primary source
17:20The Extreme Engineering of ASML’s EUV Light Source
698K views • 4 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry explains the EUV light source inside ASML's lithography machines, where lasers hit falling tin droplets twice to produce 13.5 nm light. It walks through the engineering of the droplet generator, the pre-pulse and main laser, and the plasma that results.
18:20FIXING the ENTIRE SM64 Source Code (INSANE N64 performance)
3.2M views • 4 years ago
Kaze Emanuar
Kaze Emanuar explains how he rewrote and optimized the Super Mario 64 source code so it runs far faster on real N64 hardware. He covers performance bottlenecks and fixes in detail for his ROM hacks.
19:40How I Designed a Free Music Font for 5 Million Musicians (MuseScore 3.6)
608K views • 5 years ago
Tantacrul
Tantacrul explains how he and engraver Simon Smith designed the free music notation font for MuseScore 3.6. It draws on the history of the SCORE notation application by Leland Smith.
9:13Worst Nuclear Accidents in History
10.9M views • 5 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt compares how many people nuclear accidents have killed against other energy sources. It walks through the worst nuclear accidents and puts their death tolls in context per unit of energy.
18:58How The Auto Industry Carjacked The American Dream | Climate Town
922K views • 5 years ago
Climate Town
A Climate Town video on how the auto industry reshaped American cities and culture through advertising, lobbying and campaigns like the 1939 World's Fair. It is snarky in tone but backed by a published source document.
11:10Why Japan's Conviction Rate is 99% (Actually Explained)
82K views • 6 years ago
That Japanese Man Yuta
Yuta explains what Japan's 99% conviction rate actually means, noting that prosecutors drop cases unless confidence is very high. He argues that the number is widely misunderstood and cites his sources.
8:20Is Organic Really Better? Healthy Food or Trendy Scam?
12.6M views • 7 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt explainer asking whether organic food is really healthier or better for the environment. It defines what organic means and looks at pesticide use, nutrition and environmental impact, with sources.
16:31The TRUTH About How LTT Makes Money
1.9M views • 1 year ago
Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips breaks down the company's income streams, including sponsors, YouTube Premium, merch and other products. It gives percentages for each revenue source.
18:13Try to Rule Fairly and You'll Be Overthrown
26M views • 10 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey's animated adaptation of The Dictator's Handbook, explaining how rulers stay in power by keeping a small group of key supporters happy rather than ruling fairly. It lays out selectorate theory and how resources shape regimes.
12:01Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea
5.1M views • 6 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott explains why electronic voting is a bad idea. Elections must be trusted by everyone and attacks on software scale in ways attacks on paper do not, so open source or blockchain fixes do not solve it.
17:08Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud
2.3M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes argues that urban noise comes mostly from motor vehicles, drawing on the book Curbing Traffic and a visit to Delft, a city that takes noise seriously.
15:50Can YOU Fix Climate Change?
14.3M views • 5 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt examines what individuals can do about climate change, covering lesser-known carbon sources and why systemic and political change matter more than personal footprints.
10:36Why Would AI Want to do Bad Things? Instrumental Convergence
274K views • 8 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains instrumental convergence: why an AGI with almost any goal would tend to pursue sub-goals like self-preservation and resource acquisition. It builds on Omohundro's basic AI drives and his orthogonality thesis video.
14:27The Biggest Myth In Education
15.5M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium debunks the idea of learning styles, such as being a visual learner, with an interview with Daniel Willingham and a memory experiment. It argues that a multimodal approach helps everyone.
10:51Is olive oil safe at high heat? Does it taste bad?
1.9M views • 6 years ago
Adam Ragusea
Adam Ragusea examines whether olive oil is unsafe for high-heat cooking and whether it tastes bad when heated. He cites studies showing it is among the most stable cooking oils and that smoke-point worries are overblown.
15:25Why Louisiana Stays Poor
1.7M views • 7 years ago
Together Louisiana
Together Louisiana asks why Louisiana stays poor despite its natural resources and industry, focusing on industrial tax exemptions and corporate welfare.
9:00Facebook Fraud
6.6M views • 12 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium argues that Facebook's ad revenue relies partly on fake likes, after paying to promote his page and gaining tens of thousands of followers in developing countries who never engaged. He shares his experiment and cites other cases.
6:47The US Has More Tribes Than the World Has Countries
7.3M views • 6 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains why "Indian" is often preferred over "Native American" in the United States, especially near reservations, and how many tribes exist in the US. He draws on conversations with people who identify as Indian.
12:42How To Terraform Venus (Quickly)
22.8M views • 5 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt lays out a speculative plan to terraform Venus, covering its hostile atmosphere and how it might be made Earth-like, with a sources page linked.
13:34Salt: Are you getting Enough? (More Sodium & Health)
1.4M views • 9 years ago
Joseph Everett - WIL
Joseph Everett argues, drawing on the book The Salt Fix, that most people benefit from more rather than less salt, and reviews studies on sodium, potassium and blood pressure.
