Be Smart
The Cosmic Afterglow
The lingerling radiation from the ancient universe still surrounds us to this day.
PBS
Space Used to Be Orange!!
As long as we've been around, YES. But the universe gets much more exciting, AND much BRIGHTER, as we start winding our clocks back to the early days of the universe. Near the beginning of the universe, when space was rapidly expanding,...
SciShow
Is That Shiny Thing Pretty, or Are You Just Thirsty?
Humans are fascinated by shiny stuff. Not only do we find these things attractive, but we also tend to perceive them as being high quality. Well, turns out this infatuation may be related to our evolutionary relationship to water.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do birds learn to sing? _ Partha Mitra
A brown thrasher knows a thousand songs. A wood thrush can sing two pitches at once. A mockingbird can match the sounds around it - including car alarms. These are just a few of the 4,000 species of songbirds. How do these birds learn...
SciShow
How Tech Designed for Space Is Saving Lives on Earth
Space technology gets applied in all sorts of ways down here on Earth, making us more comfortable, healthier, and even saving lives!
SciShow
How to Form a Habit
We all have habits we’d love to make or break. Understanding exactly what a habit is might be the best way to start making them work for you.
SciShow
Brain vs. Computer
The brain of luchador Hanko wants to take on the worlds fastest supercomputer, "K," in a cage match for bragging rights - which one is the most impressive information processor?
TED Talks
Mick Mountz: What happens inside those massive warehouses?
We make millions of online purchases daily, but who (or what) actually puts our items into packages? In this talk, Mick Mountz weaves a fascinating, surprisingly robot-filled tale of what happens inside a warehouse.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the killer robo-ants riddle? - Dan Finkel
The good news is that your experimental robo-ants are a success. The bad news is that you accidentally gave them the ability to shoot deadly lasers . . . and you can't turn it off. Can you stop them from escaping their habitat before the...
MinuteEarth
What Nuclear Bombs Taught Us About Whales
A monitoring system developed to listen for secret nuclear tests mostly hears other events happening all around Earth. ___________________________________________ If you want to learn more about this topic, start your googling with these...
SciShow
Why the Pandemic Has Us Buying Roller Skates and Baking Bread
A lot of people have been pretty cooped up lately and it’s starting to bring out some strange desires in people. What context can psychology offer to help us understand what might be going on?
TED Talks
Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book
Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An...
SciShow
Magic Isn't Magic: It's Psychology
Magicians have a handy ace up their sleeve: Your brain, and they're not the only ones who know how to use it.
SciShow Kids
Why Don’t Woodpeckers’ Heads Hurt?
Woodpeckers search for food by using their face to dig through tree bark! But why doesn't this give them a headache?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The origin of countless conspiracy theories - PatrickJMT
Why can we find geometric shapes in the night sky? How can we know that at least two people in London have exactly the same number of hairs on their head? And why can patterns be found in just about any text - even Vanilla Ice lyrics?...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's the fastest way to alphabetize your bookshelf? - Chand John
You work at the college library. You're in the middle of a quiet afternoon when suddenly, a shipment of 1,280 books arrives. The books are in a straight line, but they're all out of order, and the automatic sorting system is broken. How...
TED Talks
Van Jones: The economic injustice of plastic
When we throw away our plastic trash, where does it go? In this hard-hitting talk, Van Jones shows us how our throwaway culture hits poor people and poor countries "first and worst," with consequences we all share no matter where we...
TED Talks
TED: Do you really know why you do what you do? | Petter Johansson
Experimental psychologist Petter Johansson researches choice blindness -- a phenomenon where we convince ourselves that we're getting what we want, even when we're not. In an eye-opening talk, he shares experiments (designed in...
SciShow
The Science Behind the Pimple Popping Phenomenon
For some reason, popping pimples gives many people a satisfying rush - but why? And why is there a whole television show dedicated to watching other people do it?!
TED Talks
Clint Smith: The danger of silence
We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don't, says poet and teacher Clint Smith. A short, powerful piece from the heart, about finding the courage to speak up...
TED Talks
Soraya Chemaly: The power of women's anger
Anger is a powerful emotion -- it warns us of threat, insult, indignity and harm. But across the world, girls and women are taught that their anger is better left unvoiced, says author Soraya Chemaly. Why is that, and what might we lose...
TED Talks
Nicholas Negroponte: 5 predictions, from 1984
With surprising accuracy, Nicholas Negroponte predicts what will happen with CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone and his own One Laptop per Child project.