In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first federal law that restricted immigration based explicitly on nationality. In practice, the Act banned entry to all ethnically Chinese immigrants besides...

When you think about the deep blue sea, you might instantly think of whales or coral reefs. But spare a thought for giant clams, the world's largest living shellfish. These incredible creatures can live to 100, grow up to four and a half...

A blank spot on a digital map can signal much more than a gap in data -- it can mean something is being intentionally hidden. Sharing the remarkable discovery of massive alleged detention camps in Xinjiang, China, Pulitzer Prize-winning...

Most people recognize his name and know that he is famous for having said something, but considering the long-lasting impact his teachings have had on the world, very few people know who Confucius really was, what he really said and why....

Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today...

Do you remember longing for a snow day so you could get out of school? Scientists have found evidence that a decades old technique might increase the chances of a snow day.

Sheryl WuDunn's book "Half the Sky" investigates the oppression of women globally. Her stories shock. Only when women in developing countries have equal access to education and economic opportunity will we be using all our human resources.

A new study calls the claims of fossilized brains into question, and another finds ichthyosaurs might have been bigger than our current champions, the blue whales.

Several companies are already working on plans to mine space objects, but who owns what in space?

Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.

Speaking at a TED Salon in London, Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of "When China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the...

Tyrannosaurus rex was big, Tyrannosaurus rex was vicious, and Tyrannosaurus rex had tiny arms. The story of how T-Rex lost its arms is, itself, pretty simple. But the story of why it kept those little limbs, and how it used them? Well,...

Volcanoes, climate change, and Chinese history may seem like three phrases spit out of a random word generator, but the three things are more inherently linked than one may assume.

Today's extraordinarily depressing dose comes to you in honor of Lonesome George, the world's last Pinta Island tortoise, who passed away earlier this summer - Hank brings us the stories of five more extremely rare animals who may be...

Income and wealth inequality are not new. In fact, economists and historians who have charted economic inequality throughout history haven't found a single society without it. Which raises a bleak question: is inequality ... inevitable?...

What if your car could drop you off and then find parking by itself? According to electric vehicle entrepreneur Freeman H. Shen, this technology already exists. He shares his vision for a future where AI-powered electric vehicles will...

"North Korea is unimaginable," says human rights activist Yeonmi Park, who escaped the country at the age of 13. Sharing the harrowing story of her childhood, she reflects on the fragility of freedom -- and shows how change can be...

The Internet connects billions of people and machines; it's the backbone of modern life. But tech pioneer Danny Hillis thinks the Internet just wasn't designed to grow this big -- and he fears that one big cyber-attack or glitch could...

Architecture student Magnus Larsson details his bold plan to transform the harsh Sahara desert using bacteria and a surprising construction material: the sand itself.

Environmental scientist David Keith proposes a cheap, effective, shocking means to address climate change: What if we injected a huge cloud of ash into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight and heat?

Michael Anti (aka Jing Zhao) has been blogging from China for 12 years. Despite the control the central government has over the Internet -- "All the servers are in Beijing" -- he says that hundreds of millions of microbloggers are in...

The talented herbalist Xu Xian had just started his own medicine shop where he created remedies with the help of his wife, Bai Su Zhen. One day a monk named Fa Hai approached him, warning him that there was a demon in his house. The...

In the ongoing debate about globalization, what's been missing is the voices of workers -- the millions of people who migrate to factories in China and other emerging countries to make goods sold all over the world. Reporter Leslie T....

Our knowledge of specific technologies or techniques can sometimes be lost to time. And that can be because of changing economic conditions, or, sometimes, it's because the technology was so deadly that only a few were allowed to know it.