SciShow
What Took Down These Three Ancient Civilizations?
When it comes to piecing together what happened to civilizations that no longer exist, it can be challenging to solve the mystery. But research into Angkor, the Akkadian Empire, and even the Norse of Greenland, is helping us see that...
TED Talks
TED: How to stop the next pandemic? Stop deforestation | Neil Vora
Clearing tropical forests isn't just dangerous to the natural world — it's also a threat to human health and wellbeing, says physician Neil Vora. Tracing how environmental devastation led to deadly epidemics like Ebola, he presents three...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Should you be suing your government? | Shannon Odell
Since 2015, an unprecedented movement has been sweeping courts around the world. Groups of young plaintiffs are suing their governments for their inaction on tackling climate change. These suits argue that climate inaction violates their...
SciShow
Life on an 8-Hour Planet
Even if we find an earth-sized exoplanet, how can we be so sure that we're looking at earth 2.0? It might come down to how fast it's spinning.
SciShow
How Blocking the Sun Makes Mars Hotter
If we’re going to send people to Mars someday, we’re going to need to be very conscious of the challenges presented in this endeavor. And at the top of that list is the ferocious nature of dust on the barren planet.
PBS
When Lizards Took Over the World
Lizards are incredibly widespread and diverse but it took them a long time to get to where they are now. Because they used to face some pretty stiff competition from a group of lizard look-alikes.
PBS
When It Was Too Hot for Leaves
Plants first made their way onto land at least 470 million years ago but for their first 80 million years, leaves as we know them today didn’t exist. What held them back?
PBS
When Ancient People Changed Their Own DNA
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PBS
The History of Climate Cycles (and the Woolly Rhino) Explained
Throughout the Pleistocene Epoch, the range of the woolly rhino grew and shrank in sync with global climate. So what caused the climate -- and the range of the woolly rhino -- to cycle back and forth between such extremes?
PBS
How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)
Over 600 million years ago, sheets of ice coated our planet on both land and sea. How did this happen? And most importantly for us, why did the planet eventually thaw again? The evidence for Snowball Earth is written on every continent...
PBS
How a Supervolcano Ignited an Evolutionary Debate
The Toba supervolcano was the biggest explosive eruption of the last 2.5 million years. And humans were around to see it, or at least feel its effects! But what were those effects?
PBS
How a Hot Planet Created the World's Biggest Snake
About 59 million years ago, the largest animal lurking in the ancient forests of Colombia by far was Titanoboa - the largest snake ever known. It’s only been in the past few years that we’ve put together the many pieces of this puzzling...
PBS
When the Rainforests Collapsed
The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse set the stage for a takeover that would be a crucial turning point in the history of terrestrial animal life. If it weren’t for that time when the rainforests collapsed - in an extinction event that...
PBS
The Return of Giant Skin-Shell Sea Turtles
The biggest turtle ever described wasn’t an ancestor of today’s leatherback turtles or any other living sea turtles. But it looks like there are some things about being a giant, skin-shelled sea turtle that just work, no matter where, or...
PBS
Why sunscreen in the United States is behind the rest of the world
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, everyone older than six months should use sunscreen every day to decrease the risk of skin cancer. But today’s sunblock is full of ingredients that are decades old and increasingly obsolete. Dr....
Be Smart
The Biggest Myth About Climate Change
You’ve seen it in the comment section before: “Climate change is natural. It’s happened before and it will keep happening”. In reality, comments like these are the newest kind of climate change denial. In this video we’re going to learn...
Be Smart
What Would Happen if ONE MILLION Species Went Extinct?
A massive new study has just been released showing that human activities are threatening Earth’s other life forms in some very bad ways. One million species may be at risk of extinction. Just let that sink in. Isn’t the Anthropocene...
Be Smart
How Ancient Ice Proves Climate Change Is Real
Earth’s climate is changing in a big way, and it’s because there's more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point in our species’ history. But Earth’s climate has changed before. How do we know that this time we’re the cause? We...
Be Smart
If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?
Can trees really save us from climate change? For eons, nature has relied on photosynthesis as a big way to keep carbon dioxide levels from getting out of control. But as we have put more carbon into the air, we’ve also cut down many of...
TED Talks
TED: An extreme weather report from America's weatherman | Al Roker
It's not just you: the weather is getting worse. And if there's one person who would know, it's "America's weatherman," Al Roker, who's spent decades reporting live from some of the worst storms and natural disasters in history. He...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's happening to Earth's core? | Shannon Odell
A hydrogen atom is traveling high within the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere. This particular atom first entered the exosphere millions of years ago, but today it overcomes Earth's gravitational pull and escapes, joining the...
TED Talks
TED: Why are we making pizza boxes out of endangered trees? | Nicole Rycroft
If we're going to solve the climate crisis, we need to talk about supply chains, says biodiversity champion and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Nicole Rycroft. Her organization, Canopy, partners with key industry leaders to overhaul their...
SciShow
Does the Food Chain Stop At Jellyfish?
Jellyfish aren't the most nutritious animals in the ocean. Yet sea turtles and many other organisms get their nutrition from almost nothing else. Here's why they don't totally starve to death.
SciShow
The Southern Hemisphere is Colder, Stormier, and... Cleaner?
You'd think that the Northern and Southern Hemispheres would be basically symmetrical -- that since our planet is a ball, the climate, temperature, and weather patterns would be the same on top as on the bottom. But there are some...