TED-Ed
Why good ideas get trapped in the valley of death -- and how to rescue them | TED-Ed
All new products must pass through the "valley of death" before they reach the market. Many never make it out, and sometimes that's OK -- if they don't work, don't fill a need or for any number of reasons. One of the fields where this...
TED-Ed
Run, sail or hide? How to survive the destruction of Pompeii | Gary Devore
It's a bustling day in Pompeii. After a quick visit to the market, Fabia spots her brothers, Lucius and Marcus, crossing the Forum. The siblings begin discussing Lucius' wedding — but a deafening boom interrupts them. They watch Vesuvius...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do germs spread (and why do they make us sick)? - Yannay Khaikin and Nicole Mideo
Germs are found on almost every surface we come in contact with, which makes it incredibly common for our bodies to be exposed to them. But why are some of these germs relatively harmless, while others can be fatal? Yannay Khaikan and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Tracking grizzly bears from space - David Laskin
Grizzly bears stick to a mostly vegetarian diet in sync with plant growing seasons. However, as grizzlies' habitats grow smaller, food is harder to come by. Using NASA satellites, scientists track the shifting, interrelated patterns of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The Infinite Hotel Paradox - Jeff Dekofsky
The Infinite Hotel, a thought experiment created by German mathematician David Hilbert, is a hotel with an infinite number of rooms. Easy to comprehend, right? Wrong. What if it's completely booked but one person wants to check in? What...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The otherworldly creatures in the ocean's deepest depths - Lidia Lins
About 60 percent of the ocean is a cold, dark region that spans down to 11,000 meters. This zone is known as the deep ocean, and though it seems like an inhospitable and remote corner of the planet, it is actually one of the greatest...
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...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The Cambodian myth of lightning, thunder, and rain - Prumsodun Ok
"Moni Mekhala Ream Eyso" is the most sacred dance drama in Cambodia. It is performed every year in the buong suong ceremony, and explains the origins of lightning, thunder and rain according to the Khmer people. Prumsodun Ok tells this...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The strange case of the cyclops sheep - Tien Nguyen
In the 1950s, a group of ranchers in Idaho were baffled when their sheep gave birth to lambs with only one eye. Mystified by these cyclops sheep, they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. What...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Do animals have language? - Michele Bishop
All animals communicate. But do they have language? Michele Bishop details the four specific qualities we associate with language and investigates whether or not certain animals utilize some or all of those qualities to communicate.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How did trains standardize time in the United States? - William Heuisler
If you live in the United States, you may live in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. Or maybe you live in Mountain Standard Time or one of the other standardized time zones. But these time zones have not always been around. In fact, it's a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The beginning of the universe, for beginners - Tom Whyntie
How did the universe begin -- and how is it expanding? CERN physicist Tom Whyntie shows how cosmologists and particle physicists explore these questions by replicating the heat, energy, and activity of the first few seconds of our...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Nature's smallest factory: The Calvin cycle - Cathy Symington
A hearty bowl of cereal gives you the energy to start your day, but how exactly did that energy make its way into your bowl? It all begins with photosynthesis, the process that converts the air we breathe into energizing glucose. Cathy...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the birthday cake riddle? | Marie Brodsky
Your friend's birthday is tomorrow, and he's turning... well... you've forgotten. A ginormous cake has been prepared and your job is to sculpt his age as the chocolate centerpiece. The birthday boy is a giant, and you're afraid that if...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: It's a church. It's a mosque. It's Hagia Sophia. - Kelly Wall
If walls could talk, Turkey's Hagia Sophia would have an abundance of stories to tell. Once a church, then a mosque, and now a museum, this world marvel has stood the test of time and war, surviving centuries of conquest by some of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why are there so many types of apples? - Theresa Doud
Have you ever walked into a grocery store and wondered where all the varieties of apples came from? You might find SnapDragon, Pixie Crunch, Cosmic Crisp, Jazz, or Ambrosia next to the more familiar Red Delicious and Granny Smith. So why...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The story behind your glasses - Eva Timothy
What scientific thinkers and achievements have led to vast improvements in optics over the centuries? Discover the fascinating ways that our understanding of light informs the world in which we live.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Where did English come from? - Claire Bowern
When we talk about 'English', we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? Claire Bowern traces the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The contributions of female explorers - Courtney Stephens
During the Victorian Age, women were unlikely to become great explorers, but a few intelligent, gritty and brave women made major contributions to the study of previously little-understood territory. Courtney Stephens examines three...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How folding paper can get you to the moon - Adrian Paenza
Can folding a piece of paper 45 times get you to the moon? By seeing what happens when folding just one piece of paper, we see the unbelievable potential of exponential growth. This lesson will leave you wanting to grab a piece of paper...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What is leukemia? - Danilo Allegra and Dania Puggioni
Stem cells found in the bone marrow are crucial for our health because they are needed to become new blood cells that sustain and protect our bodies. But when the transformation goes wrong, harmful mutations can cause the cells to start...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class by Clint Smith
An animated interpretation of Clint Smith's poem "Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class"
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Cannibalism in the animal kingdom - Bill Schutt
Until recently, scientists thought cannibalism was a rare response to starvation or other extreme stress. Well-known cannibals like the praying mantis and black widow were considered bizarre exceptions. But now, we know they more or less...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece? - James Earle
Is she turning towards you or away from you? No one can agree. She's the subject of Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring," a painting often referred to as the 'Mona Lisa of the North.' But what makes this painting...