Loading...Although humans have mastered an incredible variety of skills, fields, and studies, we still are only an infinitesimally small way through knowing everything there is to know. And we are continuing to make more and more discoveries every day, with the total human knowledge level rising at an exponential rate. But, one area of knowledge that humans still have only cracked the surface on is Astronomy, Cosmology, and Astrophysics, and that’s what makes them so interesting. They tend to be very complicated and hard to explain, though, which is why channels like PBS Space Time are so interesting, unique, and fun to watch, as they explain these complex ideas and theories in a understandable and entertaining way.
Hosted by Gabe Perez-Giz, PBS Space Time is on the smaller side of my most favorite educational Youtube channels, with only 47,000 subscribers, compared to Vsauce’s 8 million and Crash Course’s 2.8 million. Gabe has a PhD in Astrophysics, and doesn’t shy away from the hard topics, in one video even trying to explain General and Special Relativity to people who don’t have 4 years of schooling in astrophysics, and I have to say, he did a pretty good job of it. PBS Spacey Time covers a wide variety of astrophysics topics and questions, ranging from Special Relativity, to video game realism in terms of astrophysics, even to “Could You Fart Your Way To The Moon?”. The answer, by the way, is probably not.
For a channel with 47,000 subs, PBS Space Time creates videos of great quality, with a good intro, great graphics, and a regular weekly video schedule. To give you an example of Space Time’s videos, above is one of my favorite videos from Space Time’s archive: “Is It Irrational To Believe In Aliens?”. In the video, Gabe goes analyzes the question we’ve all at least once in our life asked ourselves: do aliens exist, or at least, what is the probably that they exist, and is it to much of a stretch to say that they must be out there somewhere?
Of course, Gabe goes over the Drake Equation, which anyone who knows anything about Astrobiology has heard of. It is basically an equation, taking the probability and the circumstances that life appeared here on Earth, and applying that to the rest of the galaxy. Not only does Gabe go over this in more detail, but he presents both sides of the argument; the argument from the scientists who think no aliens exist, such as Enrico Fermi, and those who do think they exist, such as Carl Sagan. Altogether, it is a great overview of one of the most profound question ever.
With a great topic, excellent animation, and a host with a knack for explaining things, PBS Space Time makes for a great science and education channel, and one whose videos I always look forward to every week. They are informative, entertaining, and answer questions nobody thinks to answer about space, time, and astronomy.