TED Talks
Heather Barnett: What humans can learn from semi-intelligent slime
Inspired by biological design and self-organizing systems, artist Heather Barnett co-creates with physarum polycephalum, a eukaryotic microorganism that lives in cool, moist areas. What can people learn from the semi-intelligent slime...
TED Talks
Morgan Vague: These bacteria eat plastic
Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic each year -- yet, despite our best efforts, less than 10 percent of it ends up being recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste? Morgan Vague describes her research with...
TED Talks
TED: 3 moons and a planet that could have alien life | James Green
Is there life beyond earth? Join NASA's director of planetary science James Green for a survey of the places in our solar system that are most likely to harbor alien life.
TED Talks
Paul Ewald: Can we domesticate germs?
Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.
TED Talks
Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun
High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about his new lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing...
SciShow
How to Make a COVID-19 Vaccine
One year to eighteen months might seem like a while to wait for a COVID-19 vaccine, but there's a good reason finding and approving a candidate takes a whole lot of time.
TED Talks
TED: The secrets of spider venom | Michel Dugon
Spider venom can stop your heart within minutes, cause unimaginable pain -- and potentially save your life, says zoologist Michel Dugon. As a tarantula crawls up and down his arm, Dugon explains the medical properties of this potent...
TED Talks
Fabian Oefner: Psychedelic science
Swiss artist and photographer Fabian Oefner is on a mission to make eye-catching art from everyday science. In this charming talk, he shows off some recent psychedelic images, including photographs of crystals as they interact with...
TED Talks
TED: A new superweapon in the fight against cancer | Paula Hammond
Cancer is a very clever, adaptable disease. To defeat it, says medical researcher and educator Paula Hammond, we need a new and powerful mode of attack. With her colleagues at MIT, Hammond engineered a nanoparticle one-hundredth the size...
SciShow
Why Does Rain Smell so Good... to Bugs?
Humans love the smell after good rain, though we may not be the the target of the pleasing aroma. There's evidence the characteristic post-rain scent is used to lure arthropods to bacteria.
SciShow
6 Bacteria with Awesome Superpowers
Bacteria have evolved some pretty incredible abilities. They may never star in a big summer movie, but here are six bacteria with amazing superpowers.
SciShow
3 People Who Probably Saved Your Life
Today we are talking about 3 scientists who, through their collective inventions and discoveries, have saved millions of lives.
TED Talks
Siddhartha Mukherjee: Soon we'll cure diseases with a cell, not a pill
Current medical treatment boils down to six words: Have disease, take pill, kill something. But physician Siddhartha Mukherjee points to a future of medicine that will transform the way we heal.
TED Talks
TED: Meet the microscopic life in your home -- and on your face | Anne Madden
Behold the microscopic jungle in and around you: tiny organisms living on your cheeks, under your sofa and in the soil in your backyard. We have an adversarial relationship with these microbes -- we sanitize, exterminate and disinfect...
TED Talks
Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi: To detect diseases earlier, let's speak bacteria's secret language
Bacteria "talk" to each other, sending chemical information to coordinate attacks. What if we could listen to what they were saying? Nanophysicist Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a tool to spy on bacterial chatter and translate...
TED Talks
Mark Kendall: Demo: A needle-free vaccine patch that's safer and way cheaper
One hundred sixty years after the invention of the needle and syringe, we're still using them to deliver vaccines; it's time to evolve. Biomedical engineer Mark Kendall demos the Nanopatch, a one-centimeter-by-one-centimeter square...
TED Talks
Karen Lloyd: The mysterious microbes living deep inside the earth -- and how they could help humanity
The ground beneath your feet is home to a massive, mysterious world of microbes -- some of which have been in the earth's crust for hundreds of thousands of years. What's it like down there? Take a trip to the volcanoes and hot springs...
TED Talks
TED: The fingerprints of life beyond Earth | Clara Sousa-Silva
Is there life on Venus? Quantum astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva makes the case for a new way to seek and possibly discover habitable planets -- and shares her research into a poisonous, smelly molecule that might signal life beyond Earth.
Amoeba Sisters
Introduction to Cells: The Grand Cell Tour
Compares and contrasts prokaryote cells and eukaryote cells before exploring organelle structures and functions! Video includes the modern cell theory and plant vs. animal cell comparisons. See table of contents by expanding video...
SciShow
How Extreme Microbes Are Helping Us Test for COVID-19
Microbes that live in extreme environments, like geysers and hydrothermal vents, are able to survive in extreme temperatures. Scientists have figured out ways to use this thermostability to supercharge DNA studies, including the study of...
SciShow
Antlers: The Secret to Deer's Cancer-Fighting Superpowers
Antler cells divide really fast, and with their super-fast growth, antlers resemble tumors in some ways. But animals in the deer family are less likely to get cancer than many other organisms, and a recent genetics study may have...
TED Talks
TED: How we can make crops survive without water | Jill Farrant
As the world's population grows and the effects of climate change come into sharper relief, we'll have to feed more people using less arable land. Molecular biologist Jill Farrant studies a rare phenomenon that may help: "resurrection...
SciShow
Microbes Might Survive on Mars | SciShow News
We’re all excited about the Mars rover Perseverance this week, but scientists are also working on some other exciting things!
Crash Course
The New Anatomy: Crash Course History of Science
There’s a question to consider that’s pretty daunting: what is life? And to try to answer that question, three tools stand out as being especially useful: A book, some experiments, and the microscope! In this episode, Hank talks to us...