Why don’t you have a seat and let James May explain to you exactly how we came to the measurement of time we call a second. I certainly didn’t know when and why it came to be. I’ve only known James May as a presenter on Top Gear, but it seems like he also likes to spend his time teaching us things on Youtube. Might be worth checking out more.

This is an interesting video that seems to be a conversation about finding new planets set to an animation. Most of what these guys are saying I won’t even pretend to be able to fully grasp, but I was able to understand a few basic concepts from watching this video.

I was surprised to learn yesterday that Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and his crew had arrived back on Earth from the ISS, I hadn’t realized Expedition 35 was coming back so soon.  You may remember a couple videos I posted before from Chris Hadfield. Pretty much everything he’s put out is worth watching as he’s really in to interacting with us earthlings.

Additionally there is a video of the actual extraction of the astronauts if you’re interested in seeing a bunch of disoriented men sit in giant baby seats.

Not so much a how-to video, but more of a chronicle of one man’s journey through turning wood into something more useful. This is a very neat video that actually does go step by step through his process of making this contraption. The simplicity of this video really makes me think I could do something like this.

We’ve all heard the legends of their ability to survive and I’m sure some of us refuse to believe it but the fact remains that cockroaches are incredibly resilient creatures. This video will give a rundown of just why they are so special and which cockroaches are more special than others. This video isn’t for everyone.

Another random clip today but this one was just too interesting to pass up. These ants have linked together, are floating on top of water and now even with the force of a tool coming down on them they won’t sink below the surface. Pretty cool.

Here’s a short clip of a meteor flying in over Japan and then exploding in the atmosphere. It’s good to know someone’s at least keeping an eye on all this stuff flying around in space.

The thought of making a stop-motion animation with atoms probably never would have entered my mind for my whole life had I not seen this video. I am grateful for all the creativity in the world, especially when it’s as surprising as this.

If there exists a species on this planet that did not originate here, and that species is one we have already discovered, it is likely the Tardigrade. Though they are just barely microscopic, they seem to share many characteristics with humans. This particular scientist discovered that these guys seem to be spread evenly across the Earth. Most importantly, however, it is the only known Earth-dwelling creature to be able to survive in the extreme conditions of space.

Have we been co-existing with an alien life-form we didn’t even realize was there? Maybe it’ll only take a little bit more prying to find out.

I don’t usually like to post trailers for movies, but this one seems particularly interesting. It’s a project of a photographer names James Balog who decided to try and get an up close look at the rapidly changing glaciers in the northern hemisphere.

What I find interesting is how unique some of this footage is. They are filming dramatic changes that would have otherwise gone unseen by anyone. Apparently the film was released in the fall of 2012, so go check it out if you’re interested.

John Green, the man behind many interesting Youtube videos and series is back with a very intriguing lineup of facts about U.S. Presidents. I figured I would know many of these since presidential trivia is usually pretty common but he seems to have dug up some pretty unique stuff, the majority of which was new to me. Enjoy!

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is currently aboard the International Space Station and just loves to teach and entertain us by showing us what it’s like to live day to day in a weightless environment. I believe I’ve posted a video of his before on washing your hands and he’s back at it with another every day task you may have never thought about doing in such an environment.

These videos are simple but very fascinating to me. It’s an environment with completely different physical properties from what we’re used to and that can pose challenges to do doing things we take for granted. Of course after a while I’m sure these guys don’t think twice about having a bubble of water in front of your face you can drink because they’re up there for a much more important purpose, to expand humanity’s knowledge about space.

These types of demonstrations are always interesting to me. The most interesting part being the comparison of healthy and unhealthy foods in terms of amount of calories.

For instance I was very pleased to see that a Cinnabon has the same amount of calories as a Cobb salad. I’m sure they’re just as equal in every other nutritional category as well.

Exploration seems to be the first step in everything. Before you can know what something is, know how it can help you, know if it’s dangerous, you have to actually go out and see it for the first time.

It’s hard to imagine, but even after all of the exploring we’ve done on land, most of our planet still remains a mystery to us. Well explorers like Dave Gallo here have made it their life’s mission to reveal more of our world to us. Who knows what useful and interesting things that are out there just waiting to be seen and studied. I wouldn’t be surprised if this talk he gave created a handful of future explorers who will give us even more.

Watch Will 3D Printing Change the World? on PBS. See more from Off Book.

When you first hear about 3D printing, it seems like a novelty, you can make random little models of whatever you like and there’s no real consequence. Well as it turns out, the 3D printer could be the most important thing to happen to the world of consumers and business in a long time. Check out this video to see why.

Imagine if your simple photoshop skills could advance medical science. It’s possible that these people have done basically that. Using a sort of video filter, they are able to take video footage of any person and exaggerate the tiny movements they are making to give you more of an idea of how their vitals are doing.

You can detect heartbeat, blood circulation, and breathing all with just a video image. I think it compares to things you can learn studying living things in slow motion, it kind of gives you another perspective for what’s going on. I’m all for stuff like this.

I’m guessing if you closed your eyes and thought about the Solar System you would see the standard flat platter of moving parts. Well this is all fine when you’re studying the relative positions of the different planets and how they orbit the sun, but it turns out just picturing the Solar System in that stagnant position is cheating it a bit.

This simple animation gives us a little bit more perspective of the amount of movement we’re doing. It’s pretty crazy to think that as still as the ground below us seems, we’re on a giant rock that is not only rotating and orbiting the sun, but also following the sun as it blazes through the universe. We’re going for quite a ride.

This is a bit of a different kind of video to share, but I found it so interesting that I had to do it anyway. It’s a trailer for a documentary about a fascinating woman named Vivian Maier. She was an amateur photographer whose works were unknown to the world until after her death in 2009. Now I don’t pretend to be anything close to an expert on photography, but even I couldn’t help but appreciate the value of the images she took. It looks like the full film will be released sometime in 2013. I can’t wait to check it out.

This video is an inspiring example of one great discovery leading to another. I’ve never even heard of graphene before so I definitely had no idea it could be the key to what will be the batteries of the future. Check out how these scientists not only found a very easy way to produce graphene, but also the discovery that could change the way we charge our devices.

Crash Course is back with a brand new series! You may remember I’ve posted videos from their World History and Biology series before. The Green brothers are at it again with this new series focusing in on US History. They have quite the library built up of these videos now so there’s no excuse to go take 20 minutes and learn something. Do it now!

Here’s a neat little video where an astronaut answers a student’s question about staying clean in a “weightless” environment. It’s kind of funny how difficult it is to make a presentation when all the items you show will just float around you when you’re done with them. Makes me wish all informercials were forced to take place on space stations.

I think it’s a pretty universal opinion that landmines are some of the most atrocious installations of wartime, mostly because of the affect they have well after the war. This device may not work in all landmine-stricken environments, and isn’t even designed to be completely effective, but what it able to accomplish for the cost is extremely valuable to people who live in such places. This is the type of innovation the world needs more of.