Veritasium

Veritasium is an educational science YouTube channel created and hosted by Derek Muller that began in 2010. The channel demonstrates physical principles, tests scientific theories, and explains mathematical concepts through experiments and site visits.

Muller completed a doctorate in physics education research at the University of Sydney in 2008, examining multimedia design for science learning. He quit his teaching position in 2010 to focus on educational video production, registering the channel name as a blend of the Latin word veritas and the element suffix ium. Early videos featured street interviews testing public misconceptions about gravity, light, and temperature. Private equity firm Electrify Video Partners acquired a majority stake in Veritasium in April 2023, funding expanded production teams and animated sequences.

In 2021, Muller built a land vehicle to demonstrate that wind-powered machines can travel directly downwind faster than the wind, entering a $10,000 wager with physics professor Alexander Kusenko. Kusenko conceded the bet after reviewing sensor measurements recorded during field tests in California. Another report, examining industrial perfluorooctanoic acid pollution, tracked decades of internal corporate records and water tests. Muller traveled to locations such as Utah potash evaporation ponds and Chernobyl exclusion zones to test radiation levels and fluid dynamics. Episodes explain counterintuitive problems such as hydraulic paradoxes, quantum entanglement, and the aerodynamic behavior of spinning balls dropped from 127 m (417 ft) dams.

Veritasium received the Australian Webstream Award for Best Educational and Lifestyle Series in 2013 and the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism in 2016. The channel won a Streamy Award for Best Science and Education Channel in 2017. In May 2025, the American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Muller the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for his investigation of chemical pollution. Muller also presented television documentaries, including Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail in 2015 and Vitamania in 2018. The production team expanded secondary educational projects such as Sciencium and 2veritasium.