TED-Ed
TED-ED: A brief history of melancholy - Courtney Stephens
If you are a living, breathing human being, chances are you have felt sad at least a few times in your life. But what exactly is melancholy, and what (if anything) should we do about it? Courtney Stephens details our still-evolving...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages? - John McWhorter
What do Game of Thrones' Dothraki, Avatar's Na'vi, Star Trek's Klingon and LOTR's Elvish have in common? They are all fantasy constructed languages, or conlangs. Conlangs have all the delicious complexities of real languages: a high...
TED Talks
TED: Different ways of knowing | Daniel Tammet
Daniel Tammet has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia -- meaning that his perception of words, numbers and colors are woven together into a new way of perceiving and understanding the world. The author of "Born on a Blue Day,"...
Crash Course
Make an AI Sound Like a YouTuber (LAB)
Let’s try to help John Green Bot sound a bit more like the real John Green using Natural Language Processing. Today, we're going to code a program that takes a one word prompt and then completes the sentence that sounds like something...
TED Talks
Paul Rothemund: Playing with DNA that self-assembles
Paul Rothemund writes code that causes DNA to arrange itself into a star, a smiley face and more. Sure, it's a stunt, but it's also a demonstration of self-assembly at the smallest of scales -- with vast implications for the future of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Inside a cartoonist's world - Liza Donnelly
From cave drawings to the Sunday paper, artists have been visualizing ideas -- cartoons -- for centuries. New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly walks us through the many stages every cartoon goes through, starting with an idea and turning...
SciShow
How Birds Really See the World
Ever wonder what it looks like from a birds-eye-view? Hank explains they see more than you think!
SciShow
7 Animals That Can't Be Trusted
Almost every human has told a lie at some point or another - but did you know that we are not the only species to do this? From dogs to cuttlefish to thornbills, these 7 animals also lie! Chapters MOURNING CUTTLEFISH 0:52 2 DOGS 2:41...
SciShow
Why Comic Sans Isn’t the Worst Font Ever
Nothing can undo the invention of Comic Sans, but that may not be a bad thing since it seems to be helping people with dyslexia.
SciShow
Carcolepsy: Why Do We Get Sleepy in Cars?
It turns out there are number of aspects of driving that can potentially conspire to lull our bodies into a potentially dangerous state of drowsiness.
TED Talks
Yeonmi Park: What I learned about freedom after escaping North Korea
"North Korea is unimaginable," says human rights activist Yeonmi Park, who escaped the country at the age of 13. Sharing the harrowing story of her childhood, she reflects on the fragility of freedom -- and shows how change can be...
TED Talks
TED: The secret to great opportunities? The person you haven't met yet | Tanya Menon
We often find ourselves stuck in narrow social circles with similar people. What habits confine us, and how can we break them? Organizational psychologist Tanya Menon considers how we can be more intentional about expanding our social...
Crash Course
Nomenclature - Crash Course Chemistry
Ever feel like there's a international team of bad guys changing all of the easily remembered chemical names and turning them into test-failing, number-infused, pain in the neck names? Well... you're not wrong. IUPAC exists but try to...
TED Talks
TED: Why being respectful to your coworkers is good for business | Christine Porath
Looking to get ahead in your career? Start by being respectful to your coworkers, says leadership researcher Christine Porath. In this science-backed talk, she shares surprising insights about the costs of rudeness and shows how little...
TED Talks
Tony Luciani: A mother and son's photographic journey through dementia
Artist Tony Luciani was testing out a new camera when his 91-year-old mother, Elia, snuck into the background of his photos. The spontaneous images that resulted sparked a years-long collaboration, with Luciani documenting his mom's life...
TED Talks
TED: Don't feel sorry for refugees -- believe in them | Luma Mufleh
We have seen advances in every aspect of our lives -- except our humanity, says Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian immigrant and Muslim of Syrian descent who founded the first accredited school for refugees in the United States. Mufleh shares...
PBS
Is Sad Music Actually Sad?
Be it Elliott Smith or Queen, classical or dub step, there's usually a clear understanding that some songs are sad, and some songs are happy. But what is it about the music that makes us feel these feelings we're feeling?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The origin of countless conspiracy theories - PatrickJMT
Why can we find geometric shapes in the night sky? How can we know that at least two people in London have exactly the same number of hairs on their head? And why can patterns be found in just about any text - even Vanilla Ice lyrics?...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How sugar affects the brain - Nicole Avena
When you eat something loaded with sugar, your taste buds, your gut and your brain all take notice. This activation of your reward system is not unlike how bodies process addictive substances such as alcohol or nicotine -- an overload of...
TED Talks
Jeff Hancock: The future of lying
Who hasn’t sent a text message saying “I’m on my way” when it wasn’t true or fudged the truth a touch in their online dating profile? But Jeff Hancock doesn’t believe that the anonymity of the internet encourages dishonesty. In fact, he...
TED Talks
TED: The virginity fraud | Nina Dolvik Brochmann and ellen Stokken Dahl
The hymen is still the most misunderstood part of the female body. Nina Dolvik Brochmann and ellen Stokken Dahl share their mission to empower young people through better sex education, debunking the popular (and harmful) myths we're...
TED Talks
TED: How to take a picture of a black hole | Katie Bouman
At the heart of the Milky Way, there's a supermassive black hole that feeds off a spinning disk of hot gas, sucking up anything that ventures too close -- even light. We can't see it, but its event horizon casts a shadow, and an image of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Ethical dilemma: Would you lie? | Sarah Stroud
Your plan to set up your friend Carey with your acquaintance Emerson is finally coming together. You've made them a dinner reservation, but suddenly realize that there's a problem: Carey is always late. You really want this relationship...
TED Talks
TED: Do kids think of sperm donors as family? | Veerle Provoost
How do we define a parent -- or a family? Bioethicist Veerle Provoost explores these questions in the context of non-traditional families, ones brought together by adoption, second marriages, surrogate mothers and sperm donations. In...