What we call language is something more specific than communication. Language is about sharing what's in our minds: stories, opinions, questions, the past or future, imagined times or places, ideas. It is fundamentally open-ended, and...

What do you get when you combine the strongest materials from the plant world with the most elastic ones from the insect kingdom? Super-performing materials that might transform ... everything. Nanobiotechnologist Oded Shoseyov walks us...

Microbes that live in extreme environments, like geysers and hydrothermal vents, are able to survive in extreme temperatures. Scientists have figured out ways to use this thermostability to supercharge DNA studies, including the study of...

Plants need sunlight to live, but they also need to block the sun's more harmful rays. Plants can't put on sunscreen or find shade, so how do they avoid getting a gnarly sunburn?

Why can amphibians, fish and even some reptiles regenerate limbs, while birds and mammals can’t? Researchers think they might have found a clue on the tip of the alligator’s tail.

Find out why more species live near the equator!

Imagine what we could learn about diseases by studying the history of human disease, from ancient hominids to the present. But how? TED Fellow Christina Warinner is an achaeological geneticist, and she's found a spectacular new tool --...

From improving vaccines to modifying crops to solving crimes, DNA technology has transformed our world. Now, for the first time in history, anyone can experiment with DNA at home, in their kitchen, using a device smaller than a shoebox....

Some of the animals you think of as just cute grass-eating creatures might actually be more interested in chomping on your meaty bones.

In this video Paul Andersen defines adaptations and explains how organisms can become better adapted to their surroundings using the process of natural selection. Specific examples of adaptations, like coat color in rock pocket mice, as...

Hank talks about the molecules that make up every living thing - carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins - and how we find them in our environment and in the food that we eat.

Hank and his cat Cameo help teach us about animal behavior and how we can discover why animals do the things they do.

In this fascinating look at the "alpha male," primatologist Frans de Waal explores the privileges and costs of power while drawing surprising parallels between how humans and primates choose their leaders. His research reveals some of...

Paul Andersen details the evolutionary processes of speciation and extinction. Stickleback evolution in Lake Loberg is used as example of rapid speciation. Adaptive radiation is illustrated using the Hawaiian honeycreeper. A brief...

Paul Andersen surveys organisms in the protists. He reviews the diversity found within the domain Eukarya and explains that the Kindgom Protista is simple a junk drawer for organisms that don't fit elsewhere.

Two sisters take the same DNA test. The results show that one sister is 10% French, the other 0%. Both sisters share the same two parents, and therefore the same set of ancestors. So how can one be 10% more French than the other? Tests...

Paul Andersen explains how populations interact in an ecosystem. The symbiosis of several populations is based on effects that may be neutral, positive, or negative. Interactions like mutualism, commensalism and parasitism are included....

Have you ever tried to write or color with both hands at the same time? It seems like it would save a ton of time, right? But for most people, one of their hands is way better at drawing or writing than the other!

Hank explains speciation - the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise - in terms of finches, ligers, mules, and dogs.

There are currently hundreds of thousands of people on transplant lists, waiting for critical organs like kidneys, hearts and livers that could save their lives. Unfortunately, there aren't enough donor organs available to fill that...

As a breeze blows through the savannah, a snake-shaped tube stretches into the air and scans the horizon like a periscope. But it's not seeing— it's sniffing. Containing no bones and an estimated 40,000 muscles, an elephant trunk is one...

Hank gets into the dirty details behind our lying ways - how such behavior evolved, how pathological liars are different from the rest of us, and how scientists are getting better at spotting lies in many situations.

Life on Earth requires three things: liquid water, a source of energy within a habitable range from the sun and organic carbon-based material. But life is surprisingly resilient, and organisms called extremophiles can be found in hostile...

You might think your grandma who wakes up at 4am just needs less sleep than younger people. Not so! Studies suggest there are some bizarre reasons older people rise at the crack of dawn, including something called brain sand!