TED Talks
TED: How to land on a comet | Fred Jansen
As manager of the Rosetta mission, Fred Jansen was responsible for the successful 2014 landing of a probe on the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this fascinating and funny talk, Jansen reveals some of the intricate...
TED Talks
TED: The beautiful math behind the world's ugliest music | Scott Rickard
Scott Rickard set out to engineer the ugliest possible piece of music, devoid of repetition, using a mathematical concept known as the Costas Array. In this surprisingly entertaining talk, he shares the math behind musical beauty ... and...
TED Talks
TED: Salvation (and profit) in greentech | John Doerr
I don't think we're going to make it, John Doerr says in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. To create a world fit for his daughter to live in, he says, we need to invest now in clean, green energy.
TED Talks
TED: My country will be underwater soon -- unless we work together | Anote Tong
For the people of Kiribati, climate change isn't something to be debated, denied or legislated against -- it's an everyday reality. The low-lying Pacific island nation may soon be underwater, thanks to rising sea levels. In a personal...
Crash Course
Candide: Crash Course Literature 405
John Green teaches you about Voltaire's hugely important Enlightenment novel, Candide. Candide tells a pretty wild story, but for the most part, it's about the best of all possible worlds. Which, spoiler alert, doesn't seem to be the...
SciShow
Why It's So Hard to Land on Mars
We’ve sent more spacecraft to Mars than any other planet, but around half of the probes that have ever attempted to explore Mars have either crashed or disappeared.
TED Talks
Dean Kamen: To invent is to give
Inventor Dean Kamen lays out his argument for the Segway and offers a peek into his next big ideas (portable energy and water purification for developing countries).
TED Talks
TED: Sanitation is a basic human right - Francis de los Reyes
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Warning: This talk might contain much more than you'd ever want to know about the way the world poops. But as...
SciShow
Can You Get Too Much Sleep?
Are you someone who likes to hit the snooze button four or five times before waking up? Do you have to be physically pulled out of bed every morning? Do you ever wonder if that's normal and healthy? Well, this episode is for you!
TED Talks
Samantha Power: A complicated hero in the war on dictatorship
Would you negotiate with someone you knew to be evil, to save lives? Samantha Power tells a story of a complicated hero, Sergio Vieira de Mello. This UN diplomat walked a thin moral line, negotiating with the world's worst dictators to...
TED Talks
Stephen Palumbi: Hidden toxins in the fish we eat
What's link between the ocean's health and our health? Marine biologist Stephen Palumbi shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies -- and tells a shocking story of toxic contamination in the...
TED Talks
Beau Lotto + Amy O'Toole: Science is for everyone, kids included
What do science and play have in common? Neuroscientist Beau Lotto thinks all people (kids included) should participate in science and, through the process of discovery, change perceptions. He's seconded by 12-year-old Amy O'Toole, who,...
TED Talks
TED: The problem of vaccine spoilage -- and a smart sensor to help | Nithya Ramanathan
Refrigerators do much more than store your groceries -- they're also vital to preserving and distributing vaccines. Illustrating the realities of (and threats to) global vaccine supply chains, technologist and TED Fellow Nithya...
TED Talks
TED: Why good hackers make good citizens | Catherine Bracy
Hacking is about more than mischief-making or political subversion. As Catherine Bracy describes in this spirited talk, it can be just as much a force for good as it is for evil. She spins through some inspiring civically-minded projects...
TED Talks
TED: No roads? There's a drone for that | Andreas Raptopoulos
A billion people in the world lack access to all-season roads. Could the structure of the internet provide a model for how to reach them? Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet thinks so. He introduces a new type of transportation system that...
SciShow
Why Can't You Donate Platelets After Taking Aspirin?
Curious why you can't donate platelets after taking aspirin? Wonder no more!
SciShow
What Really Happened the First Time We Split a Heavy Atom in Half
When scientists first split the atom, they didn't realize what they'd done until physicist Lise Meitner figured out they had discovered what we now call nuclear fission.
SciShow
Why Isn't a Kilogram a Kilogram?
The kilogram is the basic unit of mass in the metric system, but there's a serious problem: the standard that defines how much mass a kilogram actually has isn't reliable anymore
TED Talks
Ron Finley: A guerrilla gardener in South Central LA
Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are...
TED Talks
Joanne Chory: How supercharged plants could slow climate change
Plants are amazing machines -- for millions of years, they've taken carbon dioxide out of the air and stored it underground, keeping a crucial check on the global climate. Plant geneticist Joanne Chory is working to amplify this special...
TED Talks
Nick Hanauer: Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming
Nick Hanauer is a rich guy, an unrepentant capitalist — and he has something to say to his fellow plutocrats: Wake up! Growing inequality is about to push our societies into conditions resembling pre-revolutionary France. Hear his...
TED Talks
Julian Treasure: Shh! Sound health in 8 steps
Julian Treasure says our increasingly noisy world is gnawing away at our mental health -- even costing lives. He lays out an 8-step plan to soften this sonic assault (starting with those cheap earbuds) and restore our relationship with...
SciShow
We're Getting Closer to Real-Life Tricorders
Many of us have longed for cool sci-fi inventions like a holodeck or replicators, but there's one tool we're actually getting pretty darn close to creating: the medical tricorder.
TED Talks
TED: 5 promising factors propelling climate action | Gabriel Kra
Given the scale of the challenge, the conversation around climate change is often tinged with doom and gloom. But climate tech investor Gabriel Kra thinks we need to reframe the crisis as a source of tremendous opportunity. He offers...