TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Ancient Greece's greatest popstar | Diane J. Rayor
Over 2,500 years ago, one of ancient Greece's most celebrated popstars and erotic poets enraptured listeners. The singer-songwriter offered a uniquely intimate perspective on love, passion, and longing, and was the first on record to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars - Patrick Lin
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can't completely avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Solid, liquid, gas and plasma? - Michael Murillo
Have you ever seen static electricity cause a spark of light? What is that spark? What about lightning, the Northern Lights, or the tail of a comet? All of those things and many others _ in fact, 99.9% of the universe -- are made of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How plants tell time - Dasha Savage
Morning glories unfurl their petals like clockwork in the early morning. A closing white waterlily signals that it's late afternoon. And moon flowers, as their name suggests, only bloom under the night sky. What gives plants this innate...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Love vs. Honor: The Irish myth of Diarmuid's betrayal | Iseult Gillespie
Gráinne, princess of Tara and bride-to-be, was furious. She had thought she was betrothed to a young soldier, bold and brilliant enough to be her equal. Yet it soon became clear she was expected to marry Fionn, a warrior far past his...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The myth of the original star-crossed lovers | Shannon Zhao
In the court of the Jade Emperor, a young princess had a special skill: she could pluck clouds from the sky and spin them into the softest robes. But her craft was the same day after day, and she longed for new inspiration. So the Queen...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Should you trust your first impression? - Peter Mende-Siedlecki
You can't help it; sometimes, you just get a bad feeling about someone that's hard to shake. So, what's happening in your brain when you make that critical (and often lasting) first judgment? Peter Mende-Siedlecki shares the social...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: History vs. Andrew Jackson - James Fester
Andrew Jackson was both beloved and loathed during his presidency. In this imaginary courtroom, you get to be the jury, considering and weighing Jackson's part in the spoils system, economic depression, and the Indian Removal Act, as...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Is radiation dangerous? - Matt Anticole
When we hear the word radiation, it's tempting to picture huge explosions and frightening mutations. But that's not the full story - radiation also applies to rainbows and a doctor examining an X-ray. So what is it, really, and how much...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The problem with the U.S. bail system | Camilo Ramirez
Since 2000, the annual number of people convicted of crimes in the United States has stayed steady, but the average number of people in jail each year has shot up. How can that be? The answer lies in the bail system— which isn't doing...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the Ragnarok riddle? | Dan Finkel
Ragnarok: The fabled end of the world, when giants, monsters, and Norse gods battle for the future. The gods were winning until the great serpent Jörmungandr emerged. It swallowed Valhalla and contorted itself across the land. Odin has...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the honeybee riddle? | Dan Finkel
You're a biologist on a mission to keep the rare honeybee Apis Trifecta from going extinct. The last 60 bees of the species are in your terrarium. You've already constructed wire frames of the appropriate size and shape. Now you need to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared? - Dan Kwartler
Human beings are everywhere. With settlements on every continent, we can be found in the most isolated corners of Earth's jungles, oceans and tundras. Our impact is so profound, most scientists believe humanity has left a permanent mark...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The motion of the ocean - Sasha Wright
The constant motion of our oceans represents a vast and complicated system involving many different drivers. Sasha Wright explains the physics behind one of those drivers -- the concentration gradient -- and illustrates how our oceans...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The tragic myth of the Sun God's son | Iseult Gillespie
Every morning, Helios unleashed his golden chariot, and set out across the sky. As the Sun God transformed dawn into day, he thought of his son, Phaethon, below. To prove to Phaethon that he was truly his father, Helios decided to grant...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The basics of the Higgs boson - Dave Barney and Steve Goldfarb
In 2012, scientists at CERN discovered evidence of the Higgs boson. The what? The Higgs boson is one of two types of fundamental particles and is a particular game-changer in the field of particle physics, proving how particles gain...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What on Earth is spin? - Brian Jones
Why does the Earth spin? Does a basketball falling from a spinning merry-go-round fall in a curve, as it appears to, or in a straight line? How can speed be manipulated while spinning? In short, why is the spinning motion so special?...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Yankee - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Is it a doodle dandy? A baseball team? The origins of the word yankee are unclear, though its usage in America as a pejorative is well-documented. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel track the varying levels of contempt that the word yankee...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Quarantine - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Stemming from the days of bubonic plague in Medieval Europe, quarantines were originally used to prevent potentially plague-infested ships from disembarking at a port city. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the length of the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The true story of 'true' - Gina Cooke
The older the word, the longer (and more fascinating) the story. With roots in Old English, 'true' shares etymological ancestors with words like betroth and truce...but also with the word tree. In fact, trees have been metaphors for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could human civilization spread across the whole galaxy? - Roey Tzezana
Could human civilization eventually spread across the whole Milky Way galaxy? Could we move beyond our small, blue planet to establish colonies in the multitude of star systems out there? These questions are pretty daunting, but their...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The life, legacy & assassination of an African revolutionary - Lisa Janae Bacon
In 1972, Thomas Sankara was swept into the revolution seeking to wrest control of Madagascar from France’s lingering colonial rule. The protests inspired the West African native to read works by socialist leaders and seek wisdom from...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do you get a fever when you're sick? | Christian Moro
There are many mysteries around fever, but we do know that all mammals, some birds and even a few invertebrate and plant species feel fever's heat. It has persisted for over 600 million years of evolution. But it has a significant cost:...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the rogue submarine riddle? Difficulty level: Master | Alex Rosenthal
Smuggling yourself aboard the rogue submarine was the easy part. Hacking into the nuclear missile launch override — a little harder. And you've got a problem: you don't have the override code. You know you need the same numbers that were...