It's leap year time... so what are years, anyway? And what do they have to do with the supermassive black hole in the core of the milky way?

In Noah Feldman’s latest book, “To Be A Jew Today,” the Harvard Law professor turns his focus to his own faith in order to understand identity, politics and culture. Feldman sits down with Amna Nawaz to discuss Jews’ relationship to...

Prolonged grief disorder recently debuted in both of the two manuals that clinicians use to diagnose psychological conditions. But the DSM and the ICD don't completely agree on what it is.

How hard can it really be to decode alien physics and engineering? It’s gotta map to our own physics - I mean, we live in the same universe. We start by noticing that the alien technology seems to use good ol’ fashioned electronics, even...

Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy aims to help troubled youths in Chicago’s Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center address their personal issues by writing poetry about their circumstances and upbringing. Jeffrey Brown talks...

Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy aims to help troubled youths in Chicago's Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center address their personal issues by writing poetry about their circumstances and upbringing. Jeffrey Brown talks...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on scale and perspective.


TERMS
Phenomena - observable events in the natural world (require exp
lanations)
Time - an irreversible s
eries of...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how a system can be viewed as an object and an object can be viewed as a system.

Today we create a game and then build an AI to destroy it. Our game is called TrashBlaster, and it’s like Asteroids but with trash in the ocean, and instead of a spaceship John Green Bot is wielding a laser. We'll use machine learning...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on matter and matter transport.


TERMS
Matter - physical
substances
System - a set of components (e.g. things) w
orking together
Transport - to...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on causal relationships.

T
ERMS:
Cause - a thing that gives rise t
o an event
Ef
fect - an event
Relationship - interconnection betwe
en parts of...

The enigmatic equation e^{pi i} = -1 is usually explained using Taylor's formula during a calculus class. This video offers a different perspective, which involves thinking about numbers as actions, and about e^x as something which...

Puberty is an awkward time for just about everybody, but for transgender teens it can be a nightmare, as they grow overnight into bodies they aren't comfortable with. In a heartfelt talk, Norman Spack tells a personal story of how he...

The enigmatic equation e^{pi i} = -1 is usually explained using Taylor's formula during a calculus class. This video offers a different perspective, which involves thinking about numbers as actions, and about e^x as something which turns...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on simulating systems.

T
ERMS:
Simulations - imitation of a situation
or process
Interactions - reciprocal (two-way) acti
on or...

When you think of a brain, you probably imagine that pink, wrinkly organ in your skull, but we don’t have to stop there! Neither the brain’s functions, nor its cells, are confined to the organ we normally think of as the brain.

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on inputs, processes and outputs in a system.

T
ERMS:
System models - a representation o
f a system
Interactions - reciprocal (two-way) acti
on...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on the hierarchy of systems.

T
ERMS:
System inter
actions -
Complex systems - consisting of many different and
connected parts
Sub-systems - a...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on boundary and initial conditions within systems.

Boundary conditions - the dividing line between system and enviro
nment
Initial condition - the...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on systems as parts working together. TERMS System - a set of components (e.g. things) working together Part - a piece of an object or organism This progression is...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on components and interactions within systems.

T
ERMS:
System - a set of components (e.g. things) workin
g together
Components - a part of
a larger...

You probably think the appendix is a useless organ left over from our evolutionary past, but it turns out it may be doing something important after all.

Nobody really knows how much it would cost to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Yet historian Yuval Noah Harari's analysis, based on the work of scientists and economists, indicates that humanity might avert catastrophe by...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on Objects and Pieces. TERMS Characteristic - a feature or quality belonging to a thing Object - a material thing that can be seen and touched Piece - a part or...