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Clear, accurate explanations of the concepts people search for most — each paired with a 2-minute animated lesson on Know.it. Pick a topic to start.
Science
Photosynthesis is the process plants, algae, and some bacteria use to turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose (food) and oxygen. It is the chemical reaction that powers almost all life on Earth and produces the oxygen we breathe.
A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing — not even light — can escape once it crosses the boundary called the event horizon. They form when massive stars collapse at the end of their lives.
Gravity is the force by which every object with mass attracts every other object. It's what gives things weight, keeps planets orbiting the Sun, and pulls a dropped apple back to the ground.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for building and running every living thing. It's a long, twisted ladder — a double helix — whose rungs spell out a code in four chemical letters.
The water cycle is the continuous journey water takes through the environment — evaporating from oceans and land, condensing into clouds, falling as rain or snow, and flowing back to the sea. The same water has been recycled for billions of years.
Cellular respiration is how cells release energy from food by breaking down glucose using oxygen, producing carbon dioxide, water, and usable energy (ATP). It's essentially the reverse of photosynthesis and runs in nearly all living cells.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the field of building computer systems that can perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence — like understanding language, recognizing images, making decisions, and learning from data. Modern AI is driven mostly by machine learning.
Machine learning is a branch of AI where computers learn to make predictions or decisions by finding patterns in data, instead of being explicitly programmed with rules. The more relevant data it sees, the better it gets.
A large language model is an AI system trained on vast amounts of text to predict the next word in a sequence. That simple objective lets it write, summarize, translate, answer questions, and hold conversations.
Technology
Finance
Compound interest is interest earned not only on your original money but also on the interest it has already earned. Over time this snowball effect makes savings and investments grow faster and faster.
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices rises over time, which means each unit of money buys a little less than before. Moderate inflation is normal in a growing economy; very high inflation erodes savings quickly.