Videos

The Countdown is a biweekly video show highlighting the top space news stories. In this special episode, we countdown the five most bizarre, extreme and just plain weird exoplanets discovered so far.

Scientific American editor Larry Greenemeier explains how lifelike robots and animations can elicit a response that's somewhere between uncomfortable and creeped out.

Contagious yawning can be annoying, but it might also be a sign of good social skills. It is a type of emotional contagion, a phenomenon in which we tend to share the feelings of people around us. SA MIND editor Sandra Upson explains.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories. In this week's episode: Curved Universe, Pluto's Atmosphere, 'Gravity' Fact-Checked, Martian Water and Supervolcanoes on Mars.

Protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii rendered mice unafraid of cat odor, even after the infection cleared, according to a study published this week in PLoS ONE. SA contributor Joss Fong reports.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories from the past two weeks. In this week's episode: Voyager hits a milestone, farming on the ISS, the peanut in our galaxy, LADEE launches and shock synthesis.

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union turned its attention to Venus and managed to take the first pictures on the surface of another world with the Venera landers.

At the heart of quantum mechanics is a mysterious equation known as the wave function. It helps explain the behavior of elementary particles, but also challenges the notion that there's only one reality. SA editor Michael Moyer explains.

With sensitive instruments and some creative translations, astronomers can derive the sounds of a silent universe. Scientific American contributor Sophie Bushwick explains.

A study in the journal Science reveals that a juvenile form of the insect Issus Coleoptratus evolved gears to help with jumping. This is the first time working gears have been observed in an animal species.

The Countdown is a biweekly video podcast highlighting the top space news stories from the past two weeks. In this episode: Martian Ancestors?, China Moon Landing, Greenland's Grand Canyon, ISS Printer and Tabletop Big Bang.

Vaccinating most of a population can provide fringe benefits for all. Why do your neighbor’s vaccinations help make you safer from infection? SA’s Dina Fine Maron takes a look at herd immunity and explains how it helps keep outbreaks at bay.