18:01California's Renewable Energy Problem
1.6M views • 7 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering looks at the numbers for running California on renewables, focusing on the large energy storage needed. It argues about the cost of batteries and the role of other sources.
6:5013 Misconceptions About Global Warming
5.9M views • 12 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium debunks common climate change myths in under seven minutes, with references to NASA and published research. Topics include CO2 sources, sea ice and 1970s predictions of cooling.
13:07Loneliness
28.1M views • 7 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains why humans feel loneliness, its evolutionary role, and how modern life can turn it into a harmful downward spiral. It cites research and offers ideas on what to do about it.
12:00Do we have to accept Quantum weirdness? De Broglie Bohm Pilot Wave Theory explained
125K views • 9 years ago
Looking Glass Universe
Looking Glass Universe explains de Broglie-Bohm pilot wave theory (Bohmian mechanics) as an alternative to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics. The video lays out the pros and cons of the theory and links to related videos on contextuality and entanglement.
8:18Why Alien Life Would be our Doom - The Great Filter
27.9M views • 8 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A short Kurzgesagt animation explaining the Great Filter, the idea that finding alien life might be bad news because it implies something usually destroys civilizations. It connects the concept to the Fermi paradox.
5:51This Is Your Brain On Stale Air
4.2M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott features Kurtis Baute inside a sealed homemade biodome as carbon dioxide builds up, showing how stale air with elevated CO2 affects cognitive function. Sources include studies on CO2 and cognitive scores.
5:08Money creation in the modern economy - Quarterly Bulletin
281K views • 12 years ago
Bank of England
A short Bank of England video accompanying its 2014 Quarterly Bulletin article on money creation. It explains that most money is bank deposits and that commercial banks create new money by making loans, which simultaneously create matching deposits.
10:14Is Meat Really that Bad?
9.2M views • 4 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
A Kurzgesagt animated explainer on the climate and environmental cost of meat. It covers how beef drives deforestation and emissions, and how this compares with plant-based foods.
11:18The simple, clever sensor behind automatic windshield wipers
1.8M views • 2 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections explains how automatic windshield wiper rain sensors work, using an infrared light source and total internal reflection in the glass.
11:17The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
24.9M views • 11 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium visits Chernobyl, Fukushima and other places to find who on Earth is exposed to the most ionizing radiation. The answer turns out to be surprising and puts radiation risk in context.
12:40Tomb Raider on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is incredible | MVG
906K views • 4 years ago
Modern Vintage Gamer
Modern Vintage Gamer looks at OpenLara, an open source Tomb Raider engine, running on the Game Boy Advance. The video explains how the port achieves playable speeds on the GBA's slow ARM CPU, with input from the developer XProger.
9:39What Happened Before History? Human Origins
24.3M views • 10 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt's animated overview of human origins and the vast prehistory before recorded history. It covers how modern humans emerged and spread.
17:13India's Semiconductor Failure
1.6M views • 5 years ago
Asianometry
Asianometry explains why India, a chip design powerhouse, cannot fabricate chips, tracing the 1980s government attempt to build a national semiconductor champion and how it collapsed. It includes the sabotage at the SCL fab.
12:48Can We Terraform the Sahara to Stop Climate Change?
2.9M views • 8 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering examines whether greening the Sahara could draw down carbon and slow climate change. It concludes that the effort would be enormously costly and that changes in albedo and other effects undercut the climate benefit.
6:58The Skinner Box - How Games Condition People to Play More - Extra Credits
1.2M views • 14 years ago
Extra Credits
An Extra Credits episode on how games use Skinner box operant conditioning and reward schedules to keep players playing and spending. It argues for more immersive design mechanics than simple reward loops.
11:41TRUE Limits Of Humanity – The Final Border We Will Never Cross
23.6M views • 5 years ago
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Kurzgesagt explains why, even with science-fiction technology, most of the universe is permanently out of reach because of cosmic expansion and finite resources.
14:03Simulating alternate voting systems
4.5M views • 6 years ago
Primer
Primer uses simulations to compare voting systems such as first-past-the-post, approval, ranked choice and others. It shows how each system behaves and can be manipulated, with links to further voting theory resources.
15:01The Problem with Biofuels
2.1M views • 5 years ago
Real Engineering
Real Engineering explains why biofuels, especially corn ethanol, are a poor energy source, looking at energy inputs, efficiency and carbon cost.
11:00International Diversification
221K views • 3 years ago
Ben Felix
Ben Felix rebuts common arguments for holding only US stocks, such as past outperformance and international revenue exposure. He supports the case for international diversification with cited academic research.
16:30Why is light slower in glass? - Sixty Symbols
848K views • 13 years ago
Sixty Symbols
Professor Mike Merrifield of Nottingham explains in a mostly uncut conversation why light travels slower in glass. He treats light as a wave and describes how the material's electrons produce secondary waves that combine to slow it.