UPDATE: We got a couple of things wrong when it comes to gravity (particularly that it has nothing to do with photons). Science is working tirelessly night and day to disprove its own theories about how the universe works (or at least,...

Making a black hole in a particle accelerator sounds… a bit dangerous, to say the least, but scientists think that it could be possible! Here's why it probably wouldn't be dangerous -- and might even teach us something.

Hank discusses the chemistry of sarin, the nerve agent that killed more than 1400 people in a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

We pretty much know for sure that the universe was once extremely small, and extremely hot. And we know that something set it in motion, expanding rapidly and continuing to do-so today. But the actual moment of 'the Big Bang' is still a...

An oblate spheroid is a special case of an ellipsoid where two of the semi-principal axes are the same size.

One of the toughest materials known to science is made not by humans, but by nature... and it's inside of oysters.

You're probably aware of lots of the things we take from animals, but for centuries, humans have been sneaking animal secretions into a bunch of things you probably didn't know about, like your Easter candy, your Mom's perfume, and even...

At this very moment, people are lining up somewhere to scare themselves, be it with a thrill-ride or a horror movie. In fact, in October of 2015 alone, about 28 million people visited a haunted house in the US. But you might wonder: What...

Air pollution knows no borders -- even in your own body, says public health expert María Neira. In this startling talk, she describes how the microscopic particles and chemicals you breathe affect all your major organs (including your...

There are thousands of mental health apps out there claiming to do everything from easing insomnia to treating PTSD symptoms, but are those really effective?

This week, we discovered that some gophers are not the pests they’re made out to be, perhaps even sharing some of the farming behaviors of humans. And a martian rock a million years in the making finally has its origin story.

Pianos can't be perfectly tuned - it's a mathematical fact!

Medicine has made leaps and bounds in treating illnesses in the last century, but are they ever going to get around to curing the common cold? We might be closer than you think.

Photographs do more than document history -- they make it. At TED University, Jonathan Klein of Getty Images shows some of the most iconic, and talks about what happens when a generation sees an image so powerful it can't look away -- or...

Getting our hands on a few moon rocks radically changed our understanding of the solar system!

Pollen goes unnoticed by most of us, except when hay fever strikes. But microscopes reveal it comes in stunning colors and shapes -- and travels remarkably well. Jonathan Drori gives an up-close glimpse of these fascinating flecks of...

It’s easy to imagine that our galaxy is basically frozen in time from the perspective of a human lifespan, but in fact, the Milky Way is incredibly dynamic and will undergo some pretty amazing changes in only a few decades!

Some emotions can feel so similar that you might mix them up and pick the wrong emotion.

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Our fingerprints are what make us unique -- but they're also home to a world of information hidden in molecules...

How do you know when you've "discovered" a particle? What do we mean by "discovery"?

The idea of conservation might seem like a thing that’s only popped up in the last century or so, but organized efforts to conserve resources that directly benefit humans go back centuries!

Neurofeedback therapy claims to help you change behaviors by monitoring your brain waves - but how does that actually work? And what does the science behind it look like?

In a talk packed with wry wisdom, pop culture queen Bevy Smith shares hard-earned lessons about authenticity, confidence, mature success and why, if you put in the work, "life gets greater later."

When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in...