Explained
The Explained series of shorts are moments of illumination: An expert explaining a fundamental concept, idea, or theory from his or her field. It's a good way to brush up in a fun, engaging way on those complex topics you thought you knew, but maybe you don't. Let the world's best minds help you out with impressive conversation for that next cocktail party. Updated regularly.
Shorts
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Get to Know Your Gerontologist
Aubrey de Grey -
The Higgs Boson: What Are We Looking For?
Monica Dunford -
Brian Greene and Lawrence Krauss on CERN’s Higgs Announcement
Brian Greene, Lawrence M. Krauss -
Looking Through the Eyes of Mathematics
Keith Devlin -
The Origin of Numbers
Robert Krulwich, Jonathan Borwein, Marcus du Sautoy, Simon Singh -
Interpreting Animal Dreams
Matthew Wilson -
What is Parasomnia?
Carlos H. Schenck -
What Is Public Key Encryption?
Tal Rabin
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Cryptography: Cracking Codes
Simon Singh -
The Enigma Machine Explained
Simon Singh -
Fa’afafine: How Do Homosexual Genes Survive?
Paul Vasey -
What is Sexual Orientation?
Andrew Solomon, Paul Vasey, Jim Pfaus -
Is Sexuality a Choice?
Jim Pfaus, Paul Vasey, Meredith Chivers -
How Do Holograms Work?
Leonard Susskind -
What Is the Holographic Principle?
Peter Galison, Brian Greene, Cumrun Vafa -
How Do We Smell?
Leslie Vosshall
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What Is Memory?
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What Is Genius?
Dean Keith Simonton, Brian Greene -
The Science of Sleep
Alan Alda, Giulio Tononi -
The Question You’re All Asking…
Sandra Magnus, Leland Melvin -
Q & A from the ISS
Tracy Caldwell Dyson -
Where Are These Universes Coming From?
Andrei Linde -
Flat, Clumpy, and Same
Alan Guth -
Why Are We Here and Not There?
Brian Greene
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Awkward Cosmology
Brian Greene -
Searching for Stellar Transits
David Charbonneau -
A Drop in the Bucket
Jill Tarter -
Mars Rover on Final Approach
Steven Squyres -
Global Location Made Easy
William Phillips -
The Best Tickers are Atoms
William Phillips -
Magnetic Magic
William Phillips -
Why Are Scientists Most Like Children?
William Phillips
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Can We Reach Absolute Zero?
William Phillips -
Instinctually Musical
Lawrence Parsons -
The Faint Echoes of Memory
Frank Tong -
It Sounds Like You’re Talking About Mind Reading
John-Dylan Haynes -
The Ant Cemetery
Edward O. Wilson -
How Many Stars Are There in the Sky?
Mike Francis -
Order out of Chaos: Ant Communication
Josh Zepps, Edward O. Wilson -
Fighting Ant Foes
Edward O. Wilson
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Creating the Illusion of 3D
Buzz Hays -
Building a Better Spyglass
Mike Francis -
Of Stars and Crystalline Spheres
Mike Francis -
Understanding Monkey Talk
Klaus Zuberbühler -
Where Does Seeing Happen?
Christopher W. Tyler -
Risk Genetics
Robert C. Green -
General Relativity
Brian Greene -
The Social Neuron
Patrick R. Hof
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Incompleteness and Complexity
Gregory Chaitin -
Platonism vs. Formalism
Mario Livio -
How Loud Can You Go?
Christopher Shera -
Hawking Radiation
Kip Thorne -
How We Hear
Christopher Shera -
Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein -
The Standard Model and Supersymmetry
Frank Wilczek -
LHC: ALICE Experiment
Jennifer Klay


