TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Seeing things that aren't there? It's pareidolia | Susan G. Wardle
Imagine opening a bag of chips, only to find Santa Claus looking back at you. Or turning a corner to see a building smiling at you. Humans see faces in all kinds of mundane objects, but these faces aren't real— they're illusions due to a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is Marie Antoinette so controversial? | Carolyn Harris
She was the Queen of France, notorious for living in opulence while peasants starved and became a symbol of everything wrong with monarchy. But was Marie Antionette a heartless, wasteful queen, or a convenient scapegoat in turbulent...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are solar panels worth it? | Shannon Odell
Today in many countries solar is the cheapest form of energy to produce. Millions of homes are equipped with rooftop solar, with most units paying for themselves in their first seven to 12 years and then generating further savings. So,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The epidemics that almost happened | George Zaidan
In 2013, an Ebola outbreak began in Guinea. The country had no formal response system and the outbreak became the largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history. Guinea then completely overhauled their response system, and were able to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 1816: The year with no summer | David Biello
In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted and its emissions spread across the globe, blotting out the sun for almost an entire year. This wreaked havoc on agriculture, leading to famines all across the Northern hemisphere. It was the year without...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Test yourself: Can you tell the difference between music and noise? | Hanako Sawada
In 1960, composer John Cage went on television to share his latest work. But rather than using traditional instruments, Cage appeared surrounded by household clutter, including a bathtub, ice cubes, a toy fish, a rubber duck, several...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The rise and fall of the Mughal Empire | Stephanie Honchell Smith
Though he was descended from some of the world's most successful conquerors, Babur struggled to gain a foothold among the many other ambitious princes in Central Asia. So he turned his attention to India, where his descendants stayed and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why did the British Empire burn, sink, and hide these documents? | Audra A. Diptée
In 2009, five Kenyan people took a petition to the British Prime Minister. They claimed they endured human rights abuses in the 1950s, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, and demanded reparations. They had no documentary...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can zoos actually save species from extinction? | Nigel Rothfels
For thousands of years, native Takhi horses roamed the steppes of Central Asia. But by the late 1960s, their extinction seemed inevitable. To prevent this, scientists and zoos started a breeding program and soon began releasing new...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is a poop transplant, and how does it work? | Kathryn M. Stephenson and David L. Suskind
1,700 years ago, Chinese alchemist Ge Hong was renowned for his soup that could cure diarrhea-stricken patients. It had a surprising secret ingredient: feces. While it might seem unwise to consume feces, exciting new research suggests...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How does this all-female species reproduce? | Susan Freitas and Darren Parker
In 2021, workers at a Sardinian aquarium were stunned by the birth of a smooth-hound shark. What was shocking was that, for the last decade, the shark's mother had been living only with other females. So, how was this birth possible? And...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do we eat popcorn at the movies? | Andrew Smith
Soft percussion and a toasty scent mark the violent transformation of tough seeds into cloud-like puffs. This is the almost magical process of popcorn-making. Dozens of kinds of popcorn are now grown in the US, with different strains...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to deal with rejection | TED-Ed
Rejection hurts. It's incredibly painful to feel like you're not wanted — and we do mean painful. Researchers found that we relate rejection to being "hurt," using terms like "crushed" or "broken-hearted." So, why does rejection trigger...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happens if an engineered virus escapes the lab? | TED-Ed
Since the 1970s, researchers have engineered superbugs. While this research could help us prepare for future outbreaks, the stakes of this work are extremely high: if even one dangerous virus escaped a lab, it could cause a global...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: When did slavery actually end in the United States? | Karlos Hill and Soraya Field Fiorio
At the end of the Civil War, though slavery was technically illegal in all states, it still persisted in the last bastions of the Confederacy. This was the case when Union General Gordon Granger marched his troops into Galveston, Texas...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History vs. Thomas Jefferson | Frank Cogliano
Thomas Jefferson, founding father of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was part of America's fight for freedom and equality. But in his personal life, he held over 600 people in slavery. Are his...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What if you experienced every human life in history? | TED-Ed
Imagine that your life began as one of the planet's first humans. After dying, you're reincarnated as the second human ever to live. You then return as the third person, the fourth, the fifth, and so on – living the lives of every human...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do airplanes stay in the air? | Raymond Adkins
By 1917, Albert Einstein had explained the relationship between space and time. But, that year, he designed a flawed airplane wing. His attempt was based on an incomplete theory of how flight works. Indeed, insufficient and inaccurate...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 6 myths about the Middle Ages that everyone believes | Stephanie Honchell Smith
Medieval Europe. Where unbathed, sword-wielding knights ate rotten meat, thought the Earth was flat, defended chastity-belt wearing maidens, and tortured their foes with grisly gadgets. Except... this is more fiction than fact. So, where...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The continents are moving. When will they collide? | Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl
In the early 20th century, Alfred Wegener's theory of Continental Drift laid the foundation for our modern theory of plate tectonics. And today we know something even more exciting: Pangea was only the latest in a long lineage of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A day in the Islamic Golden Age | Birte Kristiansen and Petra Sijpesteijn
It's 791 CE. As the morning sun shines on the Golden Gate Palace, brother and sister Hisham and Asma prepare for the journey of a lifetime: the hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. They intend to travel with the big hajj caravan— but a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you steal the most powerful wand in the wizarding world? | Dan Finkel
The fabled Mirzakhani wand is the most powerful magical item ever created. And that's why the evil wizard Moldevort is planning to use it to conquer the world. You and Drumbledrore have finally discovered its hiding place in a cave, but...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: When you're an ant but also a fungus tycoon | Charles Wallace
In a Texas clearing, an ancient tale that ties four species together is unfurling. The first involved is a soon-to-be queen leafcutter ant. The second is fungus, a piece of which she scoops into her mouth pocket. The third are...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's hidden in Arctic ice? | Brendan Rogers and Jessica Howard
In June 2022, a gold miner in the Canadian Yukon made a remarkable discovery. While working on the traditional lands of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation, he uncovered the exceptionally well-preserved, frozen remains of a wooly mammoth...