PBS
What If the Galactic Habitable Zone LIMITS Intelligent Life?
Our solar system is a tiny bubble of habitability suspended in a vast universe that mostly wants to kill us. In fact, a good fraction of our own galaxy turns out to be utterly uninhabitable, even for sun—like stellar systems. Is this why...
PBS
When We Tamed Fire
The ability to make and use fire has fundamentally changed the arc of our evolution. The bodies we have today were, in many ways, shaped by that time when we first tamed fire.
PBS
The Risky Paleo Diets of Our Ancestors
We can track our history of eating just about anything back through the fossil record and see the impact it’s had on our evolution. Throughout time, part of the secret to our success as a species has been our early - and sometimes fatal...
PBS
When Ants Domesticated Fungi
While we’ve been farming for around 10,000 to 12,000 years, the ancestors of ants have been doing it for around 60 million years. So when, and how, and why did ants start … farming?
PBS
The Forgotten Story of the Beardogs
Because of their strange combination of bear-like and dog-like traits, they’re sometimes confusingly called the beardogs. And even though you’ve never met one of these animals, the beardogs are key to understanding the history of an...
PBS
When a Billion Years Disappeared
In some places, the rocks below the Great Unconformity are about 1.2 billion years older than those above it. This missing chapter in Earth’s history might be linked to a fracturing supercontinent, out-of-control glaciers, and maybe the...
Be Smart
The Impossible Hugeness of Deep Time
Humans have a hard time with really big numbers, especially when it comes to DEEP TIME. The history of the Earth took a lot longer than you think, trust me. But I’m here to help you put it in perspective. With some string.
Be Smart
The History of Money (From Barter To Bitcoin)
Money. We all use it. But is it real? I mean, you can touch a coin or bill, but who decided that’s worth anything? And what about all those 1’s and 0’s getting swapped and traded by computers thousands of times per second? How are those...
Be Smart
The Dark Origins of the Scientific Method
500 years before the Scientific Revolution, the mathematician Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham spent hours in a dark room studying the light that filtered in. Not only did he revolutionize how we literally see the world, he pioneered the...
Be Smart
Why Are There 7 Days In a Week? EXPLAINED
Why does everyone use a 7 day week, and where did it come from? Where do the names of the days come from? And who can we blame for Mondays? Here’s the true story of one of the oldest human customs still in use today. It gets a little weird.
Be Smart
What Is A Dinosaur And What Isn’t a Dinosaur?
There’s a lot of confusion out there about what is and isn’t a dinosaur. And you’d be forgiven for being kinda confused. Maybe paleontologists are just messing with us. Or… maybe the question of what is and isn’t a dinosaur goes deeper...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A 5,300-year-old murder mystery | Albert Zink
In September 1991, two hikers discovered a corpse emerging from the ice. Researchers soon realized they were looking at the mummified body of a man who'd lived about 5,300 years ago, and theorized he got caught in bad weather and froze....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Science vs. Pseudoscience | Siska De Baerdemaeker
Pseudoscience is a set of theories, methods, and assumptions that appear scientific, but aren't. In the worst cases, pseudoscience practitioners encourage this confusion to exploit people. But even when it's well-intentioned,...
TED Talks
TED: The "adjacent possible" -- and how it explains human innovation | Stuart Kauffman
From the astonishing evolutionary advances of the Cambrian explosion to our present-day computing revolution, the trend of dramatic growth after periods of stability can be explained through the theory of the "adjacent possible," says...
TED Talks
TED: Is the US headed towards another civil war? | Barbara F. Walter
Based on her work for a CIA task force aimed at predicting civil wars, political scientist Barbara F. Walter examines the rise in extremism and threats to democracies around the globe -- and paints an unsettling picture of the increasing...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: One of history's most dangerous myths | Anneliese Mehnert
From the 1650s through the late 1800's, European colonists descended on South Africa. They sought to claim the region, becoming even more aggressive after discovering the area's abundant natural resources. To support their claims to the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The merciless mercenaries of the Italian Renaissance | Stephanie Honchell Smith
During the 14th and 15th centuries, mercenaries known as condottieri dominated Italian warfare, profiting from— and encouraging— the region's intense political rivalries. As rulers competed for power and prestige, their disputes often...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why did Megalodon go extinct? | Jack Cooper and Catalina Pimiento
20 million years ago, the ocean housed a creature so colossal that its stomach could reach volumes of almost 10,000 liters— big enough to fit an entire orca. It was the megalodon, the biggest shark to ever live. So, what was it like when...
TED Talks
TED: Are we the last generation -- or the first sustainable one? | Hannah Ritchie
The word "sustainability" gets thrown around a lot these days. But what does it actually mean for humanity to be sustainable? Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie digs into the numbers behind human progress across centuries,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is this black square famous? | Allison Leigh
In 1915, an exhibition of radical artworks opened in Russia. Many pieces pushed the boundaries of form and style, but one was particularly controversial: Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square." Criticized as simple and uninspired, Malevich's...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How dangerous was it to be a jester? | Beatrice K. Otto
Contrary to common belief, jesters weren't just a medieval European phenomenon but flourished in other times and cultures. The first reliably recorded jester is thought to be You Shi, of 7th century BCE China. Jesters had unique...
TED Talks
TED: A mysterious design that appears across millennia | Terry Moore
What can we make of a design that shows up over and over in disparate cultures throughout history? Theorist Terry Moore explores "Penrose tiling" -- two shapes that fit together in infinite combinations without ever repeating -- and...
SciShow
Why Are Saturn’s Rings Younger Than Saturn?
Saturn's rings are younger than Saturn, and the most spectacular sight in the Solar System is also disappearing. How do we know? By running our finger through some cosmic dust.
SciShow
The Earth's "Boring Billion" Years Were Anything But
About 1.8–0.8 billion ago, the Earth went through a period known as the Boring Billion, where not a lot changed in terms of geology, evolution, or even the number of hours in a day. Some scientists call it “the dullest period in Earth’s...