Do animals exercise? Think about it -- do animals need to lose weight, or train for their big migration? We'll look at a few definitions of exercise and see if animals meet the criteria for hitting the gym.

The Moon has been one of the most important theoretical stepping stones to our understanding of the universe. We’ve long understood that it could also be our literal stepping stone: humanity’s first destination beyond our atmosphere.

When did practicing medicine - in its varied, complex forms (from sharing medicinal plants to the earliest surgeries) - become something that we actually started doing? While it’s a hard question to answer, it’s possible that our...

It would take decades for paleontologists to realize that maybe there wasn’t just one so-called "cradle of humankind," and realize that maybe they’d been asking the wrong question all along.

Have you ever looked at a cloud and seen a face? Or the front of a car and seen a face? Or an electrical outlet and seen a face? You definitely have. We all see faces everywhere we look thanks to a fun quirk of the human brain called...

Archaeology isn't exactly easy, so it's pretty impressive how often we can figure things out about people that aren't around anymore. But that's not always possible, and some mysteries leave archaeologists puzzled for centuries. From...

We've been using lab rats for over a hundred years, and they've been part of some of the biggest medical breakthroughs ever. But what comes next? From organs on a chip to computer simulations, here are some of the ways that science...

In the early 1960s, NASA rolled up to a US Navy facility in Pennsylvania with one goal in mind: stick its newly-minted astronauts into one of the most extreme centrifuges that has ever been built, and whirl them around really fast to...

CRISPR-based gene therapies are already changing healthcare for things like sickle cell disease. But CRISPR is bigger than just medicine, and it could revolutionize everything from food and agriculture to green energy fuels to...

Do humans have to die? What causes aging, and can we get around it? We'll talk about why we age and what kind of treatments can help us live longer.



Hosted by: Niba @NotesbyNiba

(she/her)

Correction: Her last name...

Bacteria often get a bad rap, but they’re some of our best partners in science and medicine! In this episode, we’ll explore what bacteria are doing with their DNA — including how they can trade it around. We’ll learn about chromosomes...

Who do you turn to when panic strikes in the middle of the night — and can AI help? Psychologist Alison Darcy shares the vision behind Woebot, a mental health chatbot designed to support people in tough moments, especially when no one...

AI in warfare is no longer hypothetical; it's inevitable, says Palmer Luckey, an inventor and founder of the defense technology company Anduril Industries. He takes us inside the high-tech arms race to build AI-powered weapons, "killer...

New tech spawns new anxieties, says scientist and philosopher Grady Booch, but we don't need to be afraid an all-powerful, unfeeling AI. Booch allays our worst (sci-fi induced) fears about superintelligent computers by explaining how...

Today, rats are often regarded as the most successful invasive species in the world. The most common species of rat scurried onto the scene roughly 1 to 3 million years ago in Asia. There, they craftily survived Earth’s most recent ice...

Achinpur was on the precipice of demonic takeover. A mysterious woman beguiled the king and infiltrated the royal family. But she wasn’t human; under her beautiful façade lurked an insatiable appetite for flesh. One night, the demon...

Amir Nizar Zuabi and Kristine McDivitt Tompkins discuss their shared concerns about humanity's lack of compassion and the interconnected crises of climate change, social injustice, and species extinction. Zuabi reflects on storytelling...

You're familiar with the story: a sperm and an egg meet to create an embryo, which has the potential to give rise to new life. But what if you could create a sperm or egg from any cell, even a single skin cell? Biologist Katsuhiko...

TED Fellow and economic policy researcher Huiyi Lin is cocreator of "The Poverty Line," an art project examining poverty through the lens of food. By photographing the daily food choices of people living at the poverty line in 38...

Do We Have to Get Old and Die?

Are We Really 99% Chimp?

Why do Bats Transmit So Many Diseases Like Ebola

Which Bear Is Best?

An amazing new technology will let scientists grow new kidneys for patients using their own stem cells inside of pigs.