Videos

A collection of outtakes from Scientific American's Instant Egghead series. A full list of episodes featured can be found here.

In this special episode of The Countdown we highlight the coolest, biggest and most important space stories of 2013.

Could Mars support life? In this episode of The Countdown, we run through five intriguing lines of evidence that the red planet was not always as desolate as it appears, and may even be habitable today.

With an estimated 70 oil spills every day in the U.S. and tons of plastic littering our oceans, humans could use some help cleaning up. Scientific American editor David Biello explains how bacteria and other microbes are lending a hand.

Biologist Richard Dawkins coined the phrase "the selfish gene" with his best-selling book of the same name. "Selfish," however, was an unfortunate word choice, because genes lack a will and can actually drive altruism. SA editor Eric Olson explains.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories of the past two weeks. In this episode: Five facts about Comet ISON.

A 1967 United Nations treaty states that outer space isn't up for grabs.This hasn't stopped at least one entrepreneur from selling land on our closest celestial neighbors. SA editor Clara Moskowitz explains.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories from the past two weeks. In this episode: A Six-Tailed Asteroid, India's Mars Mission, Earth-like Exoplanets, Mapping the Russian Meteor's Path, and Lunar Topography.

We spend nearly a third of our lives asleep, but scientists don't agree on sleep's purpose. Scientific American contributor Joss Fong explains what we know, and don't know, about our nightly slumber.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories from the past two weeks. In this episode: A frigid nebula; Asteroid defense; Dating the arrival of water, A burst of solar flares, and the Tilted Kepler-56 system

How Does Meditation Change the Brain? Meditation can sharpen attention, strengthen memory and improve other mental abilities. Scientific American editor Ferris Jabr examines the changes in brain structure behind some of these benefits.

In the 1980s, the Soviets used an unflown scale space plane to test the heat shield of its Buran space plane.