A timelapse of sprouting seeds

Watch a pinecone become a pine tree

Sometimes a closer look at an ordinary process can uncover its glory This timelapse video presents the wondrous natural process of a withering pinecone turning into a full sprouted tree. A nearly two year growth, watch the seed turn to seedling and rise over time.

From seed to pumpkin, a 3-minute time-lapse

Pumpkins are atypically enormous winter squashes, meaning they are harvested in the fall and then remain edible throughout winter. See how it all happens with this mesmerizing, music-backed time-lapse showcasing a pumpkin's 120-day journey from...

Watch a salamander grow from fertilization to hatching

New microscopy techniques have allowed scientists to image the development of animal embryos with unprecedented detail. This six-minute time-lapse reveals the development of a salamander from initial fertilization to hatching from an egg.

Watch a time-lapse from space of photosynthesis across Earth

Using NASA satellite imagery, carbon absorption can be tracked and serves as a proxy for photosynthetic activity on land and in the oceans. Over the course of a year, seasonal changes can be observed as plants become dormant in the fall and active again in the spring.

A weed from the mustard family facilitated the molecular era of botany

The small genome and rapid growth cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana have made it an ideal organism for genetic studies, with over 100,000 research papers exploring topics such as disease resistance, stress tolerance, and response to light. The first studies were done on plants that grew from seeds saved during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

Watch how dozens of everyday human tasks are performed in space

This playlist features clips of astronauts aboard the International Space Station explaining how they cook, eat, sleep, and conduct research in microgravity. Other activities to pass the time, including watering plants and playing soccer, are also shown.

Follow an IVF procedure from lab to transplant

What happens once eggs are harvested from an ovary? How does an embryo form within a petri dish? This detailed video offers a glimpse of the transformations eggs experience as women age, and how sperm are injected into eggs in some forms of IVF treatment.

How women grow tiny humans inside of them

Pregnancy is a complex biological journey, lasting about 40 weeks. When a sperm fertilizes an egg, that event triggers intricate cellular and hormonal processes, driven by hardwired cellular instructions, which lead to cell division, differentiation, and development—ultimately culminating in the birth of a baby.

Chaos gardening involves scattering seeds without any planning

The trend is intended to produce colorful, dense gardens by mixing various seeds. While encouraging experimentation and lower stakes, the success of these gardens depends on choosing plants with similar needs and incorporating native, nectar-rich flowers.

Watch the birth of a tornado in real time

While driving through suburban Oklahoma in May 2013, National Geographic explorer and storm researcher Tim Samaras witnessed the formation of a tornado from a thunderstorm and captured footage of the descending funnel cloud before it touched down.

Watch insects and animal pollinators in slow motion

Louie Schwartzberg's "Moving Art" series showcases slow-motion footage of oceans, forests, deserts, flowers, and more. In this excerpt, organisms such as bats, monarch butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds are shown interacting with one another and with flowering plants.

Imagining the farms of the future

About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40 percent of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these lands are the pieces to a global puzzle we’re all facing: in the future, how can we feed every member of a growing population a healthy diet? Brent Loken investigates in this seven-minute video.

How do you sequence a genome?

If the genome is made up of microscopic chromosomes, how do scientists actually sequence it? Here's a 5-minute video explaining one of the most common processes.

The science of springtime, 101

Dive into the basics on springtime including the astronomy that brings it about, natural signs of spring's arrival, and some of the cultural approaches to the season.

How tea gets made

Tea is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, and this video walks us through the process of supplying it from farms to our mugs. Workers handpick leaves, ferment them, and dry them as part of this involved operation. Follow along for a scientific understanding of the many steps it takes to produce tea and appreciate the detail and effort to create its flavor, aroma, and color.

Visualizing the spread of five major religions across the world

Every major religion has a story that started in a specific place before growing to reach millions. This quick video depicts an illustrated map over the last 5,000 years, showing how Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam grew from their humble beginnings.

Seed funding is often the first round of capital that a startup raises

Early-stage startups often try to secure seed funding from investors in order to take their idea from concept to reality.

A global history of women’s rights, in 3 minutes

This video presents a succinct overview of the history of women’s rights. As a global community, we have witnessed widespread suffrage campaigns, the rise of #MeToo, and increasing digital activism. Noteworthy women, grassroots movements, and...

Photographer finds 120-year-old time capsule, develops the photos

Photographer Mathieu Stern found a century-old time capsule in his family home containing a little girl’s mementos and two glass plate negatives. He used Cyanotype to develop the photographs, unveiling images of the child’s pets. Stern documented the process in a video on YouTube and Instagram, showcasing the final prints of the animals.

Every Oktoberfest starts with a tap

Crowds rush excitedly toward the tents to count down to the ceremonial first tap, with the mayor declaring “O’zapft is!” This short documentary walks you through the tradition at the 2019 festival. Don’t miss the impressive shots of servers carrying dozens of beer steins at once to their thirsty patrons. Prost!

This is what happens inside your body when you're sick

This video details the biology of what happens inside the human body during illness.

A visual database of pollens

Pollen is a powdery substance made up of small grains involved in the fertilization process of plants. There are thousands of types of pollens across the world, and you can see real images of them in this visual database.

Transpiration drives water movement through a plant’s vascular system

Water evaporates from the leaves, creating tension that pulls more water upward from the roots through the xylem—the equivalent of plant blood vessels. This process is supported by water molecules sticking to each other (cohesion) and xylem walls (adhesion).

A visualization of mycoremediation, where fungi extract toxic and radioactive pollutants from soil

As organisms such as mushrooms grow, they develop large networks of root-like structures called mycelium that spread underground and release enzymes that break down contaminants. By absorbing these chemicals, fungi limit the damage caused by these toxins and localize them within the organism for easier collection and disposal.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Lighting the menorah is viewed as the most important Hanukkah ritual

This short video guides viewers through the process, from the supplies required to the order in which the candles are lit. It also covers the prayers that are recited nightly and associated blessings for each individual night.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.