TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The tech that seems to break the laws of physics | Anna Rothschild
New ReviewTypically, 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: How could so many people support Hitler? | Joseph Lacey
New ReviewPhilosopher Hannah Arendt was a German Jew who dedicated herself to understanding how the Nazi regime came to power, and more specifically, how it inspired so many atrocities. She believed the true conditions behind the unprecedented...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't "tough" and "dough" rhyme? | Arika Okrent
New ReviewSpelling reformers have been advocating for changes to make English spelling more intuitive and less irregular. One example of its messiness: take the “g-h” sound from “enough,” the “o” sound from “women” and the “t-i” sound from...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the basketball robot riddle? | Dan Katz
New ReviewYou’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: Scientists are obsessed with this lake | Nicola Storelli and Daniele Zanzi
New ReviewIn the millions of years since oxygen began saturating Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, most organisms have evolved to rely on this gas. However, there are some places where oxygen-averse microorganisms like those from Earth’s earliest...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: If you're an adult mayfly you'll probably die before the end of this video | Luke M. Jacobus
New ReviewFor most of the world’s 4,000 mayfly species, adulthood lasts roughly one day. And for some species, it’s only a matter of minutes. This isn’t because they’re all eaten up by predators. Rather, this abridged adulthood is a natural part...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to increase your happiness | TED-Ed
New ReviewMany people would say the connection between happiness and gratefulness is very simple: when you are happy, you are grateful. But think again. Is it really the happy people that are grateful? Quite a number of people have everything that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 3 easy steps to build a real utopia | Joseph Lacey
New ReviewA group of strangers have gathered to design a just society. To ensure none of them rig the system, they’ve been placed under a veil of ignorance. Under this veil, they’re blind to information about age, sex, profession, wealth,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could AI predict the future? | Thomas Hofweber
New ReviewA 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: The Nazis recruited to win the Cold War | Brian Crim
New ReviewIn May of 1945 the Third Reich was in chaos. Adolf Hitler was dead and German surrender was imminent. But while World War II was almost over, a new war was brewing. And the US was eager to recruit the smartest minds in Germany before the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do gas masks actually work? | George Zaidan
New ReviewYou might think of gas masks as clunky military-looking devices. But in the near future, we may need to rely on these filters as part of our everyday lives. In addition to emerging diseases, wildfire frequency has more than tripled, and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Does math have a major flaw? | Jacqueline Doan and Alex Kazachek
New ReviewA mathematician with a knife and ball begins slicing and distributing the ball into an infinite number of boxes. She then recombines the parts into five precise sections. Moving and rotating these sections around, she recombines them to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to prevent political corruption | Stephanie Honchell Smith
New ReviewCorruption is often defined as misuse of a position of power for personal gain. And while corruption in politics is nothing new, it isn't limited to the political sphere; it can happen in schools, sports, businesses, or religious...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: This person isn't actually screaming | Noah Charney
New ReviewAn undulating sky melds into the landscape, two silhouettes move along a balustraded walkway, and a ghostly figure’s features extend in agony. Since Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created "The Scream" in 1893, it’s become one of the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The true story behind the legend of the 47 Rōnin | Adam Clulow
New ReviewAsano Naganori, lord of Akō domain, fixed his gaze on Kira Yoshinaka, a senior master of ceremony. Asano extended his short sword, charged through the castle, and struck Kira. While the wound wasn’t fatal, its consequences would be. What...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The rise and fall of the Maya Empire’s most powerful city | Geoffrey E. Braswell
New ReviewDuring the 8th century CE, warfare and failing agriculture forced Maya people to move north, to hotter, drier Yucatán. Because of its freshwater access, Chichen Itza became the most powerful Maya city, with nearly 50,000 citizens at its...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What really happened to Oedipus? | Stephen Esposito
New ReviewWhen Queen Jocasta of Thebes gave birth to Oedipus, a grim air seized the occasion. Her husband, King Laius, had received a prophecy from Apollo's oracle foretelling that he would die at the hands of his own son. Determined to escape...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Rumi: One of the world's most famous writers | Stephanie Honchell Smith
New ReviewAccording to legend, the renowned scholar Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi was giving a lecture when a disheveled man approached and asked him the meaning of his academic books. Rumi didn’t know it yet, but this question and this man would...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do doctors determine what stage of cancer you have? | Hyunsoo Joshua No and Trudy Wu
New ReviewEach year, approximately 20 million people receive a cancer diagnosis. At that time, a patient usually learns their cancer’s stage, which is typically a number ranging from one to four. While staging is designed, in part, to help...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you transplant a head to another body? | Max G. Levy
New ReviewIn 1970, neurosurgeon Robert White and his team carted two monkeys into an operating room to conduct an ambitious experiment. The objective was to connect the head of Monkey A to the body of Monkey B, in what he considered a whole-body...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we build a miniature sun on Earth? | George Zaidan
New ReviewStars 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: How did ancient civilizations make ice cream? | Vivian Jiang
New ReviewIce cream has a unique role in our world’s history, culture, and cravings. The first accounts of cold desserts date back to the first century, in civilizations including ancient Rome, Mughal India, and Tang Dynasty China. Yet the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: These animals can hear everything | Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard
New ReviewThe 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: What happened when these 6 dictators took over | Stephanie Honchell Smith
New ReviewUnder certain conditions, the idea of a dictator can sound appealing, like when a democracy isn’t functioning as it should due to corruption or political polarization. People may believe the solution is a "benevolent dictator"— a leader...