Browse all episodes of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell

The mechanisms of evolution explained in one video. The theory of evolution explains how the enormous variety of life could come into existence. How it is possible for primitive life forms to spawn the millions of different creatures, that exist today. Unfortunately, evolution is often misunderstood, because it's mechanisms seem counter intuitive.

How Evolution Works

An info-graphic trip through the wonders of the Solar system.

The Solar System — Our Home in Space

Fracking Explained: Opportunity or Danger

Learn about the role of the sea in global warming.

The Gulf Stream Explained

How the Stock Exchange Works (For Dummies)

The History and Future of Everything — Time

Three Ways to Destroy the Universe

The Beginning of Everything — The Big Bang

Nuclear war, cat gifs and reddit? Wait, what?

Who Invented the Internet? And Why?

The Moon might be much bigger than you think it is.

How Big Is the Moon? (MM#1)

What do you know about the Moons of Mars? Nothing? They are super cool (and strange), promise.

The Moons of Mars Explained — Phobos & Deimos (MM#2)

If Neptune didn't catch Triton we might have another Dwarf Planet in our Solar system -- maybe even another Planet or double system. We show how this could have happened.

How to Catch a Dwarf Planet — Triton (MM#3)

Are you alone? To answer this question we have to take a look what "you" are first. What are you made of and where you stand in this universe. Are you your body? Your atoms? And how are your parts connected to the big picture?

Are You Alone? (In the Universe)

The current crisis in Iraq explained in under 5 minutes.

Iraq Explained — ISIS, Syria and War

Every second of your life you are under attack. Bacteria, viruses, spores and more living stuff wants to enter your body and use its resources for itself. The immune system is a powerful army of cells that fights like a T-Rex on speed and sacrifices itself for your survival. Without it you would die in no time. This sounds simple but the reality is complex, beautiful and just awesome. An animation of the immune system.

The Immune System Explained I — Bacteria Infection

Planet Earth is this solid thing you are standing on right now. In your everyday life you don't really waste a thought about how amazing this is. A giant, ancient, hot rock. How did it come into existence and how big is it really? You will be surprised. The ground you are standing on is just a very, very small part of the big picture.

Everything You Need to Know About Planet Earth

Neutron stars are some of the strangest things in the Universe. Not quite massive enough to become black holes they are basically atoms as big as mountains, with properties so extreme it's mind-blowing. And if you get too close to a neutron star, you are in big trouble…

Atoms as Big as Mountains — Neutron Stars Explained

We live in the most peaceful time in human history. Wait, what? Seriously? That can't be right, there are more wars than ever! Well, no and they're killing fewer and fewer people, even though the world population is at an all-time high... and the numbers prove it! We explain how we came to this conclusion, and why war might... go away.

Is War Over? — A Paradox Explained

What does the Ebola virus actually do in your body? Why is it so dangerous and why does it kill so many people? We take a look at the apocalyptic war that rages in the body after an infection by the Ebola virus and the soldiers fighting.

The Ebola Virus Explained — How Your Body Fights for Survival

So what is the difference between you and a rock? This seems like an easy, even stupid question. But even the smartest people on Earth have no idea where to draw the line between living and dead things. Which leads to mind-blowing implications. What is life after all? And is death really a thing? Let's look into it together.

What Is Life? Is Death Real?

Most Conspiracy Theories are stupid. By the power of the internet they spread like wildfire and often poison discussions. But there is hope – we developed a way to debunk conspiracies in just a few seconds…

The Ultimate Conspiracy Debunker

Atoms are very weird. Wrapping your head around exactly how weird, is close to impossible – how can you describe something that is SO removed from humans experience? But then again, they kind of make up everything, so let us try anyways.

How Small Is an Atom? (Spoiler: Very Small)

Everybody is talking about Measles – but what does the virus actually do in the body? Is it really so harmful that you need a vaccination? We go deep into the body of an infected person and see what Measles does and how the immune system reacts to it!

Measles Explained — Vaccinate or Not?

Banks are a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. We all kind of know that they do stuff with money we don’t understand, while the last crisis left a feeling of deep mistrust and confusion. We try to shed a bit of light onto the banking system. Why were banks invented, why did they cause the last crisis and are there alternatives?

Banking Explained — Money and Credit

Nuclear Energy is a controversial subject. The pro- and anti-nuclear lobbies fight furiously, and it's difficult to decide who is right. So we're trying to clear up the issue - in this video we discuss how we got to where we are today, as the basis for discussion.

Nuclear Energy Explained: How Does It Work? (1/3)

Nuclear energy might be a failed experiment. In over sixty years the technology has not only failed to keep its promise of cheap, clean and safe energy, it also caused major catastrophes and enabled more nuclear weapons while the nuclear waste problem is still not solved.

3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Terrible! (2/3)

Nuclear energy might have a lot of unused potential. Not only is it one of the best mid term solutions for global warming bit despite what gut feeling tells us, it has saved millions of lives. By investing more into better technologies we might be able to make nuclear energy finally save and clean forever.

3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Awesome! (3/3)

The universe is unbelievably big – trillions of stars and even more planets. So… there just has to be life out there, right? But where is it? Why don’t we see any aliens? Where are they? And more importantly, what does this tell us about our own fate in this gigantic and scary universe?

The Fermi Paradox — Where Are All the Aliens?

Where are all the aliens? The universe is too big and too old, why have we not met aliens yet? Do they live in computers? Were they wiped out by an ancient super intelligence? Or are we just to primitive to understand their motives? Whatever the answer is, it is incredibly important for our own future.

The Fermi Paradox II — Solutions and Ideas

In 2015 the bees are still dying in masses. Which at first seems not very important until you realize that one third of all food humans consume would disappear with them. Millions could starve. The foes bees face are truly horrifying – some are a direct consequence of human greed. We need to help our small buzzing friends or we will face extremely unpleasant consequences.

The Death of Bees Explained — Parasites, Poison and Humans

What would happen to you if a black hole the size of a coin suddenly appeared in your pocket? Lets find out!

What if There Was a Black Hole in Your Pocket?

What is dark energy? What is dark matter? Well, if we knew exactly we would have a nobel prize – we know that they exist though. So what do we know about those strange things?

What Is Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

The European Refugee Crisis and Syria Explained

What causes addiction? Easy, right? Drugs cause addiction. But maybe it is not that simple.

Addiction

We are so used to some things that we stopped wondering about them. Like light. What is light? Some kind of wavy thing, right? Kind of.

What Is Light?

Facebook just announced 8 billion video views per day. This number is made out of lies, cheating and worst of all: theft. All of this is wildly known but the media giant Facebook is pretending everything is fine, while damaging independent creators in the process. How does this work?

How Facebook Is Stealing Billions of Views

Where are the limits of human technology? And can we somehow avoid them? This is where quantum computers become very interesting.

Quantum Computers Explained — Limits of Human Technology

Black Holes Explained — From Birth to Death

What is something? On the most fundamental level thinkable, what are things? Why are things? And why do things behave the way they do?

What Is Something?

The last star in the universe will be a red dwarf. Red dwarfs in general might be great places to look for aliens – or planets for humans to find a new home after our solar system has died.

The Last Star in the Universe — Red Dwarfs Explained

The war against drugs has been a terrible disaster for everybody involved. Why? And can we do something differently?

Why the War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure

What is the Antibiotic Apocalypse? What is it all about? And how dangerous is it?

The Antibiotic Apocalypse Explained

So. Space elevators. Are they are thing that we should talk about?

Space Elevator — Science Fiction or the Future of Mankind?

Safe and Sorry — Terrorism & Mass Surveillance

Is there a border we will never cross? Are there places we will never be able to reach, no matter what? It turns out there are. Far, far more than you might have thought…

How Far Can We Go? Limits of Humanity (old version)

So. Are you your body? And if so, how exactly does this work? Lets explore lots of confusing questions.

What Are You?

Humans. We have been around for a while now. When we think about our past we think about ancient civilizations, the pyramids, stuff like that. But this is only a tiny, tiny part of our history.

What Happened Before History? Human Origins

There are cosmic snipers firing at random into the unvierse. What are they and what happens if they hit us?

Death From Space — Gamma-Ray Bursts Explained

Designer babies, the end of diseases, genetically modified humans that never age. Outrageous things that used to be science fiction are suddenly becoming reality. The only thing we know for sure is that things will change irreversibly.

Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever — CRISPR

We have the choice to attack one of our oldest enemies with genetic engineering. But should we do it?

Genetic Engineering and Diseases — Gene Drive & Malaria

What if there is a way to destroy the universe so fundamentally that life as we know it will be impossible forever?

The Most Efficient Way to Destroy the Universe — False Vacuum

How does fusion energy work and is it a good idea?

Fusion Energy Explained — Future or Failure

There are a group of parasites extremely disgusting and mean. Humanity declared war on them.

The Most Gruesome Parasites — Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

It is time to reframe how we think about our past. We need a new year 0 for humanity. But which one should we choose and why?

A New History for Humanity — The Human Era

In a very short amount of time the human population exploded and is still growing very fast. Will this lead to the end of our civilization?

Overpopulation — The Human Explosion Explained

We are trapped on Earth. Controlled by an ancient debt to the universe...

Why Earth Is a Prison and How to Escape It

What shall we do once machines become conscious? Do we need to grant them rights?

Do Robots Deserve Rights? What If Machines Become Conscious?

Are GMOs bad for your health? Or is this fear unfounded?

Are GMOs Good or Bad? Genetic Engineering & Our Food

Should we double down or give up and go our separate ways?

Is the European Union Worth It or Should We End It?

Everything will end. Even the universe. But in a future so far away that it defies description, there will still be light and therefore a chance for life. It will be around white dwarfs, the corpses of stars. But even they will fade one day...

The Last Light Before Eternal Darkness — White Dwarfs & Black Dwarfs

Automation in the Information Age is different.

The Rise of the Machines — Why Automation Is Different This Time

Optimistic Nihilism

Size is the most under appreciated regulator of living things. Let us demonstrate that by throwing animals from buildings.

What Happens If We Throw an Elephant From a Skyscraper? (The Size of Life #1)

Black holes are scary things. But they also might reveal the true nature of the universe to us.

Why Black Holes Could Delete the Universe — The Information Paradox

What happens if we bring the sun to earth? No, seriously.

What Happens If We Bring the Sun to Earth?

Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument

What happens when microbes talk to your brain?

How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body — The Microbiome

If you could decide today... how long do you want to live?

Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever?

How to Cure Aging — During Your Lifetime?

How can many stupid things combine to form smart things? How can proteins become living cells? How become lots of ants a colony? What is emergence?

Emergence — How Stupid Things Become Smart Together

What is UBI? How would free money change our lives.

Universal Basic Income Explained — Free Money for Everybody?

How to Make an Elephant Explode (The Size of Life #2)

Finding alien life on a distant planet would be amazing news - or would it? If we are not the only intelligent life in the universe, this probably means our days are numbered and doom is certain.

Why Alien Life Would Be Our Doom — The Great Filter

What are the principles behind Homeopathy and does it work?

Homeopathy Explained — Gentle Healing or Reckless Fraud?

Is String Theory the final solution for all of physic’s questions or an over-hyped dead end?

String Theory Explained — What Is the True Nature of Reality?

Why should you care about the well-being of people half a globe away?

A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place — Egoistic Altruism

Time: The History & Future of Everything — Remastered

The Black Hole Bomb and Black Hole Civilizations

A war has been raging for billions of years, killing trillions every single day, while we don’t even notice. This war involves the single deadliest being on our planet: the bacteriophage.

The Deadliest Being on Planet Earth — The Bacteriophage

We take a fair look at some of the best counter arguments for legalization and see how they hold up in review.

3 Arguments Why Marijuana Should Stay Illegal Reviewed

Modern life would be impossible without plastic – but we have long since lost control over our invention. Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers?

Plastic Pollution: How Humans Are Turning the World Into Plastic

Did you ever wonder what happened if you detonated a nuclear bomb in the Marianas Trench? No? We neither! Let us find out together!

What If You Detonated a Nuclear Bomb in the Marianas Trench? (Science, Not Fantasy)

Are wormholes real or are they just magic disguised as physics and maths? And if they are real how do they work and where can we find them?

Wormholes Explained — Breaking Spacetime

Did you know that we could start building a Lunar Base today?

How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY (Space Colonization #1)

Meat is a complicated issue. But also a delicious one. Let's talk about it.

Why Meat Is the Best Worst Thing in the World

It’s hard to define what makes something beautiful, but we seem to know beauty when we see it. Why is that and how does beauty affect our subconscious?

Why Beautiful Things Make Us Happy — Beauty Explained

Space travel is the most exciting adventure for humanity, but in an irony of history we may stop ourselves from going into space the more we do it. With every rocket launched we are creating a deadly trap for mankind.

End of Space — Creating a Prison for Humanity

If humans want to expand into space, it will take us incredible amounts of energy. How do we do that? Easy: we will just use the sun’s energy by realizing the most ambitious construction project in history. This is how it works.

How to Build a Dyson Sphere — The Ultimate Megastructure

Out in the vast coldness of outer space, there are planets that travel alone through darkness without the boundaries of a system. Here’s how this can happen – and why these frozen deserts might secretly harbor alien life.

Aliens Under the Ice — Life on Rogue Planets

Organic food is a huge trend: it promises a healthier and better life. But can Organic food really live up to the expectations or is it just baloney?

Is Organic Really Better? Healthy Food or Trendy Scam?

Humans love to explore. Strangely enough even horrible places – like Mars. Let’s see how building a Mars base could work and how insanely nerve-wracking exactly it would be.

Building a Mars Base Is a Horrible Idea: Let’s Do It!

Everybody feels lonely sometimes. But only few of us are aware how important this feeling was for our ancestors - and that our modern world can turn it into something that really hurts us. Why do we feel this way and what can we do about it?

Loneliness

Consciousness is perhaps the biggest riddle in nature. In the first part of this three part video series, we explore the origins of consciousness and take a closer look on how unaware things became aware.

The Origin of Consciousness — How Unaware Things Became Aware

What happens if make a huge pile from all 15,000 nuclear bombs and pull the trigger? And what happens if we make an even bigger pile?

What If We Detonated All Nuclear Bombs at Once?

Inside neutron stars we can find the weirdest and most dangerous substance in the universe: Strange matter. What is strange matter, how dangerous is it and what can it tell us about the origin of the universe?

The Most Dangerous Stuff in the Universe — Strange Stars Explained

Vaccines are one of our best tools to prevent dangerous diseases, but they come with side effects. So would it be safer not to vaccinate?

The Side Effects of Vaccines — How High Is the Risk?

Being a citizen of the European Union means that many aspects of our lives are regulated by a weird entity. It feels like a huge bureaucracy is making decisions over our heads. How democratic is the EU really and does your vote actually affect anything?

Is the EU Democratic? Does Your Vote Matter?

Over the last few years eating meat has increasingly been associated with health risks, like heart disease, cancer and an early death. How unhealthy is meat really?

Is Meat Bad for You? Is Meat Unhealthy?

Electricity is all around us, all the time. It makes our lives easier, safer, more fun and most of us never think about it. But is there such a thing as too much electricity? Electronic devices emit an electromagnetic field, which is suspected to cause cancer. We read countless sources on this topic to summarize the results of the latest research for you.

Could Your Phone Hurt You? Electromagnetic Pollution

One of the key players of our immune system is the complement system. An army of millions and trillions of tiny bombs, which work together in a complex and elegant dance to stop intruders in your body.

Tiny Bombs in Your Blood — The Complement System

Kurzgesagt (German for "in a nutshell") is a Munich based design studio with a distinctive perspective on design and animation within the fields of education, science and commerce. Founded in 2012 by Philipp Dettmer & Stephan Rether, the studio engages in information design projects of all kinds. We love science, minimalism, colors and music. But most of all combining them to tell stories.

All Episodes of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell

Season 1

How Evolution Works

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 7/11/2013

The Solar System — Our Home in Space

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 8/22/2013

Fracking Explained: Opportunity or Danger

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/3/2013

The Gulf Stream Explained

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2013

How the Stock Exchange Works (For Dummies)

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/23/2013

The History and Future of Everything — Time

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 12/19/2013