TED Talks
Brian Greene: Is our universe the only universe?
Is there more than one universe? In this visually rich, action-packed talk, Brian Greene shows how the unanswered questions of physics (starting with a big one: What caused the Big Bang?) have led to the theory that our own universe is...
PBS
Why is the Earth Round and the Milky Way Flat?
Our universe is not a very diverse place when it comes to shapes. Large celestial bodies become spheres, galaxies become discs, and there is little room for variation. Why is this? Well it turns out physics has some pretty strict rules...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The science of snowflakes - Maruša Bradač
One could say that snowflakes are simply frozen water — but if you compare a snowflake to an ice cube, you’ll notice a big difference. Why are all snowflakes six-sided? Why are none of them exactly the same? And how do we ski on them?...
SciShow
There's an Interstellar Asteroid Hiding Near Jupiter
We may have found another interstellar asteroid and scientists have some new ideas about how Saturn's moons got their weird shapes.
SciShow
Why Do Some Words Sound So... Lumpy?
Some words just SOUND like the thing they refer to. But are these associations come from the specific culture we were raised in, or is there something more fundamental going on here?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How did clouds get their names? - Richard Hamblyn
The study of clouds has always been a daydreamer’s science, aptly founded by a thoughtful young man whose favorite activity was staring out of the window at the sky. Richard Hamblyn tells the history of Luke Howard, the man who...
TED Talks
Alan Kay: A powerful idea about ideas
With all the intensity and brilliance for which he is known, Alan Kay envisions better techniques for teaching kids by using computers to illustrate experience in ways -– mathematically and scientifically -- that only computers can.
TED Talks
Michael Green: What the Social Progress Index can reveal about your country
The term Gross Domestic Product is often talked about as if it were “handed down from god on tablets of stone.” But this concept was invented by an economist in the 1930s. We need a more effective measurement tool to match 21st century...
TED Talks
David Baker: 5 challenges we could solve by designing new proteins
Proteins are remarkable molecular machines: they digest your food, fire your neurons, power your immune system and so much more. What if we could design new ones, with functions never before seen in nature? In this remarkable glimpse of...
PBS
Proving Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem
There is a proof for Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem that uses a bridge - or portal - between geometry and algebra.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Pizza physics (New York-style) - Colm Kelleher
People love eating pizza, but every style of pie has a different consistency. If "New York-style"--thin, flat, and large--is your texture of choice, then you've probably eaten a slice that was as messy as it was delicious. Colm Kelleher...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The complex geometry of Islamic design - Eric Broug
In Islamic culture, geometric design is everywhere: you can find it in mosques, madrasas, palaces, and private homes. And despite the remarkable complexity of these designs, they can be created with just a compass to draw circles and a...
SciShow
Why Are Snowflakes Flat
We’re told that all snowflakes are unique. But when you really think about them, snowflakes get even more interesting - as ice crystals forming in 3D space, why are snowflakes basically 2D?
SciShow
Blazars Are A Thing
Hank explains how quasars and blazars are both the same thing - just oriented differently in respect to us - and how that impacts the way we perceive them and how it also effects the ways we can study them.
TED Talks
Golan Levin: Art that looks back at you
Golan Levin, an artist and engineer, uses modern tools -- robotics, new software, cognitive research -- to make artworks that surprise and delight. Watch as sounds become shapes, bodies create paintings, and a curious eye looks back at...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do oysters make pearls? | Rob Ulrich
Despite their iridescent colors and smooth shapes, pearls are actually made of the exact same material as the craggy shell that surrounds them. Pearls, urchin spines, the shells of mussels, snails and clams, even coral— all these...
SciShow
For These 7 Species, Sex Changes Everything
Animals and plants come in an amazing variety of shapes, sizes and colors. And in some species, they take it pretty extreme to deal with the battles within and between sexes.
Crash Course
Perceiving is Believing - Crash Course Psychology
So what does perception even mean? What's the difference between seeing something and making sense of it? In today's episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank gives us some insight into the differences between sensing and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut? - Mia Nacamulli
Kurt Vonnegut found the tidy, satisfying arcs of many stories at odds with reality, and he set out to explore the ambiguity between good and bad fortune in his own novels. He tried to make sense of human behavior by studying the shapes...
Be Smart
How Many Smells Can You Smell?
We walk through life led by our noses. Literally. Because they're on the front of our faces. How does the sense of smell work, and how sensitive are our noses? Why are smell-related memories so vivid? How many different smells could we...
SciShow Kids
Where Do Snowflakes Come From?
Each snowflake is a six-pointed work of art, as cool and as individual as you are. But how does nature make snowflakes?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Self-assembly: The power of organizing the unorganized - Skylar Tibbits
From something as familiar as our bodies to things vast as the formation of galaxies, we can observe the process of self-assembly, or when unordered parts come together in an organized structure. Skylar Tibbits explains how we see...
SciShow
How Protein Shapes Help Us Make Medicine
Coming up with brand new drugs is all about pinpointing and exploiting a disease’s weakness. A big part of perfecting drug design will be learning to predict how proteins get their shapes because that has everything to do with how both...