Overview

Chock-full of even more astounding and mind-blowing moments, Mind-Blowing Science: Season 2 brings a new batch of Scientific American’s most popular articles to life.

Mind-Blowing Science is back! Season 2 of our National Capital Emmy® Award-winning series has arrived and it’s filled with even more mind-blowing moments as a new batch of Scientific American’s most intriguing articles are brought to life.

For those who are not already familiar with the venerable publication Scientific American, it was founded in 1845 and is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. Devoted to covering the advances in research and discoveries that are changing our understanding of the world and shaping our lives, Scientific American provides insights and illumination about the most important developments at the intersection of science and society. More than 200 Nobel Prize winners have contributed to this flagship publication, along with thousands of scientific experts across dozens of subjects, including Albert Einstein.

We invite you to join more than a dozen esteemed experts and take a deep dive across a broad assortment of fascinating topics that range from the Antikythera mechanism to the 300 “close calls” the Earth has had with asteroids.

Course Outline

01: Do We Live in a Simulation?

Is the world real, or could it—and you—just be a simulation? This episode examines the evidence for and against one of our most basic assumptions about existence.

Duration: 15 min

02: A Model Octopus

Dive into the mind of an octopus and see what we can learn about ourselves by comparing the human brain to the octopus brain.

Duration: 12 min

03: How to Control Your Feelings

Discover the five stages of emotional regulation and how you can learn to control your feelings to make smarter choices in challenging situations.

Duration: 21 min

04: How Birds Branched Out

Explore the history, evolution, and anatomy of birds to understand how they diversified into the many species we see today.

Duration: 13 min

05: Survival of the Friendliest

Learn how cooperative communication allowed Homo sapiens to thrive and how social sophistication influenced natural selection.

Duration: 19 min

06: A New Map of the Universe

Examine the largest map of the cosmos ever made and how it provides crucial information for studying cosmic history and dark energy.

Duration: 17 min

07: How Stress Shuts Down Your Brain

Discover what happens inside our heads during high-stress situations and how biological sex plays a role in our reactions to stress.

Duration: 16 min

08: Protecting Earth from Asteroids

Learn how NASA and other organizations monitor asteroids and prepare for potential impacts, despite the low likelihood of a catastrophic event.

Duration: 20 min

09: Extreme Birding

Follow Frank Gallo and the Raven Lunatics as they attempt to break their personal best record for bird species spotted in a single day.

Duration: 26 min

10: Lifting the Venus Curse

Explore the mysteries of Venus and what recent data from NASA could reveal about its transformation into an unearthly world.

Duration: 16 min

11: Top Emerging Technologies

Investigate how emerging technologies may help address global challenges such as climate change, health, energy use, and food production.

Duration: 13 min

12: Secrets of the Antikythera Machine

Join Tony Freeth to uncover the complexities of the Antikythera Machine, an ancient Greek device that defies historical timelines.

Duration: 15 min

13: Humans Are Still Evolving

Explore how human evolution is ongoing and what the future may hold for our species in the context of our evolutionary history.

Duration: 16 min

14: Psychedelic Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders

Examine the latest research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and its potential as a treatment for mental disorders.

Duration: 7 min

15: Should Doctors Stop Prescribing Weight Loss?

Discover new approaches to health that focus less on weight loss and more on overall well-being, challenging traditional healthcare assumptions.

Duration: 15 min