PBS
The Truth About Beauty in Physics
The great physicist Hermann Weyl once said: "My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful, but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful." But is this actually good advice for doing physics?
SciShow
What Are These Weird Rings In Space?
Over the past few years, astronomers have discovered their own kind of UFO called Odd Radio Circles, aka ORCs. They're a little too round, and a little too invisible at non-radio wavelengths, to immediately know what they are and what's...
TED Talks
TED: Why people love watching sports | Kate Fagan
Sure, sports are about athleticism -- but what actually keeps fans invested? Journalist Kate Fagan takes a fascinating deep-dive into lesser-known moments in women's sports history and its media coverage, revealing why stakes and...
TED Talks
TED: Your invitation to disrupt philanthropy | Sara Lomelin
Philanthropy disruptor Sara Lomelin thinks communities can build power through collective giving and the model of "giving circles": groups of people with shared values who come together to make change, strengthen their social fabric and...
TED Talks
TED: The politics of fiction | Elif Shafak
Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Can you solve the control room riddle? - Dennis Shasha
As your country's top spy, you must infiltrate the headquarters of the evil syndicate, find the secret control panel, and deactivate their death ray. But your reconnaissance team is spotty, and you have only limited information about the...
TED Talks
Robert Lang: The math and magic of origami
Robert Lang is a pioneer of the newest kind of origami -- using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
SciShow
How Restaurants Use Psychology to Make You Spend More Money
Restaurants have a whole bucket-load of tricks up their sleeves to get you to spend more money.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Dante's "Divine Comedy"? | Sheila Marie Orfano
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here... Inscribed above the Gate of Hell, this prophecy sets into motion an epic journey for salvation. Written over 10 years, Dante Alighieri's three-part narrative poem "Divine Comedy" is both an...
SciShow
Optogenetics: Using Light to Control Your Brain
Optogenetics may allow us to use light like a remote control for our brains, and treat diseases like retinitis pigmentosa.
TED Talks
TED: If trees could speak | Elif Shafak
How do we tell stories of humanity and nature at a time when our planet is burning? Novelist Elif Shafak invites us to listen to the trees, whose experience of time, stillness and impermanence is utterly different from our own. "Hidden...
SciShow
5 Amazing Feats of Animal Engineering
You might consider humans or beavers to be the best engineers on the planet, but these 5 other animals go to great lengths to put our houses and dams to shame. Chapters SOCIABLE WEAVER 0:38 GREAT BOWERBIRD 2:13 PUFFERFISH 3:39 4 ORIENTAL...
SciShow
Cruithne, the Asteroid With a Horseshoe Orbit
There’s a small asteroid that appears to orbit Earth in a horseshoe shape. Sometimes referred to as Earth’s second moon, but it's orbit is much weirder than that.
TED Talks
TED: The illusion of consciousness | Dan Dennett
Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us.
SciShow
3 Ways Pi Can Explain Practically Everything
What’s irrational and never ends? Pi! Hank explains how we need pi to explain some of the most basic but most important principles of the universe, in honor of Pi Day.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The sonic boom problem - Katerina Kaouri
Objects that fly faster than the speed of sound (like really fast planes) create a shock wave accompanied by a thunder-like noise: the sonic boom. These epic sounds can cause distress to people and animals and even damage nearby...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The infinite life of pi - Reynaldo Lopes
The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is always the same: 3.14159 and on and on (literally!) forever. This irrational number, pi, has an infinite number of digits, so we'll never figure out its exact value no matter how...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why are manhole covers round? - Marc Chamberland
Why are most manhole covers round? Sure it makes them easy to roll, and slide into place in any alignment. But there's another, more compelling reason, involving a peculiar geometric property of circles and other shapes. Marc Chamberland...
SciShow
Why Do I Get Dark Circles Under My Eyes?
Look alive, you! Today we’re diving into the science behind dark circles under your eyes, and all the things that might cause them – tiredness included.
TED Talks
TED: What we're missing in the debate about immigration | Duarte Geraldino
Between 2008 and 2016, the United States deported more than three million people. What happens to those left behind? Journalist Duarte Geraldino picks up the story of deportation where the state leaves off. Learn more about the wider...
Amoeba Sisters
Pedigrees
Explore autosomal recessive trait and X-linked recessive trait tracking in pedigrees with the Amoeba Sisters! Table of Contents: Intro 00:00 Introducing Symbols/Numbering in Pedigree 0:40 Meaning of Shading in Shapes 1:19 Introducing...
Be Smart
Why It Is What Time It Is (The History of Time)
How did we come up with our system of telling time? Why do we divide the day into 24 hours of 60 minutes each, and put 60 seconds in each minute? Where does the definition of a second come from? And who decides what clock shows the...
SciShow
How We Figured Out That Earth Goes Around the Sun
Most of the world believed that Earth was the center of the universe for a really long time. Then a few scientists decided to take a closer look.