Save the Vaquita Day is the first Saturday after the 4th of July, and it serves as a reminder that preventing extinctions means acting early.

Antler cells divide really fast, and with their super-fast growth, antlers resemble tumors in some ways. But animals in the deer family are less likely to get cancer than many other organisms, and a recent genetics study may have...

For the microscopic lab worm C. elegans, life equates to just a few short weeks on Earth. The bowhead whale, on the other hand, can live over two hundred years. Why are these lifespans so different? And what does it really mean to 'age'...

Living things change and evolve to survive in the places they live. There are some animals, though, that end up in habitats where they don't belong, and that can cause big trouble for the native species!

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Here's a TED first: an animated Socratic dialog! In a time when irrationality seems to rule both politics and...

From the ability to see “invisible” types of light to the power to taste all over their body, meet five incredible animals whose super senses far surpass our own! Chapters STAR-NOSED MOLES 3:04 HARBOR SEALS 4:56 CATFISH 6:49 BEARS 8:26

In part 3 of our special series on human ancestry, we investigate how closely related we all really are. Basic math tells us that all humans share ancestors. But you'll be amazed at how recently those shared ancestors lived. Thanks to...

Hank lets us in on the meaning of life, at least from a biological perspective - it's reproduction, which answers the essential question of all organisms: how do I make more of myself? So, sex, how does it work?

Hank gets into why sex is the preferred method of reproduction for most species - and it's not for the reasons you're thinking.

Biodiversity is the key to life on Earth and reviving our damaged planet, says ecologist Thomas Crowther. Sharing the inside story of his headline-making research on reforestation, which led to the UN's viral Trillion Trees Campaign,...

3 billion base pairs is a pretty typical genome size for organisms like us, but there are a few plants and animals with genomes so huge they completely blow this number out of the water.

It can be hard to distinguish bees from all the other insects out there that look like bees.

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Even if you’re tiny, you can still be fierce. Here are 8 little invertebrates who punch above their weight class at dinner time. CHAPTERS View all DRAGONFLIES 0:46 REGAL JUMPING SPIDER 1:43 EPOMIS BEETLES 2:49 PRAYING MANTIS 4:34 BOBBIT...

Unlike their friendly, flower-pollinating cousin, the bee, wasps are best known for stinging people, ruining picnics, and generally being jerks... so should we just totally get rid of them?

Ever since humans found out about germs, we’ve gone a bit overboard inventing antibacterial soap and antibiotics and antifungals. But despite our aversion to them, microbes aren’t all bad, and some of them could even help us...

Last week, the World Health Organization announced that a malaria vaccine has finally made it through all the regulatory hurdles and is being distributed in the country of Malawi. Learn how it works and why it’s taken so long to develop...

Claws and teeth are one way to catch a meal, but here are six animals that have evolved some pretty unique hunting techniques. Chapters FROGFISH 0:51 BOLAS SPIDERS 2:16 3 HUMPBACK WHALES 4:22 PISTOL SHRIMP 5:19 8:14 HUMANS 8:39

When you picture a single cell, you probably imagine something super tiny that you had to look at through a microscope. But, there are some huge exceptions to this rule. And we really do mean huge.

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Today we're talking about birds — from how they are evolving in response to climate change and how one species is surprisingly healthy, genetically, despite being critically endangered.

In this video Paul Andersen explains how ecosystems respond to disruptions. Disruptions can cause changes in the number and variety of organisms. It can also lead to migration, extinction or even speciation. Ecosystems that have a...

Forests don't usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks. But marine forests provide a home for 35% of the world's sharks. Mangrove forests in particular function as an essential bridge between land and sea and have evolved various...

Many of us rely on a morning cup of coffee, or several morning cups of coffee, to get us going. But climate change has the potential to shift not only where and how we grow coffee, but whether it can be grown at all.

Many seahorse species have males with full-blown pregnancies. But in order to do this, their immune system is missing something kind of important.

For the first time, researchers have observed two cases of asexual reproduction in condors. And it also turns out that whales are much hungrier than we thought.