SciShow
We Use Black Holes to Study Tectonic Plates
The ground under our feet is constantly moving, and to measure these movements, researchers have turned to an unlikely helper: quasars that are millions of light-years away.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The coelacanth: A living fossil of a fish - Erin Eastwood
The coelacanth, a prehistoric fish that was mistakenly thought to have gone extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs, has managed to stick around our seas for 360 million years. Erin Eastwood details the surprising "back from the dead"...
TED Talks
TED: How the US government spies on people who protest -- including you | Jennifer Granick
What's stopping the American government from recording your phone calls, reading your emails and monitoring your location? Very little, says surveillance and cybersecurity counsel Jennifer Granick. The government collects all kinds of...
TED Talks
TED: The beauty and complexity of finding common ground | Matt Trombley
How can we disagree with one another, respectfully and productively? In this thoughtful talk, team builder Matt Trombley reflects on "agonism" -- the tendency to take a rigid stance on issues -- and shares why finding aspects of...
SciShow
Why Are Periodical Cicadas So ... Periodical?
Certain cicada species in North America emerge from the ground by the millions every 13 or 17 years. But why those specific intervals? Are cicadas secretly prime-number-loving mathematicians?!
TED Talks
TED: How we can make energy more affordable for low-income families | DeAndrea Salvador
Every month, millions of Americans face an impossible choice: pay for energy to power their homes, or pay for basic needs like food and medicine. TED Fellow DeAndrea Salvador is working to reduce energy costs so that no one has to make...
TED Talks
TED: How we're saving one of Earth's last wild places | Steve Boyes
Navigating territorial hippos and active minefields, TED Fellow Steve Boyes and a team of scientists have been traveling through the Okavango Delta, Africa's largest remaining wetland wilderness, to explore and protect this near-pristine...
SciShow
6 Seriously Impressive Animal Migrations
There are some seriously impressive journeys that animals will undertake to avoid the cold, to give birth, or to find food. All kinds of creatures migrate that you might not think about; some big and familiar, and others so small, you...
Be Smart
Tuatara All the Way Down
During the 2017 Project For Awesome livestream, I promised I'd make a tuatara video if we hit our fundraising goal, and I'm a man of my word! Little did I know I'd get to meet a tuatara and learn things about a 200 million year old...
TED Talks
Yaniv Erlich: How we're building the world's largest family tree
Computational geneticist Yaniv Erlich helped build the world's largest family tree -- comprising 13 million people and going back more than 500 years. He shares fascinating patterns that emerged from the work -- about our love lives, our...
TED Talks
TED: How we can help hungry kids, one text at a time | Su Kahumbu
Su Kahumbu raises badass cows -- healthy, well-fed animals whose protein is key to solving a growing crisis in Africa: childhood nutritional stunting. With iCow, a simple SMS service she developed to support small-scale livestock...
SciShow
The Rainbow Gem Made from Ancient Sea Creatures
Ammonite fossils can be found all over world, but in one place, something happened that turned their remains into rainbow-colored gems that are more rare than diamonds!
SciShow
Meet Zealandia The Earths 8th Continent and RealLife Atlantis
The story of Atlantis, a mythological continent that vanished into the sea after its inhabitants displeased the gods, has fascinated people for thousands of years. However, the idea of a whole continent sinking into the ocean may be more...
TED Talks
TED: TED's secret to great public speaking | Chris Anderson
There's no single formula for a great talk, but there is a secret ingredient that all the best ones have in common. TED curator Chris Anderson shares this secret -- along with four ways to make it work for you. Do you have what it takes...
TED Talks
Jaap de Roode: How butterflies self-medicate
Just like us, the monarch butterfly sometimes gets sick thanks to a nasty parasite. But biologist Jaap de Roode noticed something interesting about the butterflies he was studying — infected female butterflies would choose to lay their...
TED Talks
TED: How a fleet of wind-powered drones is changing our understanding of the ocean | Sebastien de Halleux
Our oceans are unexplored and undersampled -- today, we still know more about other planets than our own. How can we get to a better understanding of this vast, important ecosystem? Explorer Sebastien de Halleux shares how a new fleet of...
TED Talks
Lalitesh Katragadda: Making maps to fight disaster, build economies
As of 2005, only 15 percent of the world was mapped. This slows the delivery of aid after a disaster -- and hides the economic potential of unused lands and unknown roads. In this short talk, Google's Lalitesh Katragadda demos Map Maker,...
SciShow
Hotter Than Death Valley | Weird Places
With acidic puddles, lava lakes, and one of the most important early hominid discoveries, the Danakil Depression is home to all of the extremes.
3Blue1Brown
How secure is 256 bit security?
When a piece of cryptography is described as having "256-bit security", what exactly does that mean? Just how big is the number 2^256?
SciShow
Get Ready for a New Star in the Night Sky! SciShow News
Astronomers are predicting that two stars are likely to merge and explode, and it may happen soon... on a cosmic timescale. Plus, scientists break up a meteorite and find the oldest solid matter ever discovered on earth.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood? - Elizabeth Cox
During the warmer months, especially at night during the full moon, horseshoe crabs emerge from the sea to spawn. Waiting for them are teams of lab workers, who capture the horseshoe crabs by the hundreds of thousands, take them to labs,...
SciShow
The Riddle of Washington’s Mt. Olympus: A SciShow Field Trip #1
Stefan and Alexis are headed to Olympic National Park in Washington state to bring you some of the coolest geology stories there. This week, they explore why Mount Olympus should be taller than Mount Everest.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are locust plagues unstoppable? | Jeffrey A. Lockwood
A ravenous swarm stretches as far as the eye can see. It has no leader or strategic plan; its only goals are to eat, breed, and move on. These are desert locusts— infamous for their capacity for destruction. But most of the time desert...
TED Talks
Shai Reshef: An ultra-low-cost college degree
At the online University of the People, anyone with a high school diploma can take classes toward a degree in business administration or computer science — without standard tuition fees (though exams cost money). Founder Shai Reshef...