TED Talks
Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.
PBS
The Origin of Matter and Time
We've broken down our preconceived notions about mass and time, now let's redefine what they really are. Since we know that time is not a universal constant, what is? Matt defines causal order and explains how even though time may look...
TED Talks
Clifford Stoll: The call to learn
Clifford Stoll captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides -- and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he's a scientist: "Once I do something, I want to do...
PBS
Can You Trust Your Eyes in Spacetime?
Last time we talked about what curvature means, looked at geodesics, great circles on spheres, and tried to understand the notion of "straightness". This week on Spacetime, we take a detour into how geometry works in spacetime. Get...
MinutePhysics
Why Some Days Aren’t 24 Hours
Check out the "What is a Day?" interactive video at https://labs.minutelabs.io/what-is-a-day/ It's super cool!! (and made by Jasper Palfree & the MinuteEarth/MinutePhysics team) This video is about the length of a solar day vs a stellar...
TED Talks
Sebastian Wernicke: Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks)
In a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek analysis, Sebastian Wernicke turns the tools of statistical analysis on TEDTalks, to come up with a metric for creating "the optimum TEDTalk" based on user ratings. How do you rate it? "Jaw-dropping"?...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to create cleaner coal - Emma Bryce
It takes a lot of fuel to heat our homes, preserve our food, and power our gadgets. And for 40 percent of the world, cheap, plentiful coal gets the job done. But coal also releases pollutants into the air, causing environmental damage...
SciShow
A Brief History of Timekeeping
It's time for another leap second! Join SciShow as we celebrate by exploring the long and strange history of timekeeping.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A different way to visualize rhythm - John Varney
In standard notation, rhythm is indicated on a musical bar line. But there are other ways to visualize rhythm that can be more intuitive. John Varney describes the 'wheel method' of tracing rhythm and uses it to take us on a musical...
TED-Ed
Who decides how long a second is? | John Kitching
In 1967, researchers gathered to answer a long-running scientific question: just how long is a second? It might seem obvious at first. A second is the tick of a clock, the swing of a pendulum, the time it takes to count to one. But how...
TED Talks
TED: A sci-fi story of climate optimism | Vandana Singh
The world is a living tapestry ... As the weave of life is torn apart in one place, the threads unravel in another, says author and physics professor Vandana Singh, acknowledging humanity's interconnectedness with the planet -- and the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How does your smartphone know your location? - Wilton L. Virgo
GPS location apps on a smartphone can be very handy when mapping a travel route or finding nearby events. But how does your smartphone know where you are? Wilton L. Virgo explains how the answer lies 12,000 miles over your head, in an...
MinutePhysics
GPS, Relativity, and Nuclear Detection
GPS is just a big clock in space! (and it can detect nuclear explosions)
Crash Course
The Central Processing Unit (CPU): Crash Course Computer Science
Today we’re going to build the ticking heart of every computer - the Central Processing Unit or CPU. The CPU’s job is to execute the programs we know and love - you know like GTA V, Slack... and Power Point. To make our CPU we’ll bring...
Be Smart
Why It Is What Time It Is (The History of Time)
How did we come up with our system of telling time? Why do we divide the day into 24 hours of 60 minutes each, and put 60 seconds in each minute? Where does the definition of a second come from? And who decides what clock shows the...
SciShow
What’s a Particle Accelerator Doing in a Hospital?
Hospitals have all sorts of amazing tools, and some might even have a particle accelerator hiding somewhere in the basement.
SciShow
Did We Find Longitude Thanks To A...Clock?
The equator is a clear and accurate line around Earth that makes measuring latitude a precise science, but when it came to figuring out how to do that with longitude, British sailors were at a loss. Until they devised a competition.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How does workwork? - Peter Bohacek
The concepts of work and power help us unlock and understand many of the physical laws that govern our universe. In this Lesson, Peter Bohacek explores the interplay of each concept when applied to two common objects---a lightbulb and a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: When is a pandemic over?
Consider the following scenario: a highly infectious, sometimes deadly respiratory virus infects humans for the first time. It spreads rapidly worldwide, and the WHO declares a pandemic. The death toll starts to rise and everyone is...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What causes insomnia? - Dan Kwartler
What keeps you up at night? Pondering deep questions? Excitement about a big trip? Stress about unfinished work? What if the very thing keeping you awake was stress about losing sleep? This seemingly unsolvable loop is at the heart of...
Be Smart
The Romantic Lure of Moonlight
Organisms of all shapes and sizes synchronize their behaviors using biological clocks. Some keep pace with the daily rising and setting sun using circadian rhythms. Others use annual cycles or the changing seasons as their cue. But many...
PBS
Your Place in the Primate Family Tree
Purgatorius, a kind of mammal called a plesiadapiform, might've been one of your earliest ancestors. But how did we get from a mouse-sized creature that looked more like a squirrel than a monkey -- to you, a member of Homo sapiens?