TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: What Cameras See That Our Eyes Don't
Our eyes are practically magical, but they cannot see everything. For instance, the naked eye cannot see the moment where all four of a horse's legs are in the air or the gradual life cycle of plants- but cameras can capture these...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Your Elusive Creative Genius
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Visualizing Hidden Worlds Inside Your Body
How do we see things too small to be detected by the human eye? What about things inside our own bodies? Dee Breger uses a scanning electron microscope to give us a glimpse of images including blood clots, thyroid glands, and lungs with...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Illuminating Photography: From Camera Obscura to Camera Phone
The origins of the cameras we use today were invented in the 19th century. Or were they? A millenia before, Arab scientist Alhazen was using the camera obscura to duplicate images, with Leonardo da Vinci following suit 500 years later...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change
Thelma Golden, curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, talks through three recent shows that explore how art examines and redefines culture. The "post-black" artists she works with are using their art to provoke a new dialogue about race...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Distorting Madonna in Medieval Art
After Rome was destroyed, people were wary of attachment to physical beauty. As Christianity gained traction, Romans instead began to focus on the metaphysical beauty of virtue, and art began to follow suit. James Earle discusses how...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Dawn of Art
The images in this video come from Chauvet Cave, an ancient rock art site in France. Watch the video and try to imagine the kind of people that created the art. There are no words in this video, so check out the Dig Deeper section for...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How to Find the True Face of Leonardo
Mona Lisa is one of the best-known faces on the planet. But would you recognize an image of Leonardo da Vinci? Illustrator Siegfried Woldhek uses some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Photography Connects Us
The photo director for National Geographic David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a Talk filled with glorious images, he discusses how we all use photos to tell our stories. [14:56]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Inside a Cartoonist's World
From cave drawings to the Sunday paper, artists have been visualizing ideas- cartoons- for centuries. New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly walks us through the many stages every cartoon goes through, starting with an idea and turning into...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Why Should You Listen to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"?
Light, bright, and cheerful, "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi is some of the most familiar of all early 18th century music, featured in numerous films and television commercials. But what is its significance, and why does it sound...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The History of African American Social Dance
Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom. They remain an affirmation of identity and independence. In this electric...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Physics of the "Hardest Move" in Ballet
In the third act of "Swan Lake", the Black Swan pulls off a seemingly endless series of turns, bobbing up and down on one pointed foot and spinning around and around and around.. How is this move- which is called a fouette- even...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Origins of Ballet
Can you imagine a party where every movement and every visual detail were governed by a complex system of rules and procedures? For centuries, such rituals were commonplace for European nobility. And while they've gone out of fashion, we...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Group Theory 101: How to Play a Rubik's Cube Like a Piano
Mathematics explains the workings of the universe, from particle physics to engineering and economics. Math is even closely related to music, and their common ground has something to do with a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Michael Staff explains...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Poetic Experiment: Walt Whitman, Interpreted by Three Animators
Take a journey through Walt Whitman's poem 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' with the help of three animators who each used a different animation style to bring this beautiful poem to life. [3:28]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Physics of Playing Guitar
Guitar masters like Jimi Hendrix are capable of bending the physics of waves to their wills, plucking melody from inspiration and vibration. But how do wood, metal, and plastic translate into rhythm, melody, and music? Oscar Fernando...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Why Tragedies Are Alluring
The story goes something like this: A royal, rich, or righteous individual makes a mistake that sends his or her life spiraling into ruin. It's the classic story arc for a Greek tragedy, and we love it so much that we continue to use it...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Battle of the Greek Tragedies
The world of modern theater owes its roots to the tragedians of Ancient Greece. As far back as the 5th Century BCE, actors and playwrights were entertaining the masses with intriguing stories. Melanie Sirof unveils the ancient theatrical...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Brass Instruments Work
What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And what makes the trombone so jazzy? Al Cannon shows how these answers lie not in the brass the instruments are made of, but in the journey that air takes...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Earworms: Those Songs That Get Stuck in Your Head
Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store, innocently perusing the magazine rack, when a song pops into your head? Not the whole song, but a fragment of it that plays and replays until you find yourself unloading the...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Rhythm in a Box: The Story of the Cajon Drum
Many modern musical instruments are complicated pieces of machinery with many moving parts. But the cajon is simply a drum and a stand and a seat all in one box. Paul Jennings explains the history behind the cajon and how it has become...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Did Shakespeare Write His Plays?
Some people question whether Shakespeare really wrote the works that bear his name- or whether he even existed at all. Could it be true that the greatest writer in the English language was as fictional as his plays? Natalya St. Clair and...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Different Way to Visualize Rhythm
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...