If you've been trapped inside these past few days while the polar vortex swooped through North America, you've probably burned through your bookmarked YouTube clips and binge-watched "Breaking Bad" on Netflix. We don't blame you.
But next time you're holed up and have a laptop or smartphone handy, let us be your guide. Here, we have compiled some of the best science YouTube channels:
MinutePhysics
MinutePhysics was Henry Reich's solution to teaching physics to tired undergraduates. While earning his masters in physics, Reich found it was easier for him to explain concepts to his students if he drew them. And the time-lapse, hand-drawn stick figures of MInutePhysics was born, answering viewers' burning science questions and teaching YouTube about what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force, why the full moon is brighter in the winter and why there is no pink light.
AsapSCIENCE
Canadian biologists Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown started their channel in 2012. Both studied biology at the University of Guelph. Brown started teaching science, while Moffit went on to work in labs. They wanted to make science accessible for people who didn't get to learn the "really awesome things" about science in school, as Moffit put it. They started with a list of questions that they found interesting or that their friends had asked them.
For example, if you want to find out whether the chicken or the egg came first or why silent farts are deadlier, this is your channel.
The Big Scoop
Emily Graslie will show you the coolest and the grossest things inside the Chicago Field Museum. Her vlog dissects specimens in the museum's collection. Whether it's opening the stomach of a wolf or explaining how animals with four legs walk, she gets into the fascinating species and scientific knowledge in the museum. Now the "Chief Curiosity Correspondent" at the Field Museum, she got her big break by appearing in a VlogBrothers video while she was a curatorial volunteer at the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum in Montana.
Fair warning: they can get a little gross. Viewer discretion advised.
Veritasium
Derek Muller does physics on a jetpack. He has a Ph.D. in physics and is the Canadian host of the Australian show Catalyst. His vlog focuses on physics, including what makes up a flame and how a transistor works.
Quirkology
This channel is all psychological mind tricks. Professor Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain shows you how your eyes and brains deceive you, and teaches bets that you will win every time.