TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The tech that seems to break the laws of physics | Anna Rothschild
Typically, with any piece of technology, you pump one unit of energy in and you get about one out. That’s just the first law of thermodynamics: energy has to be conserved. But there’s a piece of technology called a heat pump, where for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the basketball robot riddle? | Dan Katz
You’ve spent months creating a basketball-playing robot, the Dunk-O-Matic, and you’re excited to demonstrate its capabilities. Until you read an advertisement: “See the Dunk-O-Matic face human players and automatically adjust its skill...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could AI predict the future? | Thomas Hofweber
A couple has been considering getting engaged, but they’re worried about divorce statistics. An AI-based model was just released that can predict your likelihood of divorce with 95% accuracy. The only catch is the model doesn’t offer any...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we build a miniature sun on Earth? | George Zaidan
Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: These animals can hear everything | Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard
The world is always abuzz with sounds, many of which human ears simply can’t hear. However, other species have extraordinary adaptations that grant them access to realms of sonic extremes. And some of them don’t even have ears— at least,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 3 tips on how to study effectively | TED-Ed
A 2006 study took a class of surgical residents and split them into two groups. Each received the same study materials, but one group was told to use specific study methods. When tested a month later, this group performed significantly...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: This is what happens when you hit the gas | Shannon Odell
In 2015, two men drove a Volkswagen across the US on just over 100 gallons of fuel. Their 81-mile-per-gallon performance doubled the car's estimated fuel rating, and set the record for the lowest fuel consumption ride of a diesel car....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why your phone battery gets worse over time | George Zaidan
Almost all batteries, even single-use batteries, are theoretically rechargeable. That's because the metals and other chemicals are still there in the battery. So chemically speaking, a dead battery is actually not that different from a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's happening to Earth's core? | Shannon Odell
A hydrogen atom is traveling high within the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere. This particular atom first entered the exosphere millions of years ago, but today it overcomes Earth's gravitational pull and escapes, joining the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How the water you flush becomes the water you drink | Francis de los Reyes
In 2003, Singapore's national water agency launched an unprecedented program to provide more than 50% of their nation's water supply by recycling wastewater. The program had been planned for decades to ensure the island nation never ran...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What happens if you don't put your phone in airplane mode? | Lindsay DeMarchi
Right now, invisible signals are flying through the air all around you. Massive radio waves carry information between computers, GPS systems, cell phones, and more. And the sky is flooded with interference from routers, satellites, and,...
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: 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: 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: Ethical dilemma: Should we get rid of mosquitoes? | Talya Hackett
Mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths every year than any other animal, but very few of the 3,500 mosquito species actually transmit deadly diseases to humans. Scientists have been conducting experiments using engineered...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do beavers build dams? | Glynnis Hood
Nestled in the forests of Canada sits the world's longest beaver dam. This 850-meter-long structure is large enough to be seen in satellite imagery and has dramatically transformed the region, creating a pond containing 70 million liters...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Electric vocabulary - James Sheils
We all know the words around electricity -- _charge," _positive," _battery" and more. But where do they come from and what do they really mean? Let the history of these words illuminate the physics of electric phenomena.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The science of milk - Jonathan J. O'Sullivan
The milk industry produces in excess of 840 million tons of products each year. Why do humans drink so much milk? And given that all mammals lactate, why do we favor certain types of milk over others? Jonathan J. O'Sullivan describes how...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why do people fear the wrong things? - Gerd Gigerenzer
A new drug reduces the risk of heart attacks by 40%. Shark attacks are up by a factor of two. Drinking a liter of soda per day doubles your chance of developing cancer. These are all examples of a common way risk is presented in news...
TED-Ed
How the world's tallest skyscraper was built | Alex Gendler
In 2004, construction began on a new building in Dubai, promising a revolutionary design that would dwarf the rest of the world's skyscrapers. Five years later, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa was complete, surpassing the previous...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How one woman put man on the moon - Matt Porter and Margaret Hamilton
The Apollo 11 moon landing was about the astronauts, mission control, software and hardware all working together as a seamless integrated system. None of which would have been possible without the contributions of one engineer: Margaret...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How art can help you analyze - Amy E. Herman
Can art save lives? Not exactly, but our most prized professionals (doctors, nurses, police officers) can learn real world skills through art analysis. Studying art like Rene Magritte's Time Transfixed can enhance communication and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Can machines read your emotions? - Kostas Karpouzis
Computers can beat us in board games, transcribe speech, and instantly identify almost any object. But will future robots go further by learning to figure out what we're feeling? Kostas Karpouzis imagines a future where machines and the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't we cover the desert with solar panels? | Dan Kwartler
Stretching over roughly nine million square kilometers and with sands reaching temperatures of up to 80° Celsius, the Sahara Desert receives about 22 million terawatt hours of energy from the Sun every year. That's well over 100 times...