In some parts of the world, half of the women lack basic reading and writing skills. The reasons vary, but in many cases, literacy isn't valued by fathers, husbands, even mothers. Photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak traveled to...

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...

Quasars, X-ray Binaries and Supermassive voids at the center of our galaxies .... black holes take many forms. In this episode Matt tells us what these different types of black holes are and how scientists are using VLBI, Very Long...

In January 1953, a tidal surge shook the North Sea. The titanic waves flooded the Dutch coastline, killing almost 2,000 people. 54 years later, a similar storm threatened the region. But this time, they were ready. This was thanks to a...

Now that we’re done with the planets, asteroid belt, and comets, we’re heading to the outskirts of the solar system. Out past Neptune are vast reservoirs of icy bodies that can become comets if they get poked into the inner solar system....

Sometimes, ancient ruins can be a little out of the way, but with some creativity, we can use satellites for those hard to reach areas.

In 1165, copies of a strange letter began to circulate throughout Europe. It spoke of a fantastical realm, containing the Tower of Babel and the Fountain of Youth— all ruled over by the letter’s mysterious author: Prester John. Who was...

There are just six weeks left until the celestial odometer that is the Mayan calendar clicks over to the next b'akt'un, but in the meantime, scientists have been trying to solve the mystery behind the collapse of the Mayan civilization....

Lurking in the depths of the mathematics of Einstein's general relativity is an object even stranger than the mysterious black hole. In fact it's the black hole's mirror twin, the white hole. Some even think that these could be the...

Jamil Abu-Wardeh jump-started the comedy scene in the Arab world by founding the Axis of Evil Middle East Comedy Tour, which brings standup comedians to laughing audiences all over the region. He's found that, by respecting the "three...

Energy poverty, or the lack of access to electricity and other basic energy services, affects nearly two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africa. As the region's population continues to increase, so will the need to build a new energy system to...

A classic puzzle in graph theory, the "Utilities problem", a description of why it is unsolvable on a plane, and how it becomes solvable on surfaces with a different topology.

Throughout history, scientists have proposed conflicting ideas on how the brain carries out functions like perception, memory, and movement. Is each of these tasks carried out by a specific area of the brain? Or do multiple areas work...

The nara melon is as juicy as any other, so how is it able to grow in the hyper-arid Namib desert?

In the last episode Matt discussed how the Penrose Diagram enabled you to map how black holes affect Space Time. In this episode you can use that knowledge to stop an all-too-real threat to our planet. Aliens are trying to destroy the...

Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side -- and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial.

A classic puzzle in graph theory, the "Utilities problem", a description of why it is unsolvable on a plane, and how it becomes solvable on surfaces with a different topology.

If you live in the U.S. you may have heard that the Pacific Northwest is supposedly overdue for an earthquake of colossal, devastating proportions. If that’s true, how can we better understand the threat and be prepared for the day it...

Mars is covered with the remnants of long-dead volcanoes, but one of them might have been alive surprisingly recently.

Do you ever think of what could cause the next big extinction? How about a super massive tropical storm that sweeps over continents? Hey, it could happen! Check out this SciShow Dose to see how a hypercane would be possible.

Remember when astrophysicists thought they'd found signs of life on Venus? A different team re-crunched the numbers, and their results raised some questions about that claim. Also, a bunch of exoplanets are doing a really precise dance...

We tend to think of physical blindness like a blindfold, but it’s much more complicated than that, and in some instances, people who have lost their vision can still "see" subconsciously.

Fresh water accounts for only 2.5% of Earth's water, yet it is vital for human civilization. What are our sources of fresh water? In the first of a two part series on fresh water, Christiana Z. Peppard breaks the numbers down and...

Roughly 85 percent of mass in the universe is "dark matter" -- mysterious material that can't be directly observed but has an immense influence on the cosmos. What exactly is this strange stuff, and what does it have to do with our...