TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What if we could look inside human brains? - Moran Cerf
The brain is what makes us function, yet we understand so little about how it works. We are learning more about the brain by using new technology to monitor epilepsy patients during surgery. Moran Cerf explains the process doctors use to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Cicadas: The dormant army beneath your feet - Rose Eveleth
Every 13 or 17 years, billions of cicadas emerge from the ground to molt, mate and die. Adult cicadas only live a few weeks above ground, but you'd be hard pressed to ignore them -- they are extremely loud! Rose Eveleth explains...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The loathsome, lethal mosquito - Rose Eveleth
Everyone hates mosquitos. Besides the annoying buzzing and biting, mosquito-borne diseases like malaria kill over a million people each year (plus horses, dogs and cats). And over the past 100 million years, they've gotten good at their...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Oxygen's surprisingly complex journey through your body - Enda Butler
Oxygen forms about 21% of the air around us. In your body, oxygen forms a vital role in the production of energy in most cells. But if gases can only efficiently diffuse across tiny distances, how does oxygen reach the cells deep inside...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The invisible motion of still objects - Ran Tivony
Many of the inanimate objects around you probably seem perfectly still. But look deep into the atomic structure of any of them, and you'll see a world in constant flux - with stretching, contracting, springing, jittering, drifting atoms...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Diagnosing a zombie: Brain and body - Tim Verstynen & Bradley Voytek
Zombies eat brains. