TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why animals help each other | Ashley Ward
Charles Darwin introduced the notion of “survival of the fittest,” where the fittest animals are those who can survive long enough to produce healthy offspring. The fittest animal can also be the most stealthy, resourceful, or even the...
TED Talks
Howard Rheingold: The new power of collaboration
Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action -- and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group.
Professor Dave Explains
Mechanisms of Natural Selection Conflict, Spite, and Reciprocity
We learned about how altruism can evolve in certain species, which involves cooperative behavior among closely-related organisms to enhance the inclusive fitness of the group. But this is also achieved through spiteful behavior towards...
TED Talks
Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity
Biologist Mark Pagel shares an intriguing theory about why humans evolved our complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of "social technology" that allowed early human tribes to access a powerful new tool:...
TED Talks
TED: Progress is not a zero-sum game | Robert Wright
Author Robert Wright explains "non-zero-sumness" -- the network of linked fortunes and cooperation that has guided our evolution to this point -- and how we can use it to help save humanity today.
Professor Dave Explains
Mechanisms of Natural Selection Altruism and Kin Selection
We have learned all about so-called "survival of the fittest" which is a phrase we associate with natural selection. We typically associate this concept with competition for resources, but there are situations in which this involves the...
Journey to the Microcosmos
These Rotifers Glue Themselves Together
As animals, we owe a lot to the single-celled organisms that came before us. These are the organisms that laid the chemical groundwork for how we live, from the DNA and proteins within them to the molecules they released into the...
Crash Course
Aggression V. Altruism: Crash Course Psychology
In our final episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank discusses the ideas of Aggression and Altruism. These two things are difficult to understand and explain so sit tight and get ready to run the gauntlet of human emotions. If you are...