What is the math behind quantum computers? And why are quantum computers so amazing? Find out on this episode of Infinite Series.

economic growth is the defining challenge of our time; without it, political and social instability rises, human progress stagnates and societies grow dimmer. But, says economist Dambisa Moyo, dogmatic capitalism isn't creating the...

Mass surveillance is worse than you think, but the solutions are simpler than you realize, says lawyer, technologist and TED Fellow Albert Fox Cahn. Breaking down the crude tactics law enforcement uses to sweep up massive amounts of data...

So we've talked a lot about what makes games so great in this series, but we haven't really addressed the big question: why do we play games anyway? And well, the answer is pretty complicated, especially when you consider that some...

Quantum physics is weird. But quantum computing could be awesome! Learn how scientists took a big leap this week toward making quantum computers a reality.

Hank hits you with a ton of news this time - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has plans to retrieve Saturn V rocket engines from the bottom of the Atlantic; new research on the impacts from the Deep Water Horizon oil spill to life in the Gulf of...

During the Soviet Union era, therapy was often used as a tool of political oppression. Since then, Russia has seen major reforms in mental health care -- but stigmas and distrust for the practice still live on. Psychologist and TED...

The Protestant Reformation didn't exactly begin with Martin Luther, and it didn't end with him either. Reformers and monarchs changed the ways that religious and state power were organized throughout the 16th and early 17th centuries....

Our universe started with the Big Bang, but how will it end? Explore cosmologists’ three possible scenarios: the Big Crunch, the Big Freeze and the Big Rip. -- We know about our universe’s past: the Big Bang theory predicts that all...

This video explains how Shor’s Algorithm factors the pseudoprime number 314191 into its prime factors using a quantum computer. The quantum computation relies on the number-theoretic analysis of the...

An information puzzle with an interesting twist

This video is about how we don't just need energy to power our lives, we need *low entropy* energy! Thanks to Google Making and Science for supporting this series, and to Sean Carroll for collaborating on it!...

We can't rely on those who created climate change to fix it, says climate justice organizer Ozawa Bineshi Albert. An Indigenous woman living in the heart of oil and gas country in the US, she's observed an alarming disconnect between...

Could you enter a flow state with the people around you? Also we've found a promising drug for treating mental illness, and it might not come from where you expect.

"I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means" examines scientific theories that have taken on a life of their own in popular culture & we help you understand what they really mean in scientific terms. Today we take on Schrodinger's...

In which John Green teaches you about the Gilded Age and its politics. What, you may ask, is the Gilded Age? The term comes from a book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner titled, "The Gilded Age." You may see a pattern...

Sharing his experience of being held captive in a Taliban prison for 105 days, humanitarian Safi Rauf talks about his life's mission to get food, medicine and other critical supplies to Afghans in need -- and urges the world to bolster...

In eastern Europe, in the 17th century a couple of "great powers" were coming into their own. The vast empire of Russia was modernizing under Peter the Great, and the relatively tiny state of Prussia was evolving as well. Russia (and...

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that...

How do you know you're a person who has lived your life, rather than a just-formed brain full of artificial memories, momentarily hallucinating a reality that doesn't actually exist? That may sound absurd, but it's kept several...

In a few decades, scientists predict that a widespread, severe drought will sweep across western North America -- and it'll last for decades.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at borders and the stories they tell. When we look at a map, the shapes we’re seeing can seem so permanent, but a map is just a snapshot of the Earth at a particular time, and by looking a...

The doctrine of "first, do no harm" is the basis of the Hippocratic Oath, one of the world's oldest codes of ethics. It governs the work of physicians -- but climate and health campaigner Shweta Narayan says it should go further. In this...

What exactly is the Thirty Meter Telescope, and why is the proposed location in Hawai'i such a conflict?