TED Talks
TED: Help discover ancient ruins -- before it's too late | Sarah Parcak
Sarah Parcak uses satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above earth to uncover hidden ancient treasures buried beneath our feet. There's a lot to discover; in the egyptian Delta alone, Parcak estimates we've excavated less than a...
SciShow Kids
Amazing Scientist Story Time! | SciShow Kids Compilation
Squeaks is feeling a little wired and needs some story time to get sleepy this evening, so Jessi is showing him some videos about amazing scientists from history!
Crash Course
Expansion and Consequences: Crash Course European History
European exploration had a lot of side effects. When the Old World and the New World began to interact, people, wealth, food, animals, and disease began to flow in both directions. In the New World, countless millions were killed by...
Be Smart
The Largest River On Earth Is In The Sky
What's the largest river on Earth? If you said "the Amazon".... you're only half right. Scientists have discovered an even bigger river in South America, and it's in the sky above the Amazon rainforest. Turns out, this sky river is the...
PBS
The Time Terror Birds Invaded
About 5 million years ago, a new predator made its way from the south and onto the coastal plains of North America. It was a giant, flightless, carnivorous bird and came to be known by one of the coolest and most richly earned nicknames...
TED-Ed
The life cycle of a cup of coffee | A.J. Jacobs
How many people does it take to make a cup of coffee? For many of us, all it takes is a short walk and a quick pour. But this simple staple is the result of a globe-spanning process whose cost and complexity are far greater than you...
PBS
When Birds Stopped Flying
Ratites have spread to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. And there are fossils of Ratites in Europe, Asia, and North America too. That's a lot of ground to cover for birds that can't fly. So how did Ratites end up all...
PBS
How Horses Took Over North America (Twice)
The ancestors of modern horses became so successful that they spread all over the world, to Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. But in their native range of North America, they'll vanish for 10,000 years. Until another strange...
SciShow
What We Can Learn from 5 Times Rivers Ran Backward
Usually, you can count on a river to flow in one direction, but some things can make it reverse course. Aside from being weird and surprising, these river reversals can often reflect geological changes and have long-lasting impacts on...
TED Talks
TED: A global food crisis may be less than a decade away | Sara Menker
Sara Menker quit a career in commodities trading to figure out how the global value chain of agriculture works. Her discoveries have led to some startling predictions: "We could have a tipping point in global food and agriculture if...
SciShow
4 Mysterious Extinctions from Earth’s History
Nowadays, we're pretty confident about how the dinosaurs died out, but there are still other extinctions throughout Earth's history, some big, some small, that remain unsolved.
TED Talks
TED: Mental health care that disrupts cycles of violence | Celina de Sola
In Latin American countries like El Salvador, homicide rates are alarmingly high thanks in large part to a vicious cycle of violence -- people don't have a chance to heal from recurrent individual and collective trauma. With her team at...
SciShow
8 of the Worst Stinging Insects
Generally, humans try to avoid getting stung by insects. However, in the name of science, the betterment of humanity, and pure curiosity, there are brave people out there who willingly subject themselves to the business end of the most...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Who is Alexander von Humboldt? - George Mehler
Have you heard of Alexander von Humboldt? Not likely. The geologist turned South American explorer was a bit of an 18th century super scientist, traveling over 24,000 miles to understand the relationship between nature and habitat....
SciShow
The Many Functions of Fungi | Compilation
There’s no denying that fungus is all around us all the time. And not all of it is helpful, but neither is all of it harmful. Here are some of the many functions of fungi.
PBS
When Camels Roamed North America
Camels are famous for adaptations that have allowed them to flourish where most other large mammals would perish. But their story begins over 40 million years ago in North America, and in an environment you'd never expect: a rainforest.
SciShow
Why Are There No Sea Snakes in the Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest on Earth, and yet there are no sea snake populations to be found there. What’s keeping aquatic serpents from making a home in these waters?
TED Talks
Jonathan Foley: The other inconvenient truth
A skyrocketing demand for food means that agriculture has become the largest driver of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental destruction. Jonathan Foley shows why we desperately need to begin "terraculture" -- farming for...
SciShow
How Did You Get Here?! (Unexpected Ways Species Travel the World)
Sometimes, species end up in places we wouldn't expect, like when the same or very similar species end up on opposite parts of the globe. It's called disjunct distribution, and here are 6 ways that it can happen.
PBS
How Sloths Went From the Seas to the Trees
The story of sloths is one of astounding ecological variability, with some foraging in the seas, others living underground, and others still hiding from predators in towering cliffs. So why are their only living relatives in the trees?
TED Talks
TED: The awful logic of land mines -- and an app that helps people avoid them | Carlos Bautista
Fifty years of armed conflict in Colombia has left the countryside riddled with land mines that maim and kill innocent people who happen across them. To help keep communities safe from harm, TED Resident Carlos Bautista is developing an...
TED Talks
Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity
Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture...
SciShow
7 Species That Really Are What They Eat
There are creatures who get some super important and recognizable part of their biology from their diets.