TED-Ed
TED-ED: What is epigenetics? - Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna
Here's a conundrum: Identical twins originate from the same DNA ... so how can they turn out so different - even in traits that have a significant genetic component? Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna explains that while nature versus nurture has a...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do viruses jump from animals to humans? - Ben Longdon
Discover the science of how viruses can jump from one species to another and the deadly epidemics that can result from these pathogens. -- At a Maryland country fair in 2017, farmers reported feverish hogs with inflamed eyes and running...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read Virginia Woolf? - Iseult Gillespie
How best can we understand the internal experience of alienation? In both her essays and her fiction, Virginia Woolf shapes the slippery nature of subjective experience into words, while her characters frequently lead inner lives that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do some people go bald? - Sarthak Sinha
What do Charles Darwin, Michael Jordan, and Yoda have in common? They, like many other historical and fictive individuals, are bald. Scientists have long pondered, why do some people lose their hair, and how can we bring it back? Sarthak...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why the shape of your screen matters - Brian Gervase
Watching a movie at home isn't quite the same experience as seeing it at a movie theater -- but why? Learn how changes in aspect ratio affect every film, and why your television might not be delivering the whole picture.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How smart are orangutans? - Lu Gao
Along with humans, orangutans belong to the Hominidae family tree, which stretches back 14 million years. But it's not just their striking red hair that makes orangutans unique among our great ape cousins. Lu Gao shares some amazing...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Evolution's great mystery: Language | Michael Corballis
What we call language is something more specific than communication. Language is about sharing what's in our minds: stories, opinions, questions, the past or future, imagined times or places, ideas. It is fundamentally open-ended, and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you outsmart the fallacy that fooled a generation of doctors? | Elizabeth Cox
It's 1843, and a debate is raging about one of the most common killers of women: childbed fever— no one knows what causes it. One physician has observed patients with inflammation go on to develop childbed fever, and therefore believes...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Inside the minds of animals - Bryan B Rasmussen
Do animals think? It's a question that has intrigued scientists for thousands of years, inspiring them to come up with different methods and criteria to measure the intelligence of animals. Bryan B Rasmussen navigates through this...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How is power divided in the United States government? - Belinda Stutzman
Articles I-III of the United States Constitution allow for three separate branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial), along with a system of checks and balances should any branch get too powerful. Belinda Stutzman...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue
There's a play so powerful that an old superstition says its name should never be uttered in a theater. A play that begins with witchcraft and ends with a bloody, severed head. A play filled with riddles, prophecies, nightmare visions,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What percentage of your brain do you use? - Richard E. Cytowic
Two thirds of the population believes a myth that has been propagated for over a century: that we use only 10% of our brains. Hardly! Our neuron-dense brains have evolved to use the least amount of energy while carrying the most...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Cell membranes are way more complicated than you think - Nazzy Pakpour
Cell membranes are structures of contradictions. These oily films are hundreds of times thinner than a strand of spider silk, yet strong enough to protect the delicate contents of life: the cell's watery cytoplasm, genetic material,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How heavy is air? - Dan Quinn
Too often we think of air as empty space - but compared to a vacuum, air is actually pretty heavy. So, just how heavy is it? And if it's so heavy, why doesn't it crush us? Dan Quinn describes the fundamentals of air pressure and explains...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Illuminating photography: From camera obscura to camera phone - Eva Timothy
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-Ed
TED-ED: The death of the universe - Ren_e Hlozek
The shape, contents and future of the universe are all intricately related. We know that it's mostly flat; we know that it's made up of baryonic matter (like stars and planets), but mostly dark matter and dark energy; and we know that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A brief history of numerical systems - Alessandra King
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0. With just these ten symbols, we can write any rational number imaginable. But why these particular symbols? Why ten of them? And why do we arrange them the way we do? Alessandra King gives a brief history...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to set the table - Anna Post
Can't remember where your soup spoon ought to go? What about your salad fork? Knowing how to set a traditional table can seem like antiquated etiquette -- but it can come in handy! Anna Post, great-great-granddaughter of etiquette expert...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The genius of Marie Curie - Shohini Ghose
Marie Sk_odowska Curie's revolutionary research laid the groundwork for our understanding of physics and chemistry, blazing trails in oncology, technology, medicine, and nuclear physics, to name a few. But what did she actually do?...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The fascinating history of cemeteries - Keith Eggener
Spindly trees, rusted gates, crumbling stone, a solitary mourner: these things come to mind when we think of cemeteries. But not long ago, many burial grounds were lively places, with gardens and crowds of people -- and for much of human...
TED-Ed
The unexpected math of origami | Evan Zodl
Origami, which literally translates to "folding paper," is a Japanese practice dating back to at least the 17th century. In origami, a single, traditionally square sheet of paper can be transformed into almost any shape, purely by...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy? | Laura Wright
Set in a small town in India, "The God of Small Things" revolves around fraternal twins Rahel and Estha, who are separated for 23 years after the fateful hours in which their cousin drowns, their mother's affair is revealed, and her...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The Akune brothers: Siblings on opposite sides of war - Wendell Oshiro
There are many stories that can be told about World War II, from the tragic to the inspiring. But perhaps one of the most heart-rending experiences was that of the Akune family, divided by the war against each other, and against their...