PBS
When Antarctica Was Green
Before the start of the Eocene Epoch about 56 million years ago--Antarctica was still joined to both Australia and South America. And it turns out that a lot of what we recognize about the southern hemisphere can be traced back to that...
PBS
The World Before Plate Tectonics
There was a time in Earth’s history that was so stable, geologists once called it the Boring Billion. But the fact is, this period was anything but boring. In fact, it set the stage for our modern version of plate tectonics - and...
PBS
The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal
A truly enormous ichthyosaur around the size of a modern sperm whale, reached its size within just a few million years of taking to the water - a blink of an eye in evolutionary time.
PBS
The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls
Back in the late Miocene epoch, there was an island--or maybe a group of islands-- in the Mediterranean Sea that was populated with fantastic giant beasts. It’s a lesson in the very strange, but very real, powers of natural selection.
PBS
The Bear-Sized Beaver That Couldn’t Build A Dam
It’s important to us that you understand how big this beaver was. Just like modern beavers, it was semiaquatic -- it lived both on the land and in the water. The difference is that today’s beavers do a pretty special thing - one that the...
PBS
How the Egg Came First
The story of the egg spans millions of years, from the first vertebrates that dared to venture onto land to today’s mammals, including the platypus, and of course birds. Like chickens? We’re here to tell you: The egg came first.
PBS
How Plants Caused the First Mass Extinction
In the middle of the Cambrian, life on land was about to get a little more crowded. And those newcomers would end up changing the world. The arrival of plants on land would make the world colder, drain much of the oxygen out of the...
PBS
When Trees Took Over the World
420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking up to learn about the evolution of trees, it turns out...
PBS
The Sea Monster from the Andes
In 1977, a farmer was plowing his field on a plateau high in the Andes mountains when he stumbled upon a giant fossilized skeleton. How did this giant marine reptile end up high in the Andes Mountains?
PBS
The Biggest Frog that Ever Lived
Untangling the origins of Beelzebufo -- the giant frog that lived alongside the dinosaurs -- turns out to be one of the most bedeviling problems in the history of amphibians.
PBS
Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Land
Around the time that some of our fishapod relatives were crawling out of the water, others were turning around and diving right back in.
TED Talks
TED: The climate crisis is expensive -- here's who should pay for it | Avinash Persaud
The developing world is most affected by climate change but has contributed the least to the problem. Meanwhile, rich countries historically exacerbated the environmental crisis and grew wealthy as a result -- but aren't helping...
TED Talks
TED: The tree-growing movement restoring Africa's vital landscapes | Wanjira Mathai
2023 Audacious Project grantee Wanjira Mathai is at the forefront of re-greening the planet. Through the forest restoration initiative Restore Local, she's working to help both Africa's people and its landscapes flourish. Learn more...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: One of history's most dangerous myths | Anneliese Mehnert
From the 1650s through the late 1800's, European colonists descended on South Africa. They sought to claim the region, becoming even more aggressive after discovering the area's abundant natural resources. To support their claims to the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the cursed dice riddle? | Dan Finkel
Ah, spring. As Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, it's your favorite season. Humans and animals look to you to balance the bounty of the natural world which, like any self-respecting Goddess, you do with a pair of magical dice. But then,...
SciShow
Why You Have to Blink to Walk
When we picture the first tetrapods, or land vertebrates, crawling out of the ocean, we probably imagine they need legs. But evolution also had to bestow another important adaptation before they could leave the water: blinking!
SciShow
The Southern Hemisphere is Colder, Stormier, and... Cleaner?
You'd think that the Northern and Southern Hemispheres would be basically symmetrical -- that since our planet is a ball, the climate, temperature, and weather patterns would be the same on top as on the bottom. But there are some...
SciShow
Half of All Plants Are Invisible
If you see an acorn sprout under an oak tree, you're seeing that tree's grandchild. Here's why half of all higher plants are invisible, and why it works for them.
MinuteEarth
We Have No Idea Why
Most animals on earth are bioluminescent, but almost all of them live in the ocean - and scientists aren’t sure why.
MinuteEarth
Should More Species Be Extinct?
Watch these amazing rewilding videos from our friends at Planet Wild, in which they’re saving Europe’s cutest bird from extinction or resurrecting a dying forest.
SciShow
The World's Next Ocean
A volcanic eruption and series of earthquakes in 2005 were important not because they did a great deal of damage to humans, but because they’re geologic evidence of where Earth’s next ocean will most likely pop up.
SciShow
Monsoons: Nature’s Air Purifiers
Monsoons are more than torrential rains. They come in wet and dry varieties, but both involve a lot of wind. And it turns out, those winds can help the Earth clean up some of the pollution mess humanity makes.
SciShow
Is the Mystery of Earth's 1.2 Billion Missing Years Solved? | SciShow News
For the last hundred and fifty years or so, geologists have been trying to wrap their heads around the mystery: in some places, the geologic record just seems to jump by over billion years. And last week, a paper was published that may...
SciShow
How Bacteria Helped Plants Take Over the World | SciShow News
This week, scientists think they may have found a missing link in regards to how plants went from living in the sea to on land, and also, in adorable news, surfing honeybees.