TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What’s a squillo, and why do opera singers need it?
An orchestra fills an opera house with music, but a singer’s voice soars above the instruments. Its melody rings out across thousands of patrons— all without any assistance from a microphone. How is it possible that a single voice can be...
TED Talks
TED: What it's like to be a war refugee | Zarlasht Halaimzai
Living under the constant threat of violence has a lasting effect -- even after you escape from danger, says writer and refugee advocate Zarlasht Halaimzai. One of the millions of people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced by...
TED Talks
Clifford Stoll: The call to learn
Clifford Stoll captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides -- and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he's a scientist: "Once I do something, I want to do...
TED Talks
Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics
Evan Grant demonstrates the science and art of cymatics, a process for making soundwaves visible. Useful for analyzing complex sounds (like dolphin calls), it also makes complex and beautiful designs.
SciShow
What Does A Cochlear Implant Sound Like?
Cochlear implants don't generate sound like a hearing aid would. Instead, they zap your cochlea.
TED Talks
Caroline Phillips: Hurdy-gurdy for beginners
Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.
TED Talks
Nora Brown: "East Virginia" / "John Brown's Dream"
In a mesmerizing set, musician Nora Brown breathes new life into two old-time banjo tunes: "East Virginia" and "John Brown's Dream." An evocative performance paired with a quick history of the banjo's evolution.
TED Talks
TED: The brain benefits of deep sleep -- and how to get more of it | Dan Gartenberg
There's nothing quite like a good night's sleep. What if technology could help us get more out of it? Dan Gartenberg is working on tech that stimulates deep sleep, the most regenerative stage which (among other wonderful things) might...
Crash Course
The Heart, part 2 - Heart Throbs: Crash Course A&P
Today we're talking the heart and heart throbs -- both literal and those of the televised variety. Hank explains how your heart's pacemaker cells use leaky membranes to generate their own action potentials, and how the resulting...
SciShow
Is There Sound in Space?
Sound can't actually travel through a vacuum like space, but scientists have learned that there's still plenty to hear.
TED Talks
Andrew Bird: A one-man orchestra of the imagination
Musical innovator Andrew Bird winds together his trademark violin technique with xylophone, vocals and sophisticated electronic looping. Add in his uncanny ability to whistle anything, and he becomes a riveting one-man orchestra.
TED Talks
Sirena Huang: An 11-year-old's magical violin
Violinist Sirena Huang gives a technically brilliant and emotionally nuanced performance. In a charming interlude, the 11-year-old praises the timeless design of her instrument.
SciShow
Why Inducing Hallucinations Might Be a Good Idea
Researchers have developed ways to induce hallucinations, and though it sounds weird, it could also tell us a lot about mental health.
SciShow
Why Do Some Harmonies Sound Prettier Than Others?
Whether your favorite band is One Direction or Slayer, you can probably tell tense chords from relaxed ones, but what exactly gives them those qualities?
MinuteEarth
How To Hear Halfway Around The World
Sounds in the ocean can travel more than 10,000 miles - that's halfway around the world! Here's how.
TED Talks
Jim Hudspeth: The beautiful, mysterious science of how you hear
Have you ever wondered how your ears work? In this delightful and fascinating talk, biophysicist Jim Hudspeth demonstrates the wonderfully simple yet astonishingly powerful mechanics of hair cells, the microscopic powerhouses that make...
Crash Course
Hearing & Balance: Crash Course A&P
Crash Course A&P continues the journey through sensory systems with a look at how your sense of hearing works. We follow sounds as they work there way into the ear where they are registered and transformed into action potentials. This...
TED Talks
Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us
Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.
MinutePhysics
How to Turn Sound Into Light: Sonoluminescence
How to Turn Sound Into Light: Sonoluminescence
SciShow Kids
The Amazing Flag Raiser! | Solving Problems with Engineering | SciShow Kids
Jessi and Squeaks want a way to let their friends know when it's time to play at the Fort, so they work together and use engineering to build a prototype solution! NGSS: ETS1.A : Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems A situation...
SciShow
The Physics of the Weird and Wonderful Theremin
Electronic music is older than you may think. Enter the theremin - a device that turns your body into part of a capacitor, and allows you to play music without even touching an instrument!
SciShow
7 Real-Life Unicorns
Unicorns may not exist on this planet, but Earth does have plenty of one-horned creatures that are just as remarkable, if not quite as majestic. Chapters NARWHALS 0:34 RHINOCEROS BEETLES 4:19 ASIAN RHINOCEROS BEETLE RHINOCEROS HORNBILLS...
TED Talks
Pamelia Kurstin: The untouchable music of the theremin
Virtuoso Pamelia Kurstin performs and discusses her theremin, the not-just-for-sci-fi electronic instrument that is played without being touched. Songs include "Autumn Leaves," "Lush Life" and David Mash’s "Listen, Words Are Gone."
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The true story of 'true' - Gina Cooke
The older the word, the longer (and more fascinating) the story. With roots in Old English, 'true' shares etymological ancestors with words like betroth and truce...but also with the word tree. In fact, trees have been metaphors for...