TED-Ed
TED-ED: Will the ocean ever run out of fish? - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet
When most people think of fishing, we imagine relaxing in a boat and patiently reeling in the day's catch. But modern industrial fishing -- the kind that stocks our grocery shelves -- looks more like warfare. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How brass instruments work - Al Cannon
What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And what makes the trombone so jazzy? Al Cannon shows how these answers lie not in the brass the instruments are made of, but in the journey that air takes...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The treadmill's dark and twisted past - Conor Heffernan
The constant thud underneath your feet. The constrained space. The monotony of going nowhere fast. Running on a treadmill can certainly feel like torture, but did you know it was originally used for that very purpose? Conor Heffernan...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How small are we in the scale of the universe? - Alex Hofeldt
In 1995, scientists pointed the Hubble Telescope at an area of the sky near the Big Dipper. The location was apparently empty, and the whole endeavor was risky _ what, if anything, was going to show up? But what came back was nothing...
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...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do hard drives work? - Kanawat Senanan
The modern hard drive is an object that can likely hold more information than your local library. But how does it store so much information in such a small space? Kanawat Senanan details the generations of engineers, material scientists,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is glass transparent? - Mark Miodownik
If you look through your glasses, binoculars or a window, you see the world on the other side. How is it that something so solid can be so invisible? Mark Miodownik melts the scientific secret behind amorphous solids.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars - Patrick Lin
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can't completely avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Solid, liquid, gas and plasma? - Michael Murillo
Have you ever seen static electricity cause a spark of light? What is that spark? What about lightning, the Northern Lights, or the tail of a comet? All of those things and many others _ in fact, 99.9% of the universe -- are made of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could human civilization spread across the whole galaxy? - Roey Tzezana
Could human civilization eventually spread across the whole Milky Way galaxy? Could we move beyond our small, blue planet to establish colonies in the multitude of star systems out there? These questions are pretty daunting, but their...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The sonic boom problem - Katerina Kaouri
Objects that fly faster than the speed of sound (like really fast planes) create a shock wave accompanied by a thunder-like noise: the sonic boom. These epic sounds can cause distress to people and animals and even damage nearby...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What are gravitational waves? - Amber L. Stuver
In September 2015, scientists witnessed something never seen before: two black holes colliding. Both about 30 times as big as our Sun, they had been orbiting each other for millions of years. A fraction of a second before the crash, they...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to a metal world? - Linda T. Elkins-Tanton
In 2026, an unmanned NASA spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at 16 Psyche, a massive, metallic asteroid floating somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Why is NASA so interested in this heavy metal asteroid? Are we going to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What would it be like to live on the moon? - Alex Gendler
The European Space Agency is hoping to establish an inhabited research base on the moon by the 2020s. But living in this "moon camp" won't be easy. How will humans deal with the cosmic radiation? What will the inhabitants eat? And what's...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to create cleaner coal - Emma Bryce
It takes a lot of fuel to heat our homes, preserve our food, and power our gadgets. And for 40 percent of the world, cheap, plentiful coal gets the job done. But coal also releases pollutants into the air, causing environmental damage...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The strange case of the cyclops sheep - Tien Nguyen
In the 1950s, a group of ranchers in Idaho were baffled when their sheep gave birth to lambs with only one eye. Mystified by these cyclops sheep, they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. What...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: It's a church. It's a mosque. It's Hagia Sophia. - Kelly Wall
If walls could talk, Turkey's Hagia Sophia would have an abundance of stories to tell. Once a church, then a mosque, and now a museum, this world marvel has stood the test of time and war, surviving centuries of conquest by some of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Cannibalism in the animal kingdom - Bill Schutt
Until recently, scientists thought cannibalism was a rare response to starvation or other extreme stress. Well-known cannibals like the praying mantis and black widow were considered bizarre exceptions. But now, we know they more or less...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez
Imagine you were asked to invent something new. It could be whatever you want, made from anything you choose, in any shape or size. That kind of creative freedom sounds so liberating, doesn't it?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How your digestive system works - Emma Bryce
Constantly churning inside of you, the digestive system performs a daily marvel: it transforms your food into the vital nutrients that sustain your body and ensure your survival. Emma Bryce traces food's nine-meter-long, 40-hour journey...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Will there ever be a mile-high skyscraper? - Stefan Al
Would a mile-high skyscraper ever be possible? Explore the physics behind some of the tallest buildings and megastructures in the world. -- In 1956, architect Frank Lloyd Wright proposed a mile-high skyscraper, a building five times as...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Eye vs. camera - Michael Mauser
Your eyes don’t always capture the world exactly as a video camera would. But the eyes are remarkably efficient organs, the result of hundreds of millions of years of coevolution with our brains. Michael Mauser outlines the similarities...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What can you learn from ancient skeletons? - Farnaz Khatibi
Ancient skeletons can tell us a great deal about the past, including the age, gender and even the social status of its former owner. But how can we know all of these details simply by examining some old, soil-caked bones? Farnaz Khatibi...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Is DNA the future of data storage? - Leo Bear-McGuinness
In the event of a nuclear fallout, every piece of digital and written information could all be lost. Luckily, there is a way that all of human history could be recorded and safely stored beyond the civilization's end. And the key...