TED Talks
Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math of coral
Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Distorting Madonna in Medieval art - James Earle
After Rome was destroyed, people were wary of attachment to physical beauty. As Christianity gained traction, Romans instead began to focus on the metaphysical beauty of virtue, and art began to follow suit. James Earle discusses how...
TED Talks
TED: How to make radical climate action the new normal | Al Gore
A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try, says Nobel laureate Al Gore. In this inspiring and essential talk, Gore shares examples of...
SciShow
Solving Mysteries with the Ancient Galaxies Next Door - SciShow News
Some of the oldest galaxies we’ve ever seen are small, faint satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and they're providing us with a glimpse of how the universe evolved.
TED Talks
TED: How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty and art - Theaster Gates
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Theaster Gates, a potter by training and a social activist by calling, wanted to do something about the sorry state...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The scientific origins of the Minotaur - Matt Kaplan
The myth of the Minotaur tells the story of an enraged beast forever wandering the corridors of a damp labyrinth, filled with a rage so intense that its deafening roar shakes the earth. But is this story just fiction, or an attempt of...
Crash Course
Slave Codes Crash Course Black American History
Slave codes were a method of protecting the investment of white enslavers in the Colonies by restricting the lives of enslaved people in almost every imaginable way. The codes restricted enslaved people’s ability to move around, or...
SciShow
The Oldest Fossils Ever Found!
Scientists have found fossils that show life appearing on Earth much earlier than we thought. Meanwhile, could there be a new fundamental force?
TED Talks
TED: A different understanding of American patriotism | Deval Patrick
American democracy cannot be great until it is good, says lawyer, Harvard professor and former governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick. A self-identified patriot, Patrick stands behind the fundamental values and civic ideals that he...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Is this the most successful animal ever? | Nigel Hughes
Prevailing for around 270 million years and encompassing more than 20,000 distinct species, trilobites are some of the most successful lifeforms in Earth's history. When they sprung into existence, they were among the most diverse and...
TED Talks
TED: A little-told tale of sex and sensuality | Shereen El Feki
“If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms," says Shereen El Feki, who traveled through the Middle East for five years, talking to people about sex. While those conversations reflected rigid norms and...
TED Talks
TED: Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
Taking lessons from a historical pattern called "Thucydides's Trap," political scientist Graham Allison shows why a rising China and a dominant United States could be headed towards a violent collision no one wants -- and how we can...
TED Talks
William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes
How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the...
TED Talks
TED: Why Brexit happened -- and what to do next | Alexander Betts
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The secret messages of Viking runestones | Jesse Byock
With their navigational skills and advanced longships, the Vikings sustained their seafaring for over 300 years. But for all their might, they left few monuments. Instead, fragments of stone, bark and bone found in the sites of ancient...
TED Talks
TED: The mind-bending art of deep time | Katie Paterson
Short-sightedness may be the greatest threat to humanity, says conceptual artist Katie Paterson, whose work engages with deep time -- an idea that describes the history of the Earth over a time span of millions of years. In this lively...
SciShow
Paleo Got It Wrong: We've Loved Carbs for Over 100,000 Years | SciShow News
If you’re on the “paleo diet,” you’ve probably been avoiding wheat and potatoes, but a new study published last week indicates that humans have been eating starches for more than 100,000 years! Chapters View all Paleo diet 0:17 electron...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The forgotten queen of Egypt | Abdallah Ewis
The year is 1249 CE. King Louis IX is sailing the Nile, threatening to overthrow the sultan and capture Egypt. Egypt's commanders ask the sultan's wife, Shajar Al-Durr, to report this news to the injured sultan. But they don't know the...
TED Talks
TED: Is humanity smart enough to survive itself? | Jeanette Winterson
With quick wit and sharp insight, writer Jeanette Winterson lays out a vision of the future where human and machine intelligence meld -- forming what she calls "alternative intelligence" -- and takes a philosophical look at our species,...
SciShow
Ecstasy in Rivers and The World's First Geological Map
SciShow News shares new research into how music festivals can lead to high levels of drugs in your drinking water, and celebrates the man who created the world’s first geological map.
SciShow
Archeology from Space: Mapping Tombs with Satellites
Sometimes, ancient ruins can be a little out of the way, but with some creativity, we can use satellites for those hard to reach areas.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The imaginary king who changed the real world
In 1165, copies of a strange letter began to circulate throughout Europe. It spoke of a fantastical realm, containing the Tower of Babel and the Fountain of Youth— all ruled over by the letter’s mysterious author: Prester John. Who was...
TED Talks
Maurizio Seracini: The secret lives of paintings
Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci's lost fresco "The Battle of Anghiari," and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The wars that inspired Game of Thrones - Alex Gendler
Beginning around 1377, medieval England was shaken by a power struggle between two noble families, which spanned generations and involved a massive cast of characters, complex motives and shifting loyalties. Sound familiar? Alex Gendler...