You’ll often hear people bemoaning the fact that great inventors like Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners Lee have given us amazing tools in the shape of the internet and the web and that all we use them for is posting inane updates and watching cat videos.
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Aside from the thoughts that often creep into my head about what a search of those people’s browser histories would reveal, that kind of sentiment is far from accurate. Sure there’s a measure of truth to it — the same could be said of pretty much any new medium humans have throughout our collective history — but it ignores the incredibly important and interesting work that people are doing, often in the places that people think are the worst when it comes to vapid content.
Take YouTube for example. In amongst all those music videos, Vine compilations and clips of cats doing crazy things are people trying to teach the web something for once in its damn life. We’ve picked out some of the geekiest for your entertainment (We’ve excluded the various TED YouTube channels, predominantly because that organisation is its own beast and, as we’ve shown before, fodder for its own articles).
Joe Hanson, PhD is a pretty hands-on kind of geek, which makes definitely adds an extra dimension to the videos he hosts for PBS Digital Studios’ It’s Okay To Be Smart. For instance, the biologist and science writer used his own experiences running a marathon to explain the science of running.
Our favourite video however has to be the one where Hanson explains the science of Game of Thrones, the TV series that’s pretty much on the top of everyone’s “Must Watch” pile and which helped bring fantasy even further into the mainstream.
2. Bill Nye
If you grew up in the nineties, you’re well aware that Bill Nye is an OG (original geek), heck you’ve probably got the theme song to Bill Nye the Science Guy stuck in your head right now.
Nye’s YouTube channel is a pretty comprehensive archive of his educational material including old episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy and his later series, The Eyes of Nye.
Here’s Nye taking on pseudoscience for 25 glorious minutes:
One of the more popular science channels on YouTube, Smarter Every Day is run by a guy called Destin (he refuses to reveal his surname in order to protect his kids), whose day job entails testing missiles.
While the channel has been around for five years, you’re probably most familiar with Destin from the video he made with his kids, using a balloon to explain the physics of motion (most likely with a touching Upworthy style headline):
Our advice? Ignore all the cutesy headlines and learn the science lessons involved.
4. Veratasium
Veratasium describes itself as a science video blog covering everything “from atoms to astrophysics”. It features a mix of experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science.
The channel, which has pretty slick production values, covers includes more than just guys blowing stuff in a lab and slick illustrations. It also answers some pretty important questions, like “how freaking awesome are trees?”
5. Thug Notes
Okay, that’s enough science for now. After all, it can’t lay exclusive domain over geekery. Here’s one for the lit geeks. Thug Notes takes some of the world’s greatest literary works and uses Sparky Sweets, PhD to explain what they’re all about in the most gangster way possible.
Here’s a taste of his analysis of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird:[6] “Only a jive-ass fool would bother capping a mockingbird, cause all them bitches do is just drop next-level beats for your enjoyment. So what my girl Harper trying to say is ratting on Boo Radley wouldn’t do no good. It would only rid the hood of one more true-blue player”.
For real geek appeal though, here he is explaining Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi work Dune.
6. Mental Floss
Rather than focusing on a single topic or point of interest, Mental Floss is a weekly series where knowledge junkies can “get their fix of trivia-tastic information”. Alongside the inane facts however, there are also a number of videos aimed at correcting misconceptions, providing useful tips and delving into one of the web’s favourite subjects — lifehacks:
7. CGP Grey
CGP Grey basically tries to provide the answers to complex questions in the simplest way possible. To do so, it makes extensive use of basic illustrations and, well, stick figures (proving that you don’t have to be a talented artist or be a wildly good-looking presenter to achieve YouTube success).
