All Videos — April 13, 2011

Evolution Created Free Will

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

For billions of years on this planet, there was life but no free will. The difference is not in physics—which has remained the same—but is ultimately in biology, specifically evolutionary biology.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

How to make peace with the weirdness of quantum mechanics

Our classical intuition is no good in a quantum Universe. To make sense of it, we need to learn, and apply, an entirely novel set of rules.

Arms burdened with a large stack of papers, folders, and rolled-up documents, a person exemplifies toxic productivity. Their black bag hangs precariously from their arm as they navigate the weight of their workload.

The Learning Curve

How to break free from your “toxic productivity” cycle

Psychotherapist Israa Nasir explains how a “value-aligned life” can help us crush our goals — without being crushed by the need to accomplish more.

A golden-brown turkey being carefully lowered into a metal pot outdoors, ready for a deep fry amidst the grassy area and wooden fence.

Starts With A Bang

What happens if you deep fry a frozen turkey?

It’s the ultimate setup for a Thanksgiving Day disaster. The physics of water and its solid, liquid, and gas phases compels us not to do it.

A green and abstract background with connected molecular diagrams and labeled sections: "Building block" and "Assembly pool," with an "Assembly index: 8.

13.8

The pre-life puzzle: Tracing the rise of complexity in a lifeless world

We need a “theory that explains the evolution of evolution,” argues theoretical physicist Sara Imari Walker.

The Present

Microplastic overload: Is cutting production the only realistic way to curb pollution?

On November 25, U.N. members will meet in South Korea to cap off a series of meetings aiming to reduce global plastic pollution.

Up Next

Surprising Science

Why Quantum Physics Ends the Free Will Debate

Einstein believed that free will was just an illusion, and that awareness of this lack kept him from taking himself and others too seriously. But Einstein was plain wrong, says Dr. Kaku.