TED Talks
TED: AI is dangerous, but not for the reasons you think | Sasha Luccioni
AI won't kill us all — but that doesn't make it trustworthy. Instead of getting distracted by future existential risks, AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni thinks we need to focus on the technology's current negative impacts, like...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Japan's scariest ghost story | Kit Brooks
Oiwa’s only hope for ending her marriage to the cruel and dishonorable samurai, Iemon, was her father. But after he tried to end the union, Iemon murdered him in cold blood. With plans to marry another, Iemon conspired to poison his wife...
TED Talks
TED: We actually have a shot at stopping the climate crisis | Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
How is the US going to reach net zero by 2050? That's the question Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the Office of Science for the US Department of Energy, is urgently trying to answer. She shares the thinking behind what her team is...
PBS
‘Class’ author Stephanie Land on the realities of college when living in poverty
Stephanie Land's 2019 memoir, “Maid,” recounted her struggles as a single mother, cleaning houses to earn money and wrestling with the rules of government assistance programs. It was a New York Times bestseller and the basis of a hit...
PBS
Elle and Keegan-Michael Key chronicle ‘The History of Sketch Comedy’ in new book
Keegan-Michael Key is a modern master of sketch comedy, starring in hits shows “Mad TV,” “Key and Peele” and “Schmigadoon!” Now, he and his wife, film and TV producer Elle Key, have taken a long look into the history of the art form....
SciShow
How Long Can You Live Underwater?
In 2023, Joseph Dituri set a world record for the longest continuous stay underwater. And that 100 day stay had effects on both his body and mind. Scientists have been studying the effects of living underwater since the 1960s, but how...
SciShow
This Probe Doesn’t Melt When it’s 1 Million Degrees Outside
In 2021, the Parker Solar Probe fulfilled its mission to “touch the Sun”. But the temperature over there was millions of degrees Celsius. How did the spacecraft not melt?
SciShow
Becoming a Predator Was Hard
Animals eating other animals seems like a tale as old as time, but it's only almost that old. Predation had to evolve in the Ediacaran period -- so let's look at early almost-predators like Auroralumina, Kimberella, Ikaria, and whatever...
SciShow
The Human Era Has an Official Start. It’s a Lake in Canada
Recently, a group of scientists have declared that the start of the Anthropocene, the time of outsize human influence on Earth, to be Crawford Lake in Canada. But how can a time be a place? We'll explain, and maybe grab some maple syrup.
SciShow
How Do Volcanoes Make Smoke Rings?
Occasionally, a volcano coughs up a ring of fog. How does it create that whimsical shape, and how similar is it to the smoke rings humans can make?
SciShow
The Asteroid That Nearly Swallowed OSIRIS-Rex
It's always an asteroid heading straight toward us that we worry about, never what happens to us when we head straight toward the asteroid. OSIRIS-REx's experience with Bennu tells us it's worth a thought.
SciShow
Don’t Look At the Sun! …Unless | Compilation
It’s common knowledge that you should never look directly at the sun. But, like, what about during an eclipse? Surely you can look then?
SciShow
How to Supersize a Telescope | Compilation
Telescopes can get pretty big, incredibly big actually. Unbelievably big. So here's a compilation about how we managed to get them that size and how that size helps us to see.
SciShow
Why are Astronomers So Bad at Naming Things?
With star names like 2MASS J05551028+0724255, it might seem like astronomers are not so great at naming things. But if you know the code, these names can actually help you find the star in the sky.
SciShow
A Big Bang Beginner’s Guide | Compilation
While there's still a lot that astrophysicists don't know about the Big Bang, there are some things we do know. So today, let's get caught up on the Big Bang basics.
SciShow
How Distant Stars Let Us See the Solar System Up Close
Occultations may sound spooky, but in actuality they can inform us of some of the most unknown parts of the universe.
SciShow
Hacking the Brain to Treat Tinnitus
Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel. Get up to 60% off in your subscription here: https://go.babbel.com/t?bsc=1200m60-y... Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, often accompanies hearing loss, and usually has no treatment....
SciShow
Why Hairworms Don’t Have Hair
Hairworms, sometimes called horsehair or Gordian worms, are mind-controlling parasites with a twist. A genetic study found these nematomorph worms are missing 30% of their genome, and we don't understand how they live without genes for...
SciShow
The Island Made Of Gemstones
Zabargad Island in the Red Sea is so crusted with peridot that it's fair to say the place is literally made of it.
PBS
A Brief But Spectacular take on transforming trauma into activism
Troy Staton is a Baltimore barber and founder of “More Than a Shop," a network of barbershops and beauty salons that organizes a host of community services from free Wi-Fi to overdose prevention training. A victim of gun violence, he...
PBS
Are there Infinite Versions of You?
The cosmological equations that so beautifully describe our universe make an uncomfortable prediction: interpreting them in the most straightforward way, they tell us that the universe may be infinite. Or not; it could turn out that the...
PBS
Are there Undiscovered Elements Beyond The Periodic Table?
Adamantium, bolognium, dilithium. Element Zero, Kryptonite. Mythril, Netherite, Orichalcum, Unobtanium. We love the idea of fictional elements with miraculous properties that science has yet to discover. But is it really possible that...
PBS
Is The Wave Function The Building Block of Reality?
Objective Collapse Theories offer a explanation of quantum mechanics that is at once brand new and based in classical mechanics. In the world of quantum mechanics, it’s no big deal for particles to be in multiple different states at the...
PBS
Gravitational Wave Background Discovered?
It was pretty impressive when LIGO detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes. Well we’ve just taken that to the next level with a galaxy-spanning gravitational wave detector that may have detected a foundational element of...