TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Questions no one knows the answers to - Chris Anderson
In the first of a new TED-Ed series designed to catalyze curiosity, TED Curator Chris Anderson shares his boyhood obsession with quirky questions that seem to have no answers.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Einstein's miracle year - Larry Lagerstrom
As the year 1905 began, Albert Einstein faced life as a "failed" academic. Yet within the next twelve months, he would publish four extraordinary papers, each on a different topic, that were destined to radically transform our...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How turtle shells evolved... twice - Judy Cebra Thomas
Check out the fascinating science behind the evolution of the turtle shell, over 260 million years in the making. -- Modern turtle shells are almost as diverse as the turtles themselves. Sea turtles have flatter, lighter shells for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The dust bunnies that built our planet - Lorin Swint Matthews
Investigate the theories surrounding cosmic dust bunnies and discover how the tiny particles could hold the key to the formation of life on Earth. -- Consider the spot where you’re sitting. Travel backwards in time and it might’ve been...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Licking bees and pulping trees: The reign of a wasp queen - Kenny Coogan
As the sun rises, something royal stirs inside a pile of firewood. It's the wasp queen; one of thousands who mated in late autumn and hibernated through the winter. Now she must emerge into the spring air to begin her reign. This queen...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why neutrinos matter - Silvia Bravo Gallart
Elementary particles are the smallest known building blocks in the universe-and the neutrino is one of the smallest of the small. These tiny neutrinos can tell us about the furthest reaches and most extreme environments of the universe...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What are mini brains? - Madeline Lancaster
Shielded by our thick skulls and swaddled in layers of protective tissue, the human brain is extremely difficult to observe in action. Luckily, scientists can use brain organoids - pencil-eraser-sized masses of cells that function like...
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: 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: 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: How to spot a counterfeit bill - Tien Nguyen
Authentic dollar bills are equipped with many security features to make them difficult to forge. But that doesn't stop counterfeiters from trying to fool people with fakes. Luckily, anyone can help catch a counterfeit; all you need are a...
Amoeba Sisters
Nature of Science
Explore the nature of science with The Amoeba Sisters. This video discusses why there is not just one universal scientific method as well as the importance of credible sources when researching. Vocab in experimental design including...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we actually live on Mars? - Mari Foroutan
There's a lot of talk these days about when and how we might all move to Mars. But what would it actually be like to live there? Mari Foroutan details the features of Mars that are remarkably similar to those of Earth — and those that...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mary's Room: A philosophical thought experiment - Eleanor Nelsen
Imagine a neuroscientist who has only ever seen black and white things, but she is an expert in color vision and knows everything about its physics and biology. If, one day, she sees color, does she learn anything new? Is there anything...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars - Patrick Lin
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can't completely avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Not all scientific studies are created equal - David H. Schwartz
Every day, we are bombarded by attention grabbing headlines that promise miracle cures to all of our ailments -- often backed up by a _scientific study." But what are these studies, and how do we know if they are reliable? David H....
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez
Imagine you were asked to invent something new. It could be whatever you want, made from anything you choose, in any shape or size. That kind of creative freedom sounds so liberating, doesn't it?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Should we be looking for life elsewhere in the universe? - Aomawa Shields
As the number of _potentially habitable" planets that astronomers find continues to rise, we seem ever closer to answering the question, _Are we alone in the universe?" But should we be looking for life elsewhere? If we were to find life...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mating frenzies, sperm hoards, and brood raids: the life of a fire ant queen - Walter R. Tschinkel
In the spring, just after a heavy rainfall, male and female fire ants swarm the skies for a day of romance, known as the nuptial flight. Thousands of reproduction-capable ants take part in a mating frenzy, and for one successfully mated...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The 2,400-year search for the atom - Theresa Doud
How do we know what matter is made of? The quest for the atom has been a long one, beginning 2,400 years ago with the work of a Greek philosopher and later continued by a Quaker and a few Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Theresa Doud...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The science of static electricity - Anuradha Bhagwat
We've all had the experience: you're walking across a soft carpet, you reach for the doorknob and - ZAP. But what causes this trademark jolt of static electricity? Anuradha Bhagwat sheds light on the phenomenon by examining the nature of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do we separate the seemingly inseparable? - Iddo Magen
Your cell phone is mainly made of plastics and metals. It's easy to appreciate the process by which those elements add up to something so useful. But there's another story we don't hear about -- how did we get our raw ingredients in the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What triggers a chemical reaction? - Kareem Jarrah
Chemicals are in everything we see, and the reactions between them can look like anything from rust on a spoon to an explosion on your stovetop. But why do these reactions happen in the first place? Kareem Jarrah answers this question by...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could underwater farms help fight climate change? - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Megan Davis
Dive into the world of aquaculture and see how restorative ocean farming could play a vital role in helping our coastal communities, our oceans and our climate. -- For billions of people, seafood provides a significant source of protein...