My YouTube subscriptions

In case you were wondering which science- or material science-themed YouTube channels I subscribed to, you could probably just skim back through and see which video sources I post from most frequently.

But I thought I could put together a list in case you wanted to subscribe to them, too. So, in no particular order...

• Smarter Every Day - Hands down, my favorite channel on YouTube. Destin Sandlin is an engineer turned YouTuber who covers a whole host of science topics both high brow - How Do We Land on the Moon - to low brow - How Do You Harvest Pecans - and covers them all with a humility, curiosity, and ease of communication that is infectious. Occasionally he gets a little too excited about things (check his collaborations with Mark Robert, for example), but most of the time his tone is spot on, and I learn something from nearly every video that he makes. Most tend to be ten to twenty minutes, but occasionally he post forty-five minute to an hour videos and takes a far deeper dive into a topic - take his nuclear sub series, for example. You could easily turn his videos into a year-long science course. I'd take it. He also has a second channel of slightly less polished videos and lots of behind the scenes footage. Destin also spoke at Skepticon about balancing his faith and his science. It's a great talk. His TED talk isn't bad, either. (equally for both blogs)
  
  
• Real Engineering - Initially this channel from Brian James McManus (yes, he's Irish) focused mostly on the rudiments and basics of engineering and used a lot of white on blueprint paper background animation. He's upped his video quality and started using a whole lot more licensed footage over the years, and he now tackles some pretty deep dives into engineering topics (solar panels, renewably powered ships, tesla's battery challenges, colonizing the moon, digital vs vinyl sound, etc). Videos tend to be in the 15-25 minute range anymore. We almost never see Brian, himself, though there have been a couple of videos where we did. I learn a TON from his videos at this point. Initially, I didn't learn nearly as much. (more for MatSci blog)
  
  
• Practical Engineering - Grady Hillhouse reports from his house in San Antonio and makes civil and mechanical engineering incredibly understandable. Some of the best parts in his videos are his small-scale, homemade demonstration aids to help him explain the video's concepts. He's built tiny rivers to show how weirs function, made rebar-reinforced concrete cylinders to show how they improve concrete's resistance to cracking, crafted complex pipe systems to show water hammer, and much more. His videos stick to the 8-12 minute range, and are great explanations of basic engineering concepts. (more for MatSci blog)
  
  
• Veritasium -  Dr Derek Muller hosts - and probably writes - the veritasium channel videos. He originally did all the work himself, but one of his more recent videos celebrating his tenth anniversary on YouTube talked a bit about his increasing team helping him make videos of higher and higher quality. Muller comes out of Canada by way of Australia and is all over the map as far as topics go. His videos are about optical illusions, origami engineering, calculating the speed of light, close packing with shade balls, and - my absolute favorite video of his - how trees get their mass. He covers chemistry, biology, engineering, physics, and general philosophy of science. (equally for both blogs)

• Steve Mould - Steve's videos are far less focused on any one area of science (or of math). He covers everything from "I calculated absolute zero with vodka" to "Tree tumors are GMOs but not made by humans" to "Self driving cars are dangerously confused by LED lights" to "Does Canadian money really smell like maple syrup?". He's a bit of all over the place, in other words, wandering pretty much anywhere that his curiosity happens to take him. The initial videos were pretty low-budget and short (1-4 minutes long), but the quality of video made a pretty big jump about five years ago. The videos have gotten longer over time, some of them wandering to the fifteen minute range, though he still makes a decent number of videos that are in four or five minutes long or shorter. (equally for both blogs)
  
  
• Mark Rober - Mark's all about building bigger, more theatrical versions of everyday things. He's build a scaled up SuperSoaker, filled a pool with jello, and set up the world's largest elephant toothpaste (or devil's toothpaste). He's also built machines to skip stones better than humanly possible, squirrel obstacle courses, and a liquid sand hot tub. Admittedly, most of his videos could be cut by about 25% of their length by eliminating the over-reaction shots. I think his best videos are the most focused. I particularly recommend the rock skipping video.