This video from NASA introduces a proposed mission to study potential habitable worlds around gas giants such as Jupiter. The Europa Jupiter System Mission, a proposed joint venture between NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency), would send two spacecraft to study Jupiter and its four largest moon
Learn about the education of chemist Percy Julian. Julian's early educational years paralleled an educational movement that prepared African Americans for industrial jobs, the growing white supremacist movement, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Julian would eventually move north, and finally to Eur
Discover how scientists compare the reflected red, blue, and green light from planets in our solar system to identify Earthlike planets beyond our solar system more easily. Carolyn Crow, a member of the Deep Impact science team, describes how the amount of green, blue, and red light reflected by pla
Learn about powerful cyclones seen at Saturn's north and south poles in this video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From a distance, Saturn appears to be serene; however, the Cassini spacecraft has provided detailed views that show the planet's active atmosphere. A giant cyclone (with a diamet
In this video excerpt from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about an area of the brain that is involved with both language processing and the creation of stone tools. Correspondent and New York Times technology columnist David Pogue explores how tool-making (an ancient human skill that requires complex, seque
In the early 1900s, most geologists thought that Earth's appearance, including the arrangement of the continents, had changed little since its formation. This video segment, adapted from the "Earth Explorer" episode of Discovering Women, describes the impact the theory of plate tectonics has had on
This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey uses models, vivid descriptions, and analogies to explain the structural integrity of matter at the atomic level. You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but the atoms that make up a solid piece of iron contain more space than stuff. How is it then th
In this video from NASA, learn about the history of defining a planet, and examine how classification changes based on new knowledge. Our understanding of the solar system has evolved since the ancient Greeks, who first used the word planetes to distinguish the objects that moved against the backdro
This video segment adapted from NOVA, features cancer researcher Dr. Judah Folkman and describes his approach to proving a new idea he had about how tumors grow inside the body. His idea focuses on angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. Dr. Folkman designed experiments to test his central
Discover how and why Curiosity, the Mars rover, measures wind and radiation on Mars. Mars Science Laboratory scientist Ashwin Vasavada describes two of the instruments onboard the rover that study Mars' present environment. The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) measures high-energy radiation from
Explore how human understanding of planetary orbits has changed throughout history in this video about Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Kepler's three laws of planetary motion accurately describe the elliptical orbits of objects around the Sun. This video presents the story of Johannes Kepler and
Explore the exciting discoveries from two NASA missions to study comets, Stardust and Deep Impact, which collected valuable data about the nature of comets. The Stardust spacecraft was designed to capture dust particles from comet Wild 2 and deliver them to Earth for analysis. The Deep Impact missio
