PBS
Development near Phoenix tests whether car-free living is sustainable in sprawling cities
The sprawling metropolis of Phoenix seems an unlikely place to build an apartment complex without parking for residents. Car dependency is just part of life for most people there. But a new development in the suburb of Tempe is providing...
TED-Ed
What would happen if the Amazon Rainforest disappeared? | Anna Rothschild
As of 2022, humans have deforested 17% of the Amazon, and scientists warn that we may be approaching a tipping point. It’s like removing bricks from a house: take a few and the house remains standing; remove too many and the whole thing...
TED-Ed
Why you feel stuck — and how to get motivated | Shannon Odell
Many of us have experienced feeling stuck. People often report feeling highly motivated at the start and end of a project, but the middle can feel untethered. It can happen when tackling something as simple as a term paper or as...
TED-Ed
Rocks could save the world (Yes, rocks) | Elise Cutts
Mount Teide is one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, and there may be a way to use the basalt rock inside it to save humanity. Obviously, destroying an ancient volcano would cause catastrophic and unpredictable ecological fallout....
TED Talks
How to finance the future of farming | Berry Marttin
Agriculture is key to solving the climate crisis, but most farmers don’t have the financial incentive to switch to more eco-friendly practices, says banker and farmer Berry Marttin. He explores how improving the systems around carbon and...
TED Talks
Why joy is a serious way to take action | Pattie Gonia
While doom and gloom may wake people up, joy keeps them in the fight, says drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia. With humor, creativity and a dress made of thrifted shower curtains and upcycled pink flamingo pool floaties, Pattie...
MinuteEarth
Why There Are No King Bees
Beehives always have a queen, who is the mother of the entire hive. But have you ever wondered, what happened to the king, if there was ever any? Can a male bee become a king?
MinuteEarth
Why is the Number of Languages Increasing?
Lots of languages and species are going extinct, but because others keep getting found or described, the official counts of languages and species are still increasing.
MinuteEarth
Why Hurricane Paths Are Weird
Hurricane path prediction seems straightforward, until it is not – that’s because hurricanes can encounter atmospheric effects that turn their paths into erratic nonsense.
MinuteEarth
Why Haven't We Cured Cancer?
A person’s genes alone don’t tell us enough about how to most effectively treat their cancer.
MinuteEarth
Why Don't Snakes Poison Themselves?
Many animal species stuff themselves with toxic chemicals for protection, which forces them to use a handful of distinct strategies to avoid becoming victims of their own weapons.
MinuteEarth
Why Don't Electric Eels Shock Themselves?
Electric eels can emit some of the largest shocks in the animal kingdom - but why don't they shock themselves?
MinuteEarth
Why Don’t All Rivers Make Canyons?
The Grand Canyon is super-wide and super-deep, which might make you think that the Colorado River, which carved it, is particularly old or powerful. Or at least that's what I thought.
MinuteEarth
Why Do Butterflies Bother Being Caterpillars?
It seems wild that some animals basically trade in their bodies for new ones during their lifetime, but it's actually really common – and it makes a lot of sense.
MinuteEarth
Who’s Eating All The Spiders?
The average human, in theory, eats 3 spiders a year. If you're not eating them and I'm not eating them, who is?
MinuteEarth
What Happens When Predators Disappear?
A world without predators. It sounds like a safer, happier world, but come on, this is science…
MinuteEarth
Electrical Wires Made Of Bacteria
Most living things on Earth need oxygen to survive, but scientists discovered a species of bacteria that uses oxygen totally differently from every other organism on Earth.
MinuteEarth
The Time I Was a Human Incubator
Premature babies majorly benefit from skin-to-skin contact with a parent –also known as “kangaroo care”– because it reduces infections and hypothermia and increases weight gain and parental involvement.
MinuteEarth
The Never Ending Lightning Storm
Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo is home to a legendary lightning storm that has been going on for over 500 years.
MinuteEarth
The Deadliest Thing At The Beach
You might think the most dangerous thing that can happen at a beach is a shark attack, or that the scariest thing might be a tsunami - but instead, rip currents kill more beachgoers than all other causes combined.
MinuteEarth
The Antarctic Ocean is Weird
Life in Antarctica's ocean has followed a completely different evolutionary path from other ocean life because of how cold and isolated the ocean is.
MinuteEarth
Memes Go Viral Cuz They're So Sick
When we say a meme goes “viral,” we aren't actually saying it's making people sick. But the math behind a meme’s spread suggests it's actually a pretty spot-on analogy.
MinuteEarth
How To Take A Dinosaur's Temperature
Despite the seemingly basic things we don't know about dinosaurs, we do know some surprising things – like their body temperatures.
MinuteEarth
How Much Gold is in Our Poop?
Because of the way digestion works, human poop not only contains dangerous microbes, it also contains a wide variety of other things, many of which we could potentially put to use.