TED Talks
Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now
Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on "external brains" (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives....
TED Talks
Louise Leakey: A dig for humanity's origins
Louise Leakey asks, "Who are we?" The question takes her to the Rift Valley in Eastern Africa, where she digs for the evolutionary origins of humankind -- and suggests a stunning new vision of our competing ancestors.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The pharaoh that wouldn't be forgotten - Kate Narev
Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh during the New Kingdom in Egypt. Twenty years after her death, somebody smashed her statues, took a chisel and attempted to erase the pharaoh's name and image from history. But who did it? And why? Kate...
SciShow
Save Tesla!
Hank comes to you from his inner sanctum of science news to bring you a couple of things you never knew about human origins, the latest from his best friend on Mars, and what you can do to help one of the craziest, greatest people in the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is cotton in everything? - Michael R. Stiff
Centuries ago, the Inca developed ingenuous suits of armor that could protect warriors from even the fiercest physical attacks. These hardy structures were made not from iron or steel, but rather something unexpectedly soft: cotton....
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The ancient origins of the Olympics - Armand D'Angour
Thousands of years in the making, the Olympics began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia. But how did it become the greatest show of sporting excellence on earth? Armand D'Angour...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The Egyptian myth of Isis and the seven scorpions - Alex Gendler
A woman in rags emerged from a swamp flanked by seven giant scorpions and approached a magnificent mansion to beg for food. But the mistress of the house took one look at her grimy clothes and unusual companions and slammed the door in...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The science of skin color - Angela Koine Flynn
When ultraviolet sunlight hits our skin, it affects each of us differently. Depending on skin color, it'll take only minutes of exposure to turn one person beetroot-pink, while another requires hours to experience the slightest change....
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Who built Great Zimbabwe? And why? - Breeanna Elliott
Stretched across a tree-peppered expanse in Southern Africa lies the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, a medieval stone city of astounding wealth. Located in the present-day country of Zimbabwe, it's the site of the second largest settlement...
TED Talks
Fredy Peccerelli: A forensic anthropologist who brings closure for the "disappeared"
In Guatemala's 36-year conflict, 200,000 civilians were killed — and more than 40,000 were never identified. At the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, Fredy Peccerelli and his team use DNA, archeology and storytelling to help...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Gyotaku: The ancient Japanese art of printing fish - K. Erica Dodge
How did fishermen record their trophy catches before the invention of photography? In 19th century Japan, fishing boats were equipped with rice paper, sumi-e ink, and brushes in order to create gyotaku: elaborate rubbings of freshly...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What really happened to the Library of Alexandria? - Elizabeth Cox
2,300 years ago, the rulers of Alexandria set out to fulfill a very audacious goal: to collect all the knowledge in the world under one roof. In its prime, the Library of Alexandria housed an unprecedented number of scrolls and attracted...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to make a mummy - Len Bloch
As anyone who's seen a mummy knows, ancient Egyptian priests went to a lot of trouble to evade decomposition. But how successful were they? Len Bloch details the mummification process and examines its results thousands of years later.
TED Talks
Debbie Millman: How symbols and brands shape our humanity
"Branding is the profound manifestation of the human spirit," says designer and podcaster Debbie Millman. In a historical odyssey that she illustrated herself, Millman traces the evolution of branding, from cave paintings to flags to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Did Ancient Troy really exist? - Einav Zamir Dembin
When Homer's Iliad was first written down in the eighth century BCE, the story of the Trojan war was already an old one. From existing oral tradition, audiences knew the tales of the long siege, the duels outside the city walls, and the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why incompetent people think they're amazing - David Dunning
How good are you with money? What about reading people's emotions? How healthy are you, compared to other people you know? Knowing how our skills stack up against others is useful in many ways. But psychological research suggests that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: There may be extraterrestrial life in our solar system - Augusto Carballido
Is there extraterrestrial life in our solar system? Or are we alone? Take a journey to the ocean worlds on Jupiter and Saturn to investigate the possibility. -- Deep in our solar system, a new era of exploration is unfolding. Beneath the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The myth of King Midas and his golden touch - Iseult Gillespie
In Greek mythology, King Midas is known as a rogue ruler whose antics bemused his people and irritated the Gods. Many know the classic story of Midas's golden touch, but the foolish king was also known for his unusual pair of ears....
Crash Course
Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology
This week, we're talking about theories of Myth. We'll look at the different ways mythology has been studied in the last couple of millenia, and talk about the diffeent ways people have interpreted myth, academically.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The hidden worlds within natural history museums - Joshua Drew
When you think of natural history museums, you might picture exhibits filled with ancient lifeless things, like dinosaurs or meteorites. But behind that educational exterior, there are hidden laboratories where scientific breakthroughs...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Where does gold come from? - David Lunney
Did you know that gold is extraterrestrial? Instead of arising from our planet's rocky crust, it was actually cooked up in space and is present on Earth because of cataclysmic stellar explosions called supernovae. CERN Scientist David...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read "The Handmaid's Tale"? - Naomi R. Mercer
Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction masterpiece The Handmaid's Tale explores the consequences of complacency and how power can be wielded unfairly. Atwood's chilling vision of a dystopian regime has captured readers' imaginations since...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The myth of Icarus and Daedalus - Amy Adkins
In mythological ancient Greece, Icarus flew above Crete on wings made from wax and feathers, defying the laws of man and nature. To witnesses on the ground, he looked like a god, and he felt like one too. But, in his society, the line...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happened to the lost Kingdom of Kush? | Geoff Emberling
Along the Nile River, in what is now northern Sudan, lay the ancient civilization of Kush. Though they were once conquered by a powerful neighbor, the kings and queens of Kush would go on to successfully challenge two of the most...