14 smart women in science to learn from on YouTube
I was doing some research for one of my previous articles on history shows, and realized that I could not find a single history channel hosted by a woman or that covered women’s history. Knowing that there are a lot of women out there that do more than makeup tutorials on YouTube, I put together a list to highlight some of the many women in science on YouTube.
The Brain Scoop — Emily Graslie
Emily Graslie hosts ‘The Brain Scoop’, an entertaining, educational show that takes you behind the scenes at the The Field Museum in Chicago to showcase all kinds of interesting Natural History topics, ranging from Fossils to birds to biomechanics.
Alexis Dainis
Alexis is a graduate student who creates videos explaining various aspects of genetics & science in her ‘Bite Sci-zed’ series, and also showcases what it is like to work in a lab environment through her ‘What is this thing’ series.
Vi Hart
Vi Hart describes herself as a “recreational mathemusician”, and her videos on YouTube are just as fun as they are educational. With videos that explain the relationship between math and music, the science behind creating a hexaflexagon, or about folding space-time, she is constantly finding new ways to make math cool.
Amy Shira Teitel — Vintage Space
Travel back in time and into space with the Vintage Space channel, hosted by self described ‘professional space history nerd’ Amy Shira Teitel. You may recognize Amy from other places online like the Science or Scify channels, but you can find all of the answers to your burning space history questions like ‘how did the Apollo missions succeed?’ on her popular YouTube channel.
Sally Le Page
Sally Le Page is the biologist behind Shed Science, a show all about the fun of biology. From within her garden shed, Sally uses everything from music to costumes to animation to cover topics ranging from genetics to behavior, sex to starfish and anything else in between — for people that don’t necessarily have a biology background.
Vanessa Hill — PBS BrainCraft
BrainCraft is an educational video series on YouTube written and direct by Australian science communicator Vanessa Hill. She uses stop motion and animation to explain neuroscience, psychology and human behavior, with episodes on topics related to sleep, memory, brain hacks, and food science.
Science IRL
Science IRL is a series brought to you by creator & host Molly Edward that is here to show you what being a scientist is like, in real life. Each episode focuses on one experiment that a scientist would perform, and ties it back to the concepts that students learn in class. Want to know what it’s really like to be a scientist IRL? Watch and find out.
Physics Girl
Discover physical science with Dianna Cowern, host of Physics Girl. In this series from PBS Digital Studios, Dianna uses her upbeat and sometimes wacky personality to show how the physical world works by using everyday experiments and questions to demonstrate scientific ideas.
Fyfluiddynamics
Fuck Yeah! Fluid Dynamics is an awesome channel that celebrates the physics of all that flows. Hosted by Nicole Sharp, the show features videos that explain the behaviors of all sorts of fluids and why they flow — whether it be liquid, gas, plasma, sand, nuts, or even ants.
Anna Rothchild — Gross Science
At the junction where “gross” and “neat” meet is the YouTube channel “Gross Science,” created and hosted by Anna Rothschild and produced by Nova and PBS Digital Studios. With…interesting topics like legless amphibians that eat their mothers’ skin, what herpes can do to your brain, or how dirty public restrooms really are, Gross Science will keep you strangely fascinated.
Field Notes
Field Notes is a channel focused on creating S.T.E.M. videos on Geology and Anthropology, created by Jessica King. Learn about seismic waves, the fossil record, the effects of earthquakes, and more in short & informative chunks.
Maddie Moate
Maddie is a natural history nerd and technology specialist who uses her channel to inspire her audience to stay curious, with a focus on introducing and enthusing young people in STEM subjects. Maddie uses her unique style of vlogging educational content to take you on adventures of discovery with films on beekeeping, British wildlife, amazing places and so much more.
Amoeba Sisters
The Amoeba Sisters (who go by Pinky and Petunia) are on mission to demystify science and biology through humor and animation. Their videos are great for kids that are just starting to learn about biology, but are also great refresher videos for science-minded adults.
Draw Curiosity — Inés Dawson
Draw Curiosity is a great science channel by Inés Dawson, where you can stimulate and entertain your curiosity with interesting science and language facts. Inés showcases a wide variety of subjects like biology, psychology, math, and physics, and has videos about all sorts of fascinating subjects like the psychology of mimicry, how animals navigate the ocean, and the complexities of naming pastries.
That’s all for today folks — if you have any comments, topics, or channels that you’d like us to write about in another Scout article, let us know!
-Jeremy Kaye — jkayetv@
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