Back to Show
It's Okay to Be Smart
Can We Solve the Air Conditioning Paradox?
Season 11
Episode 4
As Earth warms, billions of people in the developing world will face life-threatening heat waves, raising demand for air conditioning. But powering all that cooling is going to take more energy, which will, paradoxically, require more fossil fuels burning, creating more carbon and more warming. So scientists are developing new kinds of air conditioning, including solid, refrigerants.
Support Provided By
21:23
I pushed my body in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us.
16:47
If everything around us is made of atoms, why can’t we actually see them?
10:51
This video explores the bizarre mathematics that show how infinity is far stranger than a number.
24:25
How Gerardus Mercator later created a map that transformed navigation forever.
22:37
DNA solves crimes, but what happens when it sends innocent people to prison?
14:52
How thousands of tiny brains, obeying simple rules, solve problems no individual can understand.
19:50
Joe visits a flavor lab to uncover how our senses shape our taste.
22:36
How did the mass extinction of the dinosaurs play out, moment by moment?
12:37
Think traits like eye color or tongue-rolling are simple genetics? Think again.
11:08
Why is the Martian sky red by day… but blue at sunset?