TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why the octopus brain is so extraordinary - Claudio L. Guerra
ctopuses have the ability to solve puzzles, learn through observation, and even use tools - just like humans. But what makes octopus intelligence so amazing is that it comes from a biological structure completely different from ours....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why elephants never forget - Alex Gendler
It's a common saying that elephants never forget. But the more we learn about elephants, the more it appears that their impressive memory is only one aspect of an incredible intelligence that makes them some of the most social, creative,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do birds learn to sing? _ Partha Mitra
A brown thrasher knows a thousand songs. A wood thrush can sing two pitches at once. A mockingbird can match the sounds around it - including car alarms. These are just a few of the 4,000 species of songbirds. How do these birds learn...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The high-stakes race to make quantum computers work - Chiara Decaroli
Get to know the unique properties of quantum computers and the obstacles that have prevented this theoretical technology from becoming a reality. -- Quantum computers could eventually outstrip the computational limits of classical...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How did feathers evolve? - Carl Zimmer
To look at the evolution of modern bird feathers, we must start a long time ago, with the dinosaurs from whence they came. We see early incarnations of feathers on dinosaur fossils, and remnants of dinosaurs in a bird's wish bone. Carl...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: At what moment are you dead? - Randall Hayes
For as far back as we can trace our existence, humans have been fascinated with death and resurrection. But is resurrection really possible? And what is the actual difference between a living creature and a dead body anyway? Randall...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How does your body process medicine? - Celine Valery
Have you ever wondered what happens to a painkiller, like ibuprofen, after you swallow it? Medicine that slides down your throat can help treat a headache, a sore back, or a throbbing sprained ankle. But how does it get where it needs to...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Is there a reproducibility crisis in science? - Matt Anticole
Published scientific studies can motivate research, inspire products, and inform policy. However, recent studies that examined dozens of published pharmaceutical papers managed to replicate the results of less than 25% of them - and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: If superpowers were real: Super speed - Joy Lin
What if super speed wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to be super speedy? In this series, Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us mere...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do nerves work? - Elliot Krane
At any moment, there is an electrical storm coursing through your body. Discover how chemical reactions create an electric current that drives our responses to everything from hot pans to a mother's caress.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What we know (and don't know) about Ebola - Alex Gendler
The highly virulent Ebola virus has seen a few major outbreaks since it first appeared in 1976 -- with the worst epidemic occurring in 2014. How does the virus spread, and what exactly does it do to the body? Alex Gendler details what...
TED-Ed
Why do we hiccup? - John Cameron
The longest recorded case of hiccups lasted for 68 years - and was caused by a falling hog. While that level of severity is extremely uncommon, most of us are no stranger to an occasional case of the hiccups. But what causes these "hics"...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What causes headaches? - Dan Kwartler
In ancient Greece, the best-known remedy for a long-standing headache was to drill a small hole in the skull to drain supposedly infected blood. Fortunately, doctors today don't resort to power tools to cure headaches, but we still have...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What would happen if you didn't sleep? - Claudia Aguirre
In the United States, it's estimated that 30 percent of adults and 66 percent of adolescents are regularly sleep-deprived. This isn't just a minor inconvenience: staying awake can cause serious bodily harm. Claudia Aguirre shows what...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The secret lives of baby fish - Amy McDermott
Coral reef fish, like the yellow tang surgeonfish, begin life in a fascinating and weird way - as tiny floating larvae! These babies are capable of drifting thousands of miles on ocean currents, far from the reefs where they were born....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Vampires: Folklore, fantasy and fact - Michael Molina
The myth of the bloodsucking vampire has stalked humans from ancient Mesopotamia to 18th-century Eastern Europe, but it has differed in the terrifying details. So, how did we arrive at the popular image we know, love and fear today? And...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? - Francisco Diez-Buzo
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" brought Latin American literature to the forefront of the global imagination and earned Garcia Marquez the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. What makes the novel so...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is yawning contagious? - Claudia Aguirre
*Yaaawwwwwn* Did just reading the word make you feel like yawning yourself? Known as contagious yawning, the reasons behind this phenomenon have been attributed to both the physiological and psychological. It's been observed in children...
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,...
Amoeba Sisters
Stroll Through the Playlist (a Biology Review)
Join the Amoeba Sisters as they take a brisk "stroll" through their biology playlist! This review video can refresh your memory of major concepts, help you identify what you need to re-study, and reinforce vocab. Expand these details for...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: RNAi: Slicing, dicing and serving your cells - Alex Dainis
RNA, the genetic messenger, makes sure the DNA recipe gives your cells exactly what they ordered. But sometimes that means inhibiting some other RNA that got the recipe wrong. This process is called RNA interference (RNAi), and it acts...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What are those floaty things in your eye? - Michael Mauser
Sometimes, against a uniform, bright background such as a clear sky or a blank computer screen, you might see things floating across your field of vision. What are these moving objects, and how are you seeing them? Michael Mauser...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to practice effectively...for just about anything - Annie Bosler and Don Greene
Mastering any physical skill takes practice. Practice is the repetition of an action with the goal of improvement, and it helps us perform with more ease, speed, and confidence. But what does practice actually do to make us better at...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do we dream? - Amy Adkins
In the 3rd millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets. In the years since, we haven't paused in our quest to understand why we dream. And while we still don't have any definitive answers, we...