Plants are amazing. Really! Photosynthesis is an incredible thing. But it also means that some plants can't live everywhere. They need to get the right amount of sunlight for the right amount of time. In this episode of Crash Course...

Over 100 years after Einstein proposed his theory of general relativity, we are proud to announce that his final major prediction has been verified! Gravitational waves have officially been detected by LIGO! This is a huge deal and an...

After losing her mother in a house fire when she was just six years old, Danielle Torley saw two paths before her: a life full of fear, or one that promised healing and recovery. In this inspiring talk, she describes how she turned her...

One afternoon, Kees Moeliker got a research opportunity few ornithologists would wish for: A flying duck slammed into his glass office building, died, and then ... what happened next would change his life. [Note: Contains graphic images...

The city has just opened its one-of-a-kind Faberge Egg Museum, with a single egg displayed on each floor of a 100-story building -- and the world's most notorious jewel thief already has her eyes on the prize. Can you help the thief...

Poet C.K. Williams reads his work at TED2001. As he colors scenes of childhood resentments, college loves, odd neighbors and the literal death of youth, he reminds us of the unique challenges of living.

Dustin Yellin makes mesmerizing artwork that tells complex, myth-inspired stories. How did he develop his style? In this disarming talk, he shares the journey of an artist -- starting from age 8 -- and his idiosyncratic way of thinking...

Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on life lessons, expressed through surprising modes of design (including ... inflatable monkeys?).

If you’re not lounging on the beach on a hot summer day, why would you think to put on sunscreen? Well, you might need sunscreen more often than you think.

What would happen if we could generate power from our windowpanes? In this moving talk, entrepreneur Justin Hall-Tipping shows the materials that could make that possible, and how questioning our notion of 'normal' can lead to...

What happens when technology knows more about us than we do? Poppy Crum studies how we express emotions -- and she suggests the end of the poker face is near, as new tech makes it easy to see the signals that give away how we're feeling....

If you look through your glasses, binoculars or a window, you see the world on the other side. How is it that something so solid can be so invisible? Mark Miodownik melts the scientific secret behind amorphous solids.

With rapidly rising global temperatures come seasonal changes. As spring comes earlier for some plant species, there are ripple effects throughout the food web. Regina Brinker explains how phenology, or the natural cycles of plants and...

We know we're not supposed to put metal in the microwave, but why? We don't microwave silverware but what about Hot Pocket wrappers? They have metal on the inside. How does that work? Let Michael Aranda explain.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been sending home images of the universe for more than thirty years, but none of its work would have been possible without the many servicing missions that kept it up to date.

Chris Abani tells stories of people: People standing up to soldiers. People being compassionate. People being human and reclaiming their humanity. It's "ubuntu," he says: the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity...

Is she turning towards you or away from you? No one can agree. She's the subject of Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring," a painting often referred to as the 'Mona Lisa of the North.' But what makes this painting...

This week on Crash Course Theater, Mike and Yorick take us to beautiful Spain, and look at its Golden Age. Spain was having kind of a moment in the 16th and 17th centuries. They had this big empire, the culture was really flowering, and...

Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and...

People have a lot of ideas about how they can protect themselves from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, but many of those ideas just don’t hold up, and some make things worse!

The Sun delivers more energy to Earth in one hour than all of humanity uses in an entire year. How can we make this power more accessible to everyone, everywhere? Solar designer Marjan van Aubel shows how she's turning everyday objects...

Mr. Andersen explains how sound waves are created and perceived. A brief discussion of pitch and loudness are included. A generated sound of varying pitches is also included.

TED Fellow Zahra Al-Mahdi was raised by screens -- "storytelling machines" like TV and the internet that shaped her sense of self and reality. Now a multimedia artist and filmmaker, she challenges common historical narratives and...

Humans have long known that glass bends light. However, it took us awhile to figure out that stacking lenses in a tube would open up a whole new world to science, finally allowing us a peek at the microscopic.