science

YouTube isn't just for watching funny videos about cats, it's also a great place to get educated. No, really! Take SciShow, for example. This channel is dedicated to teaching the masses interesting things about science, computers, and all things geeky, in a highly entertaining way, thanks mostly in part to the adorably nerdy host, Hank.

Get schooled on things like solar energy, mind reading, and Tatooine, both in quick "dose" formats or longer, more involved episodes. Obviously an overachiever, host Hank also gives you the easy-to-digest lowdown on biology on a secondary channel. Classic geek move, right there.

What are some of your favorite educational YouTube channels? Share them with us (so we can get smarter together) in the comments!

In a recent episode of the BBC's A Night With the Stars, physicist Brian Cox (similar in reputation to Neil deGrasse Tyson, except British) enlisted the help of actor and geek we love, Simon Pegg, to explain the physics of why atoms are so vast yet empty.

Brian leads Simon and physicist Jim Al-Khalili in a giggly demonstration of standing wave principles in relation to the characteristics of atoms. We certainly could use these sorts of explanations in regards to the TARDIS in future Doctor Who episodes, don't you think?

They know you call them winged rats and they're sick of it. So pigeons are stepping up their game, taking back their name and proving they have a level of smarts city dwellers never knew about.

Re-creating an experiment from the 1990s that originally tested monkeys' ability to rank numbers from lowest to highest, researchers from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, discovered pigeons could be trained for the same task.

The study included a year of arithmetic training for the pigeons included using different shapes, sizes, and colors of items to learn the abstract rules of ordering groups of one, two, or three. The researchers advanced pigeon math training to include the numbers six and nine, with the birds selecting displayed screen images in the right order just as before with the lower numbers.

Bow down, pigeon naysayers, as it's only a few more years of training and studies before the urban birds move on to computer science and start crafting the next hot mobile OS.

When Albert Einstein died in 1955, the literal symbol of his brilliance — his brain — was preserved and pieces of it divided between research institutions for academic study. Now the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a medical history museum specializing in medical oddities, has some of those samples on display to the viewing public.

Forty-six slides containing pieces of Einstein's brain were donated to the museum by a neuropathologist from the city's children's hospital who wanted to ensure this bit of medical and scientific history was properly preserved and shared with the public.

The majority of the samples remain at Princeton's University Medical Center, where the autopsy of the groundbreaking physicist was performed at the time of his death. Researchers studied Einstein's brain over the last five decades searching for any physical clues when compared to other brains to explain the genius of the Nobel Prize winner.

For more information on visiting the exhibit, check out the Mütter Museum website. Are you interested in seeing the display in person?

Could this be the start of a real-life Jurassic Park? Paleontologists from the University of Alberta recently published their findings on dinosaur and bird feathers preserved in amber in the journal Science. Dating back over 78 million years, the feathered findings indicate winged creatures of early Earth may have had similarities to modern birds. Here's what you need to know about this historic finding:

• Why it matters — The primitive feathers found in amber are nearly identical to those of today's birds. The report says that these early feather specimens are attributable to dinosaurs before they went extinct.
• Amber preservation — The feathers are in such vivid detail because the tree resin that preserves them has its own antibacterial and drying properties that slow normal decay.
• Jurassic Park? — Despite the similarities to Jurassic Park's storyline of finding dino DNA preserved in amber, a future theme park won't be in the works anytime soon. The specimens discovered in Canada are very small and don't contain any DNA material. Your Jeff Goldblum-inspired vacation plans are foiled again.

Not too long ago, I enjoyed my favorite steakhouse side, creamed spinach, with a reliable hunk of aged meat at the House of Prime Rib. I hadn't had the dish in a while, and when I took my first bite I instantly remembered what it felt like to have "spinach teeth" — a gritty, uncomfortable sensation that one experiences after eating spinach. Why, I wondered, does spinach leave your teeth feeling rough?For starters, spinach grows best in sandy soil, so the grittiness may very well come from actual sand if it's not been thoroughly washed. But on top of this, the plant's leaves contain a high amount of oxalic acid crystals, which spread onto the teeth during the chewing process, resulting in a chalky sensation in the mouth. Spinach teeth may be enhanced when the vegetable is eaten with iron-rich substances like milk, which explains why the phenomenon is so detectable with creamed spinach.

Got a burning question? Join the Burning Question group in the YumSugar Community! It's your place to post the most pressing questions about the culinary world.

Even if you've been out of school for years, there's no need to feel left out while watching kids head back to the classroom, as you have a free resource to get your learning on. iTunes U, available through the iTunes store, offers content from over 1,000 universities, and nearly half of these schools including those known for stellar science programs like Harvard, MIT, and Cambridge among others, offer course lectures to the general public. Download these video classes if you've always wanted to spout astrophysics and computer programming knowledge like an expert. Also looking for French help or history lessons? Take some time browsing through class offerings; with hundreds available, there's something for everyone.

1. Astrophysics: Frontiers and Controversies, Yale — Focusing on three areas of astronomy: extra-solar planets, black holes, and dark energy, this course pays special attention to how astronomers are learning more in the field and what is still unknown in the universe.
2. Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — For students with no previous programming experience, in 24 lectures this course teaches how to write small Python language-based small programs.
3. Developing Apps For iOS, Stanford — Intended for students with a background in C-language computer programming, this course teaches how to create efficient applications for Apple's iOS platform through lecture videos and PDF documents.
4. Women's Health, University of California campuses — Learn more about promoting personal health straight from the prestigious doctors and researchers from the University of California colleges. Lectures include tips for stress, diabetes in women, and research on aging.

We're at the height of shore food season, and with an overabundance of lobster this year, it's been near-impossible not to spot the red crustacean just everywhere, from atop guacamole to sandwiched between a million different lobster rolls. It all makes me want to go out and get my own lobster to steam with drawn butter.

Yet, as someone who's new to the world of cooking live lobster, two things still haunt me: the memorable kitchen scene from Annie Hall, and the lore that lobsters scream in agony when you boil them. I can't do anything about the former, but I sought out sources to either corroborate (or negate) the latter. Keep reading to find out if lobsters really scream when boiled.

What's better than John Noble on Fringe? John Noble hosting his own creepy science show on the Science Channel, that's what. In a new trailer for Dark Matters: Twisted but True John drops his voice a few octaves to tease us about "experiments that should not be performed," and "doors that should remain forever closed," and, of course, the dark side of science. I can't think of a more perfect transition from Walter Bishop to this show. Well done. The show premieres on Aug. 31 on the Science Channel, but check out the trailer below!