Explain This

What is electricity made up of? How do power plants use magnets to generate electricity? What is the largest machine in the world? How can you make a mountain into a battery?
Join us for our first one-hour-plus episode as we cover a lot of ground in helping you understand the complex and deep world of electrical physics!
Basic circuit
Current, voltage, resistance as garden hose courtesy of Freeing Energy
Voltaic pile - pictures courtesy of Ted-Ed
Electric eel electrocyte anatomy
Veritasium video on electric field lines
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

What does it mean to be functionally literate? How does reading help protect you from being manipulated and controlled? Why are books burned and banned in dystopias?
Let's delve deep into understanding the sinister social threat of rising illiteracy rates, and why you should give a hoot about reading and writing!
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

What is the REAL story behind penicillin? How do antibiotics treat infections? Should we be worried about superbugs taking over the world?
Jin geeks out on one of his favourite medical topics and teaches you about our table-turning super weapons against humanity's bane - bacteria.
Relevant XKCD comic
Alexander Fleming's original petri dishes showing the effect of penicillin
Anatomy of bacteria
Beta-lactam ring structure
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

How do you fly in the sky? What do swoll pecs have to do with flying? Is it true that physics says that bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly?
We're back from our hiatus with an exciting episode on how planes, birds and bees take to the sky and soar freely!
Airfoil, camber, angle of attack and how Newton's Third Law of Motion creates lift
Bernoulli's principle visualised with a wine bottle
Video of how various birds move their wings during flight
Diagram of how leading edge vortices cling to an insect's wings to generate lift
Visualisation of inferior mirage
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

How can you use the Sun, the stars, and time to measure your location on Earth? Why were clocks instrumental in conquering the seas? How can you use shadows and wells to prove that the Earth is round?
Today, we learn all about the science of location, location, location! And the fascinating history of how sailors navigated the high seas before satellites and Google Maps.
Latitude and longitude visualised
Using latitude and longitude as coordinates
Eratosthene's method for calculating Earth's circumference
Astrolabe
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

How do infections kill us? What happens when my immune system overreacts? Why is horseshoe crab blood important in medicine?
All these questions and more are answered in today's episode, covering the often misunderstoon topic of sepsis. Step inside my world of emergency medicine, and how we fight against infectious diseases!
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

How can you split a supposedly indivisible atom to release a lot of energy? Why was this discovery so controversial in the context of history? What does Einstein have to do with nukes? Are nuclear reactors good or evil?
We dive into the nature of the fundamental particles that make up everything in the world, and how we came to harness the awesome yet terrible power that is nuclear energy!
Anatomy of an atom
Nuclear chain reaction visualised
Gun-type vs implosion-type nuclear weapon designs
Half-Arsed History - Episode 197: The History of Nuclear Weapons
Kurzgesagt - Nuclear Energy Explained
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

What can star signs tell me about my personality and love life? (spoiler: nothing.) How did the Zodiac come about? Who is the mysterious, hidden thirteenth Zodiac sign?
Let's kick off 2024 not with pseudoscience, but some real astronomical science and fascinating Greek mythololgy stories!
Image of what the Zodiac band looks like, and each constellation
Rod of Asclepius vs Caduceus
Example of The Mentalist cold reading
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

Why do smokers  live 10-18 years fewer on average than non-smokers? What is in cigarette tar and why is it deadly? How can smoking cause impotence? Should I vape?
In today's episode, we do a deep dive and tackle the world's greatest cause of preventable death in human society: smoking tobacco!
Graph showing relationship between smoking and lung cancer prevalence
Diagram of lung anatomy
Photo comparison of healthy vs smoker's lungs
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

How can you squeeze in infinite people into an already full hotel? Are some infinities bigger than others? What's the relationship between infinity and zero?
Come explore the boundless, magical world of infinity with the help of some fantastical thought experiments!
Zig zag method to convert a grid into a line
Cantor's diagonal argument visualised
Möebius Strip II, 1964 - M.C. Escher
Ouroboros
Lemniscate symbol in Roman mosaics
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explainthiscast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExplainThisCast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explainthiscast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@explainthiscast 

Opening music: "Groundwork" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0