TED Talks
TED: How to end malaria once and for all | Abdoulaye Diabaté
Malaria is a disease as old as humankind, yet we may be closer than ever to eliminating it, says medical entomologist Abdoulaye Diabaté. He explains the potential of "gene drive" technology — which aims to disrupt mosquito reproduction...
SciShow
The First CRISPR Gene Therapy Is Here
CRISPR is a powerful gene editing tool, but its uses have been purely scientific until now. In 2023, US and UK drug regulators including the FDA approved Casgevy, a CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia....
SciShow
What Does My Cancer Diagnosis ACTUALLY Mean?
You've probably heard of cancers having stages, but what do all those stages really mean? This video is a 101 to explain cancer diagnosis and decode the jargon for you. And even if you've heard of the numerical stages, you might not know...
SciShow
Rosalind Franklin: Great Minds
Rosalind Franklin was a British scientist who helped discover the structure of DNA, but you most likely haven't heard of her. Hank will attempt to fix this gap in your knowledge on today's SciShow: Great Minds
MinuteEarth
Why Do Weeping Willows Weep?
Most trees reach for the sun – but not the weeping willow. Why?
SciShow
The OTHER Genome Project That’s Transforming Medicine
You've heard of the Human Genome Project, and how having all that info about our genes could help us treat /tons/ of diseases. But a newer project wants to zoom out a little and use different genetic information to help us solve our...
TED Talks
TED: Can we hack photosynthesis to feed the world? | Steve Long
Photosynthesis is one of the most important processes on the planet, helping produce the food we eat and the air we breathe. Crop scientist Steve Long thinks it could be more efficient — and he's intent on giving it a boost. He shows how...
SciShow
Have an Autoimmune Disease? Blame the Black Death
The bubonic plague killed so many people in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa that that natural selection event is still rippling through our genomes today. But the same genes that helped your ancestors survive the Black Death...
SciShow
You Have Four Ages
A person's chronological age doesn't tell us much about the health of their body's various systems. That's why scientists are beginning to study biological ages, and it turns out there may be a lot of them.
PBS
How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple
We tend to think that evolution only goes in one direction— toward getting bigger and more advanced. But that’s not always the case. This tiny, simple animal, the Myxozoans, (yes, animal!) evolved from something bigger and more complex.
PBS
The Genes We Lost Along the Way
Our DNA holds thousands of dead genes and we’ve only just begun to unravel their stories. But one thing is already clear: we’re not just defined by the genes that we’ve gained over the course of our evolution, but also by the genes that...
PBS
Our “Junk DNA” Is More Important Than We Once Thought
In the search for the genes that make us human, some of the most important answers were hiding not in the genes themselves, but in what was once considered genomic junk.
PBS
How Evolution Works (And How We Figured It Out)
As a scientific concept, evolution was revolutionary when it was first introduced. With the help of all three of our hosts and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s new Deep Time Hall, we’ll try to explain how evolution...
Curated Video
How (Some) Plants Survived The K-Pg Extinction
Perhaps for plants in times of great stress and ecological upheaval, the more DNA the better.
PBS
Darwin Missed An Example of Evolution Right Under His Nose
Charles Darwin encountered a tiny fox-like creature during his famous voyage but instead of discovering its fascinating evolutionary story, he just knocked it on the head with his geology hammer.
PBS
Cordyceps Turned These Ants Into Zombies
This fungus was actually manipulating ants’ movements, forcing them to do something they’d never ordinarily do, something strange, yet specific…
PBS
Are We All Actually Archaea?
The unexpected discovery of an entirely new domain of life was pretty huge and surprising - even if archaea do just look like bacteria. But, in recent years, it’s been their connection to us that's turned out to be particularly full of...
PBS
There’s Something Weird About Neandertal DNA And It Might Be Our Fault
Maybe it’s a little self-centered that we can be pretty focused on the DNA that we got from Neanderthals – but we shouldn’t forget that gene flow goes both ways.
PBS
How Plate Tectonics Gave Us Seahorses
How did seahorses — one of the ocean’s worst swimmers — spread around the globe? And where did they come from in the first place?
PBS
When Ants Domesticated Fungi
While we’ve been farming for around 10,000 to 12,000 years, the ancestors of ants have been doing it for around 60 million years. So when, and how, and why did ants start … farming?
PBS
These Creatures Were Darwin's Greatest Enemy
They may not look like much, but beneath that shell lies an evolutionary mystery - one that stumped the biggest names in natural history for over a hundred years.
PBS
The Island of the Last Surviving Mammoths
The Wrangel Island mammoths would end up being the final survivors of a once-widespread genus. In their final years, after having thrived in many parts of the world for millions of years, the very last mammoths that ever lived...
Be Smart
Is Your Eye Color Real?
The eyes are often the first thing we see when we look at someone. And when you look at them up close, everyone’s eye color is a kaleidoscope of shapes and hues. How does eye color work? The answer involves some very cool physics, and...
Be Smart
Could You Be a Chimera?
Ever feel like you aren't totally yourself? Well, maybe you aren't. In this video, we explore the idea of human chimeras. In mythology, the "Chimaera" was a beast made from different animals combined into one. But in biology, a chimera...