PBS
‘The Overstory’ author Richard Powers answers your questions
Richard Powers, author of our November pick for the NewsHour-New York Times book club, Now Read This, joins Jeffrey Brown to answer reader questions on “The Overstory,” and Jeff announces the December book selection.
PBS
Texas on the front lines of NAFTA negotiations
President Donald Trump announced this week his plan to renegotiate NAFTA, a free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, citing a loss of jobs in the U.S. But many business owners and politicians in Texas, which shares a border with...
PBS
Tourism in Iceland is booming, but that may not be all good news
As war, terrorism and uncertainty pervade the globe, travelers are flocking to Iceland -- regarded as one of the safest nations on the planet. Fishing used to be the country's most profitable industry, but in recent years, tourism has...
Crash Course
Commerce, Agriculture, and Slavery: Crash Course European History
We've been talking a lot about kings, and queens, and wars, and religious upheaval for most of this series, but let's take a moment to zoom out, and look at the ways that individuals' lives were changing in the time span we've covered so...
3Blue1Brown
What's so special about Euler's number e? Essence of Calculus - Part 5 of 11
What is the derivative of a^x? Why is e^x its own derivative? This video shows how to think about the rule for differentiating exponential functions.
TED Talks
Suzanne Lee: Why "biofabrication" is the next industrial revolution
What if we could "grow" clothes from microbes, furniture from living organisms and buildings with exteriors like tree bark? TED Fellow Suzanne Lee shares exciting developments from the field of biofabrication and shows how it could help...
PBS
What a Dinosaur Looks Like Under a Microscope
We traveled to Bozeman, Montana to meet with Dr. Ellen-Therese Lamm who explores ancient life by studying it at the cellular level. Kallie and Dr. Lamm discuss how she does this, and what she's learned by putting dinosaur bones under a...
SciShow
Nature’s Secret Weapon Against Microbes: Squid Skin
There's a compound found in squid skin that they use to change color and protect their cells, but it could also help us fight some of the most common disease-causing microbes out there.
SciShow
New Cancer Drug Results and Vampire Bat Friendships
This week, researchers announced a novel cancer drug has become the first of its kind to reach clinical trials. Also, new research into vampire bat friendships could help us learn more about animal (and human) behavior.
TED Talks
TED: economic growth has stalled. Let's fix it | Dambisa Moyo
economic growth is the defining challenge of our time; without it, political and social instability rises, human progress stagnates and societies grow dimmer. But, says economist Dambisa Moyo, dogmatic capitalism isn't creating the...
SciShow
Do Plants Get Cancer?
Have you ever seen a tree with a big, twisted knot growing out of it? That's just one way that plants can show signs of cancer. Quick Questions explains.
TED Talks
Sangu Delle: In praise of macro -- yes, macro -- finance in Africa
In this short, provocative talk, financier Sangu Delle questions whether microfinance — small loans to small entrepreneurs -- is the best way to drive growth in developing countries. "We seem to be fixated on this romanticized idea that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do steroids affect your muscles— and the rest of your body? | Anees Bahji
Steroids. They've caused global scandals. They're banned in most athletic competitions. Yet the same properties that help elite athletes and bodybuilders improve performance also make steroids valuable for treating many illnesses and...
TED Talks
Yasheng Huang: Does democracy stifle economic growth?
Economist Yasheng Huang compares China to India, and asks how China's authoritarian rule contributed to its astonishing economic growth -- leading to a big question: Is democracy actually holding India back? Huang's answer may surprise you.
TED Talks
Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations
Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population. In...
SciShow
5 Underwater Farmers
Humans have been farming in the ocean for years, but we're not the only saltwater farmers out in the deep blue sea.
TED Talks
TED: A global food crisis may be less than a decade away | Sara Menker
Sara Menker quit a career in commodities trading to figure out how the global value chain of agriculture works. Her discoveries have led to some startling predictions: "We could have a tipping point in global food and agriculture if...
TED Talks
Ray Kurzweil: A university for the coming singularity
Ray Kurzweil's latest graphs show that technology's breakneck advances will only accelerate -- recession or not. He unveils his new project, Singularity University, to study oncoming tech and guide it to benefit humanity.
TED-Ed
The world's largest organism | Alex Rosenthal
The largest animal in the world is the blue whale, which weighs a massive 150 metric tons. Even so, it's not remotely close to being the largest organism by weight. That title goes to an organism so huge that it's estimated to weigh the...
SciShow
Why Do Fish School?
You might think that fish ride the undercurrents with all their buds to avoid the hungry mouths of predators - safety in numbers, right? But, it turns out, there’s more to consider when asking why fish swim in schools.
SciShow
How Celestial Bodies Affect Life in the Ocean
Life on Earth has always been shaped by other bodies in space, and life in our oceans is especially susceptible to interactions that have huge effects on life as we know it!
SciShow
3 Secrets About Ancient Earth, Hidden in Marine Fossils
Fossils can provide clues to the conditions that ancient species lived in, like what their environments felt like, how deep in the water some species lived, or even how long the Sun was out!
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Ancient Rome’s most notorious doctor - Ramon Glazov
Learn about the Greek physician and philosopher Galen of Pergamon, whose experiments and discoveries changed medicine. -- In the 16th century, an anatomist named Andreas Vesalius made a shocking discovery: the most famous human anatomy...