TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Just how small is an atom? - Jonathan Bergmann
Just how small are atoms? And what's inside them? The answers turn out to be astounding, even for those who think they know. This fast-paced animation uses spectacular metaphors (imagine a blueberry the size of a football stadium!) to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The cockroach beatbox - Greg Gage
By dissecting a cockroach ... yes, live on stage ... TED Fellow and neuroscientist Greg Gage shows how brains receive and deliver electric impulses -- and how legs can respond. (Launching a series on Awesome Nature) "The Cockroach...
TED-Ed
Ugly History: The US syphilis experiment | Susan M. Reverby
Afflicting nearly 1 in 10 Americans, syphilis was ravaging the U.S. in the 1930s. Many doctors believed syphilis affected Black and white patients differently, and the Public Health Service launched an experiment to investigate,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do you want to squeeze cute things? | Joshua Paul Dale
Watching a kitten fumbling around, it might feel as if you've never encountered anything so devastatingly adorable in your mortal life. You may want to pet its soft fur and kiss its tiny head. But you may also feel the conflicting...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Is fire a solid, a liquid, or a gas? - Elizabeth Cox
Sitting around a campfire, you can feel its heat, smell the woody smoke, and hear it crackle. If you get too close, it burns your eyes and stings your nostrils. You could stare at the bright flames forever as they twist and flicker in...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History vs. Augustus - Alex Gendler and Peta Greenfield
His reign marked the beginning of one of history's greatest empires . . . and the end of one of its first republics. Was Rome's first emperor a visionary leader who guaranteed his civilization's place in history, or a tyrant who...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do drugs affect the brain? - Sara Garofalo
Most people will take a pill, receive an injection, or otherwise take some kind of medicine during their lives. But most of us don't know anything about how these substances actually work. How can various compounds impact the way we...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to a metal world? - Linda T. Elkins-Tanton
In 2026, an unmanned NASA spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at 16 Psyche, a massive, metallic asteroid floating somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Why is NASA so interested in this heavy metal asteroid? Are we going to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do we itch? - Emma Bryce
The average person experiences dozens of individual itches each day. We've all experienced the annoyance of an inconvenient itch - but have you ever pondered why we itch in the first place? Is there actually an evolutionary purpose to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the airplane riddle? - Judd A. Schorr
Professor Fukan_, the famous scientist, has embarked on a new challenge - piloting around the world in a plane of his own design. There's just one problem: there's not enough fuel to complete the journey. Luckily, there are two other...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happens when your DNA is damaged? - Monica Menesini
The DNA in just one of your cells gets damaged tens of thousands of times per day. Because DNA provides the blueprint for the proteins your cells need to function, this damage can cause serious issues-including cancer. Fortunately, your...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is this 2,500 year old shipwreck so well-preserved? | Helen Farr and Jon Adams
In 2017, researchers off the Bulgarian coast discovered the oldest intact shipwreck ever found. This ancient Greek vessel was not only nearly 2,500 years old, but was just one of 65 shipwrecks found at the bottom of the Black Sea in...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Does trickle-down economics actually work? | Jonathan Smith
In 1981, the US economy was struggling: unemployment rates were climbing and inflation had peaked at an all-time high. To combat these issues, President Reagan introduced a number of economic policies, including tax cuts for large...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How far would you have to go to escape gravity? - Rene Laufer
Every star, black hole, human being, smartphone and atom are all constantly pulling on each other due to one force: gravity. So why don’t we feel pulled in billions of different directions? And is there anywhere in the universe where...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: This weird trick will help you summon an army of worms | Kenny Coogan
In the middle of Florida's Apalachicola National Forest, a bizarre, almost magical scene is unraveling. Sliding a metal strip over a wooden stake, a master summoner is sending deep croaking noises reverberating throughout the area. And,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut? - Mia Nacamulli
Kurt Vonnegut found the tidy, satisfying arcs of many stories at odds with reality, and he set out to explore the ambiguity between good and bad fortune in his own novels. He tried to make sense of human behavior by studying the shapes...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do investors choose stocks? | Richard Coffin
Every day, billions of stocks are traded on the New York Stock Exchange alone. But with over 43,000 companies listed on stock exchanges around the world, how do investors decide which stocks to buy? And what do individuals and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Flannery O’Connor? - Iseult Gillespie
Find out why Flannery O’Connor, an American novelist, is known as a master of the grotesque in Southern Gothic literature. -- Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts, intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best: the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The myth of Anansi, the trickster spider | Emily Zobel Marshall
Long ago, all stories belonged to Nyame, the all-seeing Sky God. But one creature, Anansi, was determined to bring the stories down to Earth. Anansi went to Nyame and requested to take ownership of the world's stories. The Sky God told...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The murder of ancient Alexandria's greatest scholar - Soraya Field Fiorio
Dive into the life of one of Ancient Rome’s most powerful figures, Hypatia of Alexandria, a renowned scholar and political advisor to the city's leaders. -- In the city of Alexandria in 415 CE, the bishop and the governor were in a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What causes economic bubbles? - Prateek Singh
During the 1600's, the exotic tulip became a nationwide sensation; some single bulbs even sold for ten times the yearly salary of a skilled craftsman. Suddenly, though, the demand completely plummeted, leaving the tulip market in a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History's "worst" nun | Theresa A. Yugar
Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. They had been invited to test Juana's knowledge with the most difficult questions they could muster. But she successfully answered every...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you survive nuclear fallout? - Brooke Buddemeier and Jessica S. Wieder
Nuclear weapons are some of the most powerful tools of destruction on Earth, and the full scope of a nuclear detonation is almost unimaginable. However, there is a scientifically supported plan of action that could save thousands of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What would it be like to live on the moon? - Alex Gendler
The European Space Agency is hoping to establish an inhabited research base on the moon by the 2020s. But living in this "moon camp" won't be easy. How will humans deal with the cosmic radiation? What will the inhabitants eat? And what's...