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Wink wink: Bill Nye uses emojis to explain evolution

Just how good are emojis at communicating complex ideas? Bill Nye the Science Guy explains the theory of evolution with a series of the digital symbols. Smiley face.

Anthony Domanico
CNET freelancer Anthony Domanico is passionate about all kinds of gadgets and apps. When not making words for the Internet, he can be found watching Star Wars or "Doctor Who" for like the zillionth time. His other car is a Tardis.
Anthony Domanico

Bill Nye the Science Guy shows that you don't need words to explain even the most complex scientific theories, as long as you have a good set of emojis in your arsenal.

In a fun short video on Mashable's Watercooler YouTube channel, Nye uses emojis to explain how evolution works. OK, so he had to use a few words to connect some of the emojis, and he was talking through it the whole time, but it's actually pretty impressive how far emojis can go toward explaining things like how molecules bound together and found ways to reproduce themselves, and how imperfect replications of these molecules led to the creation of things like bacteria, plants, sea barnacles and, you know, humans. The video was shot as part of the GE Emoji Science event at the NYU Chemistry Lab in New York City.

Check out the video in full at the top of this post, then maybe pick up some of Nick Offerman's wood emoji for those times where you want to communicate complex things in real life.