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...

Scientists were able to measure the emission lines of antimatter! And we may have some new clues about how dinosaurs lost their teeth on the way to becoming birds.

Cotton is everywhere in our modern world, and it became a hugely important crop in the 19th century United States. Cotton was a huge economic boon to the US, and much of that wealth was built on the backs of enslaved laborers. And...

Is Immigration good or bad? Immigration is a touchy subject in the United States. The 2016 election has been filled with debate about the subject, and both proponents and opponents have lots of reasons for their stance. But, this is a...

In 1967, researchers gathered to answer a long-running scientific question: just how long is a second? It might seem obvious at first. A second is the tick of a clock, the swing of a pendulum, the time it takes to count to one. But how...

What is El Nino? Why can't we predict the weather? Just a few slight changes in global climate patterns can drastically shift the weather. Thanks to chaos theory, even our smartest meteorologists can't predict weather correctly.

Copyright and other media regulations have always been a bit tricky, but the internet made all of that infinitely more complicated. But what does all of that mean for you, the consumer?

In the United States today, if you are over eighteen, a citizen, and the resident of a state, you can vote (with some exceptions). So, how have voting rights changed since the first election in 1789? Nicki Beaman Griffin outlines the...

Formally or informally, human societies across place and time have made rules to bind and dissolve couples. The stakes of who can obtain a divorce, and why, have always been high. Divorce is a battlefield for some of society's most...

How can smog affect the life expectancy of people? Scientists have investigated the causes and repercussions of The Great Smog of London in 1952, and continue to study the effects of air pollution around the world today.

The hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe are rarely witnessed, but in these rare spots, our understanding of physics is challenged. Weird things happen at extreme hot and absolute cold.

In today’s episode we’ll explore thermodynamics and some of the ways it shows up in our daily lives. We’ll learn the zeroth law of thermodynamics, what it means to reach a thermal equilibrium, and define the first law of thermodynamics....

The weekend. Social Security. Health insurance. What do these things have in common? They all exist thanks to the advocacy of labor unions. Political economist Margaret Levi explains how these organizations forge equality and protect...

Two linemen colliding can light a 60W bulb for over a minute!

In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.

Today, Craig Benzine is going to tell you about the Supreme Court's most important case, Marbury v. Madison, and how the court granted itself the power of judicial review. Judicial review is the power to examine and invalidate actions...

This week Craig Benzine clears up the role of committees in Congress. We’ll talk about standing committees, joint committees, conference committees, and caucuses (and not the candidate-choosing kinds) as well as the staff agencies that...

All life on Earth— living and inanimate, microscopic and cosmic— is governed by mathematical laws with apparently arbitrary constants. And this opens up a question: If the universe is completely governed by these laws, couldn't a...

In mythological ancient Greece, Icarus flew above Crete on wings made from wax and feathers, defying the laws of man and nature. To witnesses on the ground, he looked like a god, and he felt like one too. But, in his society, the line...

The classical physics that we encounter in our everyday, macroscopic world is very different from the quantum physics that governs systems on a much smaller scale (like atoms). One great example of quantum physics' weirdness can be shown...

From puffy trousers to pantsuits and everything in between, law professor and author Richard Thompson Ford takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of fashion and the evolution of dress codes that still influence style today,...

How can bottles and balloons help explain the different laws that govern gas? See how Boyle's Law, Charles' Law, and Avogadro's Law help us understand the laws that govern gas properties.

Chat with a friend about an established scientific theory, and she might reply, "Well, that's just a theory." But a conversation about an established scientific law rarely ends with "Well, that's just a law." Why is that? What is the...

In this video Paul Andersen explains the parts of the Solar System; including the planets, dwarf planets, moons and asteroids. He explains how everything orbits around the Sun and how a proper understanding of this heliocentric model...