introduction to the Lives Bound Together:...
View ArticleThe Story of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde
Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde is not only a treasure trove of specimens and a pioneer in the history of natural history museums but, having celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2010, it has also...
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The infinite life of pi
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is always the same: 3.14159… and on and on (literally!) forever. This irrational number, pi, has an infinite number of digits, so we’ll never...
View ArticleEvolution 101 & how natural selection works – NOVA PBS
What is evolution, how has it created Earth’s biodiversity, and how can a phylogenetic or evolutionary tree—a tree of life—help us better understand how different species are related? Learn some basics...
View ArticleThe 90-year-old armchair archaeologist
Space archaeologist Sarah Parcak is a modern-day Indiana Jones. She analyzes satellite imagery in order to find ancient sites hidden from view. With GlobalXplorer, an online platform using the power of...
View ArticleHow long have we known about climate change?
What is climate change, how long have we known about it, what will its effects be, and what can we do to help solve it? Hot Mess is a new PBS Digital Studios YouTube series from hosts Miriam Nielsen,...
View ArticleWhy Isn’t Pluto A Planet?
Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several...
View ArticleBack to the Moon, a 360° Google Doodle celebrating film director Georges Méliès
In the animation Back to the Moon, the first virtual reality/360° interactive Doodle, Google celebrates French film director and illusionist Georges Méliès. The piece is a collaboration with Google...
View ArticleThe playful wonderland behind great inventions
Music boxes, automatons, harpsichords, typewriters, flutes, fabric-making machines, modern computers. Explore the playful wonderland behind these great inventions from around the globe, the unnecessary...
View ArticleHow to make a turquoise goblet
How did the Venetians make turquoise glass in the late 1400s? Find out as Bill Gudenrath, glass specialist at the Corning Museum of Glass, uses traditional glass blowing methods to create a replica of...
View ArticleThe precision and serendipity of Ebru (paper marbling)
Watch ebru artist Alparslan Babaoğlu as he floats bright blue and yellow flowers on the surface of water and then transfers the piece to paper. The Turkish artist spends nine peaceful minutes shaping...
View ArticleElizabeth Magie and the history of the board game Monopoly
In Monopoly, you try to buy land, build properties, and get rich while bankrupting your opponents. It’s a classic American game with many popular versions… including an original version that was...
View ArticleIntroducing the Dial Telephone, films from 1936 & 1954
Have you ever heard a dial tone or a busy signal? How did we call someone before speed dial and push-button telephones, but after people stopped needing to speak with a switchboard operator? Behold the...
View ArticleHow deep is the ocean?
How deep is the ocean? How far down have humans traveled and what did we find when we went there? This Tech Insider animation shows us the “vast distance between the waves we see and the mysterious...
View ArticleA Visual History of Light, animated
400,000 years ago, humans and Neanderthals created fire. This ignited a relationship between people and photons that changed the course of mankind—and continues to evolve to this day. Take a tour...
View ArticleHow Dangerous Are The Northwest’s Volcanoes?
In Oregon, Washington and Idaho, magma has erupted out of the ground in at least 25 places in the last 10,000 years, a mere instant in the lifetime of volcanoes that can be hundreds of thousands of...
View ArticleThe untold history of ironworking in central & west Africa
In the lush forests of modern-day Central African Republic, sometime between 1800 and 1500 BC, craftsmen are believed to have discovered iron. New evidence indicates that ironworking began in the heart...
View ArticleBicycle Models from 1818 to the 1890s
Take a gander at the designs of these Victorian velocipedes, early styles of bicycles and other pedal-powered vehicles, over the course of around 70 years. This 1915 film from France, with explainer...
View ArticleMars 101: An introduction to the red planet
From its blood-like hue to its potential to sustain life, Mars has intrigued humankind for thousands of years. Learn how the red planet formed from gas and dust and what its polar ice caps mean for...
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