TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why are some people left-handed? - Daniel M. Abrams
Today, about one-tenth of the world's population are southpaws. Why are such a small proportion of people left-handed -- and why does the trait exist in the first place? Daniel M. Abrams investigates how the uneven ratio of lefties and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Can machines read your emotions? - Kostas Karpouzis
Computers can beat us in board games, transcribe speech, and instantly identify almost any object. But will future robots go further by learning to figure out what we're feeling? Kostas Karpouzis imagines a future where machines and the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why aren't we only using solar power? - Alexandros George Charalambides
Solar power is cheaper and more sustainable than our current coal-fueled power plants, so why haven't we made the switch? The real culprits here are the clouds, which make solar power difficult to control. Alexandros George Charalambides...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Could a breathalyzer detect cancer? - Julian Burschka
How is it that a breathalyzer can measure the alcohol content in someone’s blood, hours after they had their last drink, based on their breath alone? And could we use this same technology to detect disease by analyzing a person’s breath,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do buildings fall in earthquakes? - Vicki V. May
Earthquakes have always been a terrifying phenomenon, and they've become more deadly as our cities have grown - with collapsing buildings posing one of the largest risks. But why do buildings collapse in an earthquake? And how can it be...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Einstein's miracle year - Larry Lagerstrom
As the year 1905 began, Albert Einstein faced life as a "failed" academic. Yet within the next twelve months, he would publish four extraordinary papers, each on a different topic, that were destined to radically transform our...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do pregnancy tests work? - Tien Nguyen
Over-the-counter pregnancy tests give potentially life-changing results with a pretty high rate of accuracy. But how do they work? Tien Nguyen explains how each test performs a scientifically rigorous, multi-stage experiment that goes...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What in the world is topological quantum matter?
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Michael Kosterlitz won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016 for discovering that even microscopic matter at the smallest scale can exhibit macroscopic properties and phases that are topological. But -...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't perpetual motion machines ever work? - Netta Schramm
Perpetual motion machines - devices that can do work indefinitely without any external energy source - have captured many inventors' imaginations because they could totally transform our relationship with energy. There's just one...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History's deadliest colors - J. V. Maranto
When radium was first discovered, its luminous green color inspired people to add it into beauty products and jewelry. It wasn't until much later that we realized that radium's harmful effects outweighed its visual benefits....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Will we ever be able to teleport? - Sajan Saini
Is teleportation possible? Could a baseball transform into something like a radio wave, travel through buildings, bounce around corners, and change back into a baseball? Oddly enough, thanks to quantum mechanics, the answer might...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What was so special about Viking ships? - Jan Bill
As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by the 11th century, they had spread far from Scandinavia, gaining control of trade routes throughout Europe, conquering kingdoms as far...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How the world's first subway system was built - Christian Wolmar
It was the dawn of 1863, and London's not-yet-opened subway system - the first of its kind in the world - had the city in an uproar. Most people thought the project, which cost more than 100 million dollars in today's money, would never...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Will future spacecraft fit in our pockets? - Dhonam Pemba
When you picture a rocket, you might imagine a giant ship carrying lots of fuel, people and supplies. But what if the next wave of spacecraft were small enough to fit into our pockets? Dhonam Pemba details the future of microspacecraft,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to manage your time more effectively (according to machines) - Brian Christian
Human beings and computers alike share the challenge of how to get as much done as possible in a limited time. Over the last fifty or so years, computer scientists have learned a lot of good strategies for managing time effectively - and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The first asteroid ever discovered - Carrie Nugent
Over the course of history, we've discovered hundreds of thousands of asteroids. But how do astronomers discover these bits of rock and metal? How many have they found? And how do they tell asteroids apart? Carrie Nugent shares the story...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Under the hood: The chemistry of cars - Cynthia Chubbuck
There are over one billion cars in the world right now, getting people from point A to point B. But cars aren't just a mode of transportation; they also teach an excellent lesson in chemistry. Cynthia Chubbuck navigates the intricate...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How computers translate human language - Ioannis Papachimonas
Is a universal translator possible in real life? We already have many programs that claim to be able to take a word, sentence, or entire book in one language and translate it into almost any other. The reality, however, is a bit more...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Corruption, wealth and beauty: The history of the Venetian gondola - Laura Morelli
It's hard to imagine Venice without the curious, banana-shaped gondolas that glide down the canals. How did these boats come to be the trademark transportation of Venice? Laura Morelli details the history of the gondola, explaining why...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: A guide to the energy of the Earth - Joshua M. Sneideman
Energy is neither created nor destroyed - and yet the global demand for it continues to increase. But where does energy come from, and where does it go? Joshua M. Sneideman examines the many ways in which energy cycles through our...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How rollercoasters affect your body - Brian D. Avery
In 1895, crowds flooded Coney Island to see America's first-ever looping coaster: the Flip Flap Railway. But its thrilling flip caused cases of severe whiplash, neck injury and even ejections. Today, coasters can pull off far more...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The Turing test: Can a computer pass for a human? - Alex Gendler
What is consciousness? Can an artificial machine really think? For many, these have been vital considerations for the future of artificial intelligence. But British computer scientist Alan Turing decided to disregard all these questions...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood? - Elizabeth Cox
During the warmer months, especially at night during the full moon, horseshoe crabs emerge from the sea to spawn. Waiting for them are teams of lab workers, who capture the horseshoe crabs by the hundreds of thousands, take them to labs,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to spot a counterfeit bill - Tien Nguyen
Authentic dollar bills are equipped with many security features to make them difficult to forge. But that doesn't stop counterfeiters from trying to fool people with fakes. Luckily, anyone can help catch a counterfeit; all you need are a...