Like Egypt, Sumer, and Mesoamerica, ancient China represents a hydraulic civilization—one that maintained its population by diverting rivers to aid in irrigation—and one that developed writing thousands of years ago. Today, we’re going...

How many of today's headlines will matter in 100 years? 1000? Kirk Citron's "Long News" project collects stories that not only matter today, but will resonate for decades -- even centuries -- to come. At TED2010, he highlights recent...

The new year is off to a great start for space exploration! New Horizons has passed the farthest object ever visited by a spacecraft, and China put a lander on the dark side of the Moon!

Leadership doesn't have a user's manual, but Fields Wicker-Miurin says stories of remarkable, local leaders are the next best thing. At a TED salon in London, she shares three.

For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas...

The past decade has seen slow and steady economic growth across the continent of Africa. But economist Charles Robertson has a bold thesis: Africa's about to boom. He talks through a few of the indicators -- from rising education levels...

We bring you a few upcoming missions that will be testing technology for future asteroid prospecting, trying to find more exoplanets, and continuing China's quest for a crewed moon mission.

A launch window that only happens every 26 months means it’s the perfect time to head to Mars! The United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States all took advantage of this excellent timing.

Abigail Washburn wanted to be a lawyer improving US-China relations -- until she picked up a banjo. The TED Fellow tells a moving story of the connections she's formed touring across the US and China while playing that banjo and singing...

Why do we often neglect big problems, like the financial crisis and climate change, until it's too late? Policy strategist Michele Wucker urges us to replace the myth of the "black swan" -- that rare, unforeseeable, unavoidable...

The ubiquitous yin-yang symbol holds its roots in Taoism/Daoism, a Chinese religion and philosophy. The yin, the dark swirl, is associated with shadows, femininity, and the trough of a wave; the yang, the light swirl, represents...

The International Space Station might be getting a new neighbor because China has big plans for their future in space!!

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country was "the best on the planet." It wasn't until the famine of the 90s that she began to wonder. She escaped the country at 14, to begin a life in hiding, as a refugee...

As Asian economies and governments continue to gain power, the West needs to find ways to adapt to the new global order, says author and diplomat Kishore Mahbubani. In an insightful look at international politics, Mahbubani shares a...

Usually when it's snowing outside, it's really calm, pretty, and fun to play in! But there are certain types of big snowstorms, called blizzards, that can get really windy, wild, and even dangerous!

In March 2009, North Korean soldiers captured journalist Euna Lee and her colleague Laura Ling while they were shooting a documentary on the border with China. The courts sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor, but American diplomats...

Today we're going to take a look at mineral extraction -- or the removal of rocks and minerals from the Earths' crust -- and examine how this human activity impacts all aspects of Geography. We'll focus on the Democratic Republic of the...

Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of eternal life discovered the world's first chemical explosive. Hank has the full story on gunpowder in this SciShow about a big idea of science.

Several rovers on Mars's surface are currently in operation, including one you might not have heard of: China’s Zhurong rover. It's already spent over a year on the Martian surface and is bringing us ever closer to understanding the...

In the court of the Jade Emperor, a young princess had a special skill: she could pluck clouds from the sky and spin them into the softest robes. But her craft was the same day after day, and she longed for new inspiration. So the Queen...

Globalization is on its deathbed, says economist Mike O'Sullivan. The question now is: What's next? Tracing the historical successes and failures of globalization, O'Sullivan forecasts a new world order where countries come together over...

Adorable, sure, but how are you alive?? Giant pandas present a conservation challenge like no other. Find out how the bears eke out an existence in the wild, and why they're proving so hard to save.

Historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us the 30,000-foot view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and "soft" power shifts and moves around the globe.

Sometimes science news is less about stuff that actually happened, as much as it is about people going "PAY ATTENTION TO ME" and space news is no exception. In fact this week there was probably as much hype as real news, all in the name...