With some help, its algorithms can be trained to find you the good stuff
A decade ago, my favorite TV channel used to be the Discovery channel. I spent hours watching shows like How it’s made, Mythbusters and Scrapheap challenge. Since it’s my job, I count myself lucky that my fascination with science and engineering and their newest applications has never ceased, but for the enthusiast like me, the Discovery channel (and any other TV channels) have never captured my interest since their focus (at least here in the Netherlands) has shifted more towards reality shows like Pawn Stars and Deadliest Catch.
For you, the science enthusiast, in the age of on-demand video there might not be a better place to find the content you’re looking for than YouTube.
Even if you’re not too interested popular science, you could learn something from these channels. They are very effective at pitching science to a broad audience. Additionally, it could be very informative to watch what’s going on in a neighboring (or even entirely different) field. At the eScience Center we work together with scientists from many different fields of science. Such collaborations often lead to creative and inspirating solutions — so we highly recommend looking across the fence every once in a while to see what’s happening in other fields!
YouTube you say?
Isn’t that where all of these weird vloggers tell tales of their daily lives? Isn’t that where gamers post their lets-play video’s and whatnot, and all the content is aimed at children?
Nay, YouTube offers so much more, if you only know where to look, and if you train its algorithms to find you the stuff you want to see. To help you train your personalized algorithm, here’s a peek at my science-subscription list.
Broad-topic channels
Want to know about all of the awesome new scientific discoveries, but not in too much detail? These might be the channels you’re looking for, and also a great way to start your YouTube algorithm training. If you want to know more after watching these videos, you can always go deeper later.
SciShow is a great choice in this category. It offers videos on a very wide range of topics. As an example … if you happen to have children that are going through puberty, I feel for you. This video might help:
Want broad, but a little more explanation? Veritasium might be more your choice.
The food-for-thought
Kurtzgezagt, meticulously crafted animation, videos about new discoveries or insights, and a lot of thought about their implications for the future. If you enjoy TV series like black mirror, this is a channel for you.
CGP grey also animates his videos, mostly with his exceptional stick figures, and explains some complicated things that you might not have realized were difficult to explain in the first place. He’s also the author of the video all of us coffee addicts should rally behind:
Die-hard theoretical science
Math is very die-hard in my opinion, and so is chemistry. Want to know why imaginary numbers are way more awesome than you were taught at school? watch this video series by welch labs:
Want to know more about the applications of math and why math is awesome in general, go to the numberphile channel. Or, for a more visualization and math combined package deal, the 3blue1brown channel.
Chemistry more your thing? Want a well spoken English professor to show you some awesome things about chemistry you didn’t know (and were afraid to ask)? Periodic videos might be your starting point.
Or are you more into Physics?, Hand-drawn Physics?, Engineering?
A little more space in your life?
I love rocket launches, so I watch every new launch on SpaceX ’s channel religiously. The way they record their launches (and landings!) just captivates me every time, and the explanations in their hosted webcasts are very enlightening and inspiring.
More space? SciShow has a dedicated space channel which explains all about the stuff the human race does up there.
Oh, nothing about the humanities then…
Ha! of course there’s tons of stuff here too! Want to know about World history? Please look no further:
More depth? Extra Credits has you covered! This channel made by game developers has some truly excellently researched content.
Computers and Computer Science more your thing?
But I’m strapped on time… also, show me some ACTUAL science…
No worries my friend! Two minute papers has you covered! videos made about actual scientific papers, with links to peer-reviewed science to boot.
The papers covered are mostly about machine learning and visualization, so if you are me, this channel is a gold mine.
Ok ok …
Now that your algorithm is trained properly, you will discover many more channels, I’m sure. And maybe I’ve missed quite a lot of cool science here. If you find something I have to see, please let me know in the comments. Like you, I’m always looking for more science in my life:)
