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Why Your Grandma Is an Evolutionary Mystery

Season 13 Episode 2 | 17m 11s

This is one of the weirdest mysteries of human evolution: Why do we have grandmas? From menopause to our slow maturation and super-long lifespans, humans are quite unique in the animal kingdom. Could grandma be an evolutionary secret weapon? Or is she just a quirky side effect of living long lives?

Aired: 03/20/25
Extras
If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?
Why are stop lights red? The real story is more complicated than you think.
How thousands of tiny brains, obeying simple rules, solve problems no individual can understand.
Joe visits a flavor lab to uncover how our senses shape our taste.
Here is the REAL science about "alpha males."
How did the mass extinction of the dinosaurs play out, moment by moment?
Think traits like eye color or tongue-rolling are simple genetics? Think again.
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If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?
Why are stop lights red? The real story is more complicated than you think.
How thousands of tiny brains, obeying simple rules, solve problems no individual can understand.
Joe visits a flavor lab to uncover how our senses shape our taste.
Here is the REAL science about "alpha males."
How did the mass extinction of the dinosaurs play out, moment by moment?
Think traits like eye color or tongue-rolling are simple genetics? Think again.