Science Sensation Mark Rober Shines at Caltech

Mark Rober has created a swimming pool filled with Jell-O, the world’s largest Nerf gun, and staged an Olympics-style competition for squirrels.

By Whitney Clavin

As the host and creator of some of the wackiest viral videos on YouTube, Rober’s videos receive tens of millions of views, and his channel, crunchlabs, has more than 23 million subscribers.

In his Caltech Management Association talk, on Monday, January 30, Rober discussed how he sneaks science and engineering education into his videos.

Rob Manning (BS ’82), chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), introduced Rober, explaining that they both worked on the historic landing of the Curiosity rover, which touched down on the Red Planet in 2012. Now, Rober is a YouTube star, with a television show called Revengineers in development with Jimmy Kimmel.

In his talk, Rober explained that one secret to capturing audiences in his videos is to tell stories that emotionally connect with viewers, sparking laughter, wonder, sadness, and even anger. “They might not remember the specifics, but they’ll remember how they felt,” he said.

Rober emphasized to the audience that there are three important steps to telling impactful stories: Pack them with real value; make them matter; make them authentic.

He already has his next 14 videos planned out.

This article has been edited for clarity and brevity. You can read the full article at Caltech website.