TED Talks
TED: How I became part sea urchin | Catherine Mohr
As a young scientist, Catherine Mohr was on her dream scuba trip -- when she put her hand right down on a spiny sea urchin. While a school of sharks circled above. What happened next? More than you can possibly imagine. Settle in for...
TED Talks
His Holiness the Karmapa: The technology of the heart
His Holiness the Karmapa talks about how he was discovered to be the reincarnation of a revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism. In telling his story, he urges us to work on not just technology and design, but the technology and design of the...
TED Talks
Julian Baggini: Is there a real you?
What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? Philosopher Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What if we could look inside human brains? - Moran Cerf
The brain is what makes us function, yet we understand so little about how it works. We are learning more about the brain by using new technology to monitor epilepsy patients during surgery. Moran Cerf explains the process doctors use to...
SciShow
These Slugs See with Their Brains
If you’re a person with sight, your two eyes are your only window into the visual world. But slugs see not only with their eyes, but with their brains as well!
SciShow
Telepathic Rats and a Red-lored Amazon: SciShow Talk Show #10
Emily Graslie of The Brain Scoop is back again to stump Hank and to tell us about some fascinating new research in the field of rat telepathy (NO JOKE). Then Jessi from Animal Wonders shares Zoe the Red-lored Amazon parrot.
SciShow
Maybe Yawning Protects You From...Snakes?
Why is yawning contagious? It might be your body trying to keep on the lookout for snakes.
Be Smart
Should You Eat Everyday?
An intermittent fasting diet is one of the hippest new nutrition and fitness philosophies, based around the idea that going hungry can be good for your health. Some think it's a weight loss secret that calls upon our ancient evolutionary...
Be Smart
What If You Never Forgot Anything?
How does memory work? And how does.... un-memory work? Our brain does a lot of remembering and forgetting every day, so you should probably make room for som info on how it works. You'll also get to meet some people who can't make...
SciShow
Video Games Hack Your Brain (In a Fun Way)
Most of us can probably think of a time when we were enjoying a video game and then suddenly...it's 2 am. And that may not be entirely your fault! Video games are designed with elements that suck you in and put you in a state of flow,...
TED Talks
TED: Are insect brains the secret to great AI? | Frances S. Chance
Are insects the key to brain-inspired computing? Neuroscientist Frances S. Chance thinks so. In this buzzy talk, she shares examples of the incredible capabilities of insects -- like the dragonfly's deadly accurate hunting skills and the...
SciShow
Personalized Cancer Treatment Just Got Harder
Scientists are working to develop personalized cancer treatments, but one obstacle in the way is figuring out how different cells react to one another.
TED Talks
TED: Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth
Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience -- and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen?...
TED Talks
Christopher deCharms: A look inside the brain in real time
Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity -- thoughts, emotions, pain -- while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel.
TED Talks
Laurie Santos: A monkey economy as irrational as ours
Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in "monkeynomics" shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.
SciShow
Why Doesn't It Get Dark When You Blink?
Normally when you blink, you don’t really notice, and it turns out your brain is playing a bit of a trick on you to make that happen!
SciShow
Déjà Vu
Hank describes some of the best explanations that neurologists have come up with to account for the strange sensation we know as déjà vu.
SciShow
What We Often Get Wrong About the Brain’s 'Language' Centers
About 150 years ago, scientists found the two main areas that are responsible for language production and comprehension in the brain. But it turns out they might have over-exaggerated what these parts actually do.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad | TED-Ed
The report you've been putting off is due tomorrow. It's time to buckle down, open your computer ... and check your phone. Maybe watch your favorite YouTube channel? Or maybe you should just start in the morning? This is the cycle of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you outsmart the fallacy that started a witch hunt? | Elizabeth Cox
It's 1950. Anti-communist sentiment in the United States is at an all-time high. Senator Joseph McCarthy claims he has a list of communists who are influencing government policy. He makes his first accusation without providing any...
Crash Course
Compatibilism: Crash Course Philosophy
As we continue explore free will, today Hank considers a middle ground between hard determinism and libertarian free will: compatibilism. This view seeks to find ways that our internally motivated actions can be understood as free in a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Joshua W. Pate: The mysterious science of pain
In 1995, the British Medical Journal published a report about a builder who accidentally jumped onto a nail, which pierced straight through his steel-toed boot. He was in such agonizing pain that any movement was unbearable. But when the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to get better at video games, according to babies | Brian Christian
In 2013, a group of researchers wanted to create an AI system that could beat every Atari game. They developed a system called Deep Q Networks (DQN) and less than two years later, it was superhuman. But there was one notable exception....
TED Talks
Derek Paravicini and Adam Ockelford: In the key of genius
Born three and a half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini is blind and has severe autism. But with perfect pitch, innate talent and a lot of practice, he became a concert pianist by the age of 10. Here, his longtime piano teacher, Adam...