Imagine you're fast asleep and then suddenly awake. You want to move but can't, as if someone is sitting on your chest. And you can't even scream! This is sleep paralysis, a creepy but common phenomenon caused by an overlap in REM sleep...

What if super strength wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to be super strong? In this series, Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us...

Denizens of the Deep

There are claims floating around that chocolate might actually be good for you, and SciShow is here to help separate fact from fiction.

It can be a wonderful feeling to give your tired eyes a good rub. And rubbing your eyes can help keep them moist, but it turns out it also can affect your heart rate.

Just how long could you survive on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit? Find out what it'd be like to stand on the surface of Mars, if you forgot to pack properly.

So, a mantis shrimp's claws are pretty strong... so strong that they can produce a bubble that's about as hot as the sun and collapses with a flash of light when they snap... and scientists aren't quite sure how they do it!

Humans should urinate at least four to six times a day, but occasionally, the pressures of modern life force us to clench and hold it in. How bad is this habit, and how long can our bodies withstand it? Heba Shaheed takes us inside the...

Even the most skilled athletes, musicians, and performers can make mistakes on relatively simple tasks, so what’s happening in our brains when we choke, and is there something we can do to overcome these moments?

Victor Vescovo is leading the first-ever manned expedition to the deepest point of each of the world's five oceans. In conversation with TED science curator David Biello, Vescovo discusses the technology that's powering the explorations...

Some fish will never win any beauty pageants, but they still deserve our admiration, respect, and love, especially since their “ugly” traits are actually incredible examples of evolutionary innovation.

DNA isn’t the simple, loose double-helix you might see in a biology textbook, so isolating single strands of it can be next to impossible. But with some simple tricks of physics, scientists came up with a special type of tweezers that...

Hot off the presses, this week has been cool! Researchers have discovered the first room-temperature superconductor, and another group has created a type of paint that actually stays cooler than the environment around it!

You might be familiar with the phrase "like water off a ducks back". But it's not that ducks don't get wet, it's that they get wet, with style.

Hank is joined by Peter Winkler with some news about sinkholes and DARPA's new robotic mule, and then the boys are joined by Jessi from Animal Wonders and her special friend "Fluffy" the Chilean rose hair tarantula.

Meteorites are extraterrestrial rocks that have ended up on earth. All of them are literally 'out of this world,' but here are three of the strangest of these aliens.

Humans can’t go too far above or below sea level unaided, but there are some complex forms of life that CAN survive at super high elevations or in the deepest parts of the ocean.

Scientists working at a nuclear fusion facility in Oxford announced a record-breaking result. And while there's still a lot to figure out to make fusion viable, this brings us one step closer to realizing a technology with huge potential...

Fusion power is supposed to save us from fossil fuels, so when is nuclear fusion going to be a viable option and why has it been so elusive?

Objects that fly faster than the speed of sound (like really fast planes) create a shock wave accompanied by a thunder-like noise: the sonic boom. These epic sounds can cause distress to people and animals and even damage nearby...

What's haunting Carrie Poppy? Is it ghosts or something worse? In this talk, the investigative journalist narrates her encounter with a spooky feeling you'll want to warn your friends about and explains why we need science to deal with...

The world needs clean water, and more and more, we're pulling it from the oceans, desalinating it, and drinking it. But what to do with the salty brine left behind? In this intriguing short talk, TED Fellow Damian Palin proposes an idea:...

This video is about gravitational waves in the weak field limit as discovered by the LIGO collaboration, explained by parallels to electromagnetic radiation, sound waves, water waves, etc. I want to see Cat LIGO ASAP!

We can purge our stomachs by vomiting when we consume something that our body thinks might be harmful, but what about animals that can't?