About 66 million years ago, a terrible extinction event wiped out the dinosaurs. But it wasn't the only event of this kind -- extinctions of various severity have occurred throughout the Earth's history -- and are still happening all...

By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on earth. How are we going to provide everybody with basic needs while also avoiding the worst impacts of climate change? In a talk packed with wit and wisdom, science journalist Charles...

Can plants talk to each other? It certainly doesn't seem that way: They don't have complex sensory or nervous systems, like animals do, and they look pretty passive. But odd as it sounds, plants can communicate with each other "...

In a few special places around the world, the ocean lights up at night with countless tiny blue flashes thanks to some tiny organisms and science.

The biggest challenge in a parasite's life is to move from one host to another. Intriguingly, many parasites have evolved the ability to manipulate the behavior of their hosts to improve their own survival -- sometimes even by direct...

We're generally taught that chromosomes determine an animal's sex, but it is way more nuanced than that.

Evolution is a never ending process, but there are some cases where humanity has given it a big push.

There aren't as many rules to naming a scientific discovery as you might think-- and that has led to some pretty outrageous names.

Cha
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HALORUBRUM
CHAOVIAT
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1:10
> OSEDA
X MUCOFLORIS
...

Dolphins are one of the smartest animal species on Earth. In fact, their encephalization quotient (their brain size compared to the average for their body size) is second only to humans. But exactly how smart are they? Lori Marino...

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that our climate is changing, Earth is getting warmer, sea levels are rising, and it's primarily because of humans putting lots of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Whether you already trust in the...

We’ve long thought that electric eels hunt individually…until we discovered a lake where one species hunt, and zap, in packs!

Most new species are discovered by amateurs because nowadays non-professionals are actually better suited to the requirements of new species “discovery.”

Hank describes to us some news stories that illustrate how science is continually changing the things we think we "know" - from the status of various animals species, to the way our senses work and even where the Moon came from -...

Some species of bacteria have a wicked survival strategy: killing members of their own species or a closely-related one. There’s a lot we don’t know about it, but it's possible that someday we could potentially harness that knowledge to...

The best evidence we have suggests that, while Caviomorpha originated in South America, they came from ancestors in Africa, over 40 million years ago. So how did they get there?

Plants need light to survive. But apparently, that doesn't have to be sunlight.

The Ecology of Superheroes

After the California Gold Rush of 1848, settlers streamed west to strike it rich. In addition to precious metals, they unearthed another treasure: dinosaur bones. Two wealthy scientists in particular— Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward...

Hank brings you the facts, as they are understood by scientists today, about the evolution of humans from our humble primate ancestors. On the way to becoming Homo sapiens, game-changing evolutionary breakthroughs led to the development...

This week, Emily Graslie is teaching you about human ancestry and geneaology, how we got to be the species we are, and why that matters in our zoomed out look at Big History.

If you uncover a bunch of rolly pollies under a log, you don't expect to find a bright blue one crawling among all the usual grays and browns. But it turns out your fun surprise is some very bad luck for that terrestrial isopod.

To humans, drool can seem pretty disgusting, but other animals use saliva in surprising ways. Here are some of the weirdest ways other animals use their spit to survive!

Do you think animals can be divided into two biological sexes: female and male? Well, it's way more complicated that that!_

TeD Fellow Prosanta Chakrabarty explores hidden parts of the world in search of new species of cave-dwelling fish. These subterranean creatures have developed fascinating adaptations, and they provide biological insights into blindness...