Elisa Granato

Sci-comm | Researcher @kurz_gesagt | she/her 🇪🇺🦠🧫🔬| prokaryota on Bsky

[Elisa Granato @Prokaryota]

Big news, friends! I've joined "Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell" @Kurz_Gesagt as a Researcher & Fact-Checker 🐦💻🔍 Basically I get to nerd out over science with wildly creative people every day. Dream job! 💚 Go watch their stuff if you haven’t already!
https://t.co/bxrKQHnEfs

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

The new Human Era Calendar is finally here! And this year it’s more legendary than ever ✨

Join us in 12,027 as we honor the dark tales and legends that helped us make sense of the world before science. Each month takes you on a journey through forgotten worlds and human imagination.

It’s not just a year’s worth of kurzgesagt art for your home, it’s a declaration of human expression and creativity in a time of meaningless AI slop.

The Calendar is our most cherished release every year. By buying it and other products from our shop, you fund our independent channels and help us release videos for free for everyone. Thank you so much for your support!

Get your 12,027 Calendar now: https://t.co/BJMjdxq8ia

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Emergency video incoming... 24 hours!

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Our yearly tradition is returning soon... 👀
Don't miss the new 12,027 Calendar drop, and sign up for our newsletter: https://t.co/11ubgPQEAC

Can’t wait to get yours? Early access for YouTube Members and Patrons starts TODAY!

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

We imagine advanced alien civilizations building gigantic spaceships, Dyson spheres and empires spanning entire galaxies. But what if true technological progress goes in exactly the opposite direction? Not outward into space, but deeper and deeper into the smallest layers of reality?

What is the Barrow Scale? How powerful could a civilization become by mastering DNA, and even fundamental particles, and could the universe already be filled with godlike civilizations hiding in plain sight? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/YkgngwjctC

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

In a battle against cancer, could viruses be our allies? When Croatian virologist Dr. Beata Halassy’s breast cancer returned for the third time, she made a bold decision: to experiment on herself using millions of viruses grown in her own lab. Viruses love cancer cells, which helped her turn them into a weapon against her own tumor.

What happens when you infect cancer with a virus, and could virotherapy become a powerful new tool against cancer? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/V3C5tGXVoK

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

In the late 9th century, Vikings have raided kingdom after kingdom and nearly conquered all of England. Wealthy monasteries and defenseless nuns were especially tempting targets and often suffered great losses. However, all of that stopped when Vikings were confronted by princess Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Who was Lady of Mercia, and how did she shape the history of England by becoming Vikings' greatest nightmare? Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out: https://t.co/6LGTUeaQYj 🌚

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

In the 17th century in Germany, one of Europe’s most terrifying witch hunts turned the town of Bamberg against itself. Tortures that occurred in the "Witch Factory" forced innocent people to name friends, neighbors and family members, creating a deadly chain reaction that eventually reached even the richest and most powerful, while those running the trials profited from the people they condemned.

How did a witch hunt grow so powerful that almost nobody was safe? And what finally brought one of Europe’s deadliest witch hunts to an end? Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out: https://t.co/3JMr7ZQw0L 🌚

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Introducing The Cosmic Expedition: our free loyalty program in which every purchase earns you XP (Expedition Points). Collect enough and you’ll unlock discounts, exclusive products, insider access, and more! Climb the ranks from Space Cadet to Cosmic Pioneer to the *almighty* Voidwalker. The higher you go, the better the perks get.

Sign up today and earn your first 100 points!
Your Cosmic Expedition starts now: https://t.co/phdi59p080

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Has anyone heard back from him yet?

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

After exploring most of Earth, venturing into space and exploring other planets, stars and galaxies seemed like an exciting, and even obvious next step. But the deeper we look, the more the universe reveals a hidden barrier between our Solar System and everything else around it. From the vast empty space, to the laws of physics themselves, there are many reasons why the dream of space travel might stay just a dream.

What is stopping us from reaching the stars? Why does space become more dangerous the faster you travel, and could even advanced alien civilizations be trapped around their home worlds? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/OalMb1eEaz

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

YouTube’s AI Detection Kicked Us in the Face

Every creator's worst nightmare just happened to us: The YouTube algorithm actually blocked us. It started slowly at first. Some videos started showing strange view fluctuations. Our second to last video did very badly, but this just happens sometimes, so we didn’t think that much about it.

But then our last video, about Superpredators, did *extremely* badly. It was our worst upload since 2013. But it did badly in a weird way: Almost every single metric was well above average: People clicked the video more often and watched it for longer, and the people who watched it, on average, loved it! So it should have been at the very least an average upload, not the worst in over a decade.

So we quickly got in touch with YouTube, and they actually confirmed pretty quickly that something was going on. It turned out that YouTube’s automatic AI detection tools wrongly think that our very much human-made videos are AI Slop. So it started to choke our channel. Our contacts at YouTube were amazingly helpful and transparent with us, and hopefully the bug is fixed for now.

In principle, we are all for blocking AI slop from the platform; it really seems to have been bad luck.

Since we really love this video, we have taken it offline. We are updating and changing it a bit to make it worth watching a second time. We’ll reupload it in a few weeks, and hopefully this time the anti-AI tool will feel ok about it. If you have watched it before, it would help us a lot if you watch it a second time and all the way to the end for an Algorithm boost!

We’ll keep you posted!

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Back in 1932, Australia went to war against the most unusual enemy. It wasn't another country or an invading army. It was a flock of 20,000 emus! They invaded and devastated farmers' wheat fields and the government had no other option but to take out the big guns, literally. What followed has since become one of the strangest military operations in the history: the Great Emu War.

Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out what actually happened during the Emu War, how one of the world's largest birds outsmarted machine guns, and most importantly, who won in the end: https://t.co/99eE0k3C0t
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[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Yesterday we talked about the top 3 microbe predators, and today we share the top 3 memes from that video 😌

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

There is a hidden world filled with monsters you never heard of, from predators who spit acid and shoot harpoons, to armored hunters that devour their prey alive! Deep in the oceans, and even in fresh water from puddles and lakes, these microscopic super predators remained hidden in plain sight, and evolved over the last 2 billion years.

What are the deadliest predators of the microworld, and what kind of bizarre biological weapons have they evolved over the past billions of years? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/u8JggMUWyk

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Could YOU survive a royal marriage? Henry VIII had six wives, but becoming Queen of England is only the beginning of the challenge. To survive this, you have to navigate religious upheaval, political games, shifting alliances, and the unpredictable moods of one of history's most notorious monarchs. Some lost their crowns, and some lost their lives, but only one outlived the king.

Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out who Henry VIII's six wives were, why marrying him was a death sentence for most of them and see if YOU could survive this marriage: https://t.co/nULBB5S3ZB
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[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Behind every one of our videos is a producer keeping hundreds of moving pieces in orbit.
Now we're looking for two more. ✨
If you want to work with a team that's making science and history accessible and inspiring curiosity for millions of people around the world, check out our open Producer roles.
https://t.co/s0vMtgKWBb

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Memory is one of the strangest abilities you possess. Your brain uses an incredibly complex biological system to preserve moments from your past that no longer exist, allowing you to revisit experiences from years ago. But memories are not always recordings of reality. In fact, every time a memory comes under the spotlight of your attention, it can melt and change a tiny bit.

What exactly is a memory, how is a moment in time stored inside your brain, and why does remembering something slowly rewrite the story of your life? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/ZDVK3DlZ8w

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

In the late 7th century, the Arab Empire expanded across North Africa, defeating the Persians and humbling the Byzantines, but one ruler stood in its way: Dihya, a warrior queen who united tribes into one of the strongest forces of resistance, and fought a battle that transformed the history of North Africa.

Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out how Dihya challenged one of the largest empires in history and became a legend: https://t.co/xsR7M7YliD
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[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

Earth may seem like the perfect planet for life, but huge parts of our planet are actually hostile deserts of ice, rock, heat or darkness. Even our oceans are mostly barren voids where almost nothing can survive. But as we discover and research more exoplanets, we are beginning to wonder whether there could be worlds that are far better suited for life than Earth ever was, and where ecosystems flourish on a scale we can barely even imagine.

Could there be a Super-Earth that is not just habitable, but truly ideal for life? What would such a world look like, and what kinds of creatures would we find there? Watch our full video to find out: https://t.co/Iwc7I7YbxH

[Kurzgesagt @Kurz_Gesagt]

The ninjas never existed. At least not the way you think. The real story is weirder... and way more interesting. Watch our latest Nightshift video to find out who the real shinobi were, how the ninja myth was created, and why almost everything we believe about ninjas is wrong: https://t.co/WrbWWOxRMO
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