I was pleasantly surprised by this short from Minute Physics which I stumbled upon last week while researching Google Glass films. In five minutes, the clip's creators use simple stick figure animations, augmented with tasteful dashes of computer work and a well-chosen archival photo, to clear up a host of commonly held misconceptions about The Big Bang. (Thanks to this, I'll be thinking of that moment in time as the "Everywhere Stretch" from now on.)

Even though I somehow managed to avoid taking a physics class in any stage of my formal education, I've always held a fascination for quantum and astro- branches of the discipline, and eagerly devour pop-science attempts to explicate the latest discoveries (Brian Greene, Nova, etc.). What the folks at Minute Physics prove is that explaining scientific problems so complex we have yet to even totally comprehend them doesn't require similarly complicated tools. Anyone could watch "Science, Religion, and the Big Bang" and come away with greater understanding of huge, barely graspable ideas like space, time and the eternal. Minute Physics has been churning clips like this one out at a regular pace--check out their youtube page for more like it.

I may also feel fondly towards this one because its animation style so closely reminds me of Don Hertzfeldt's. Watching it sparked me to revisit the animator's perfect short "Rejected" which is not scientific in any way, but is thoroughly hysterical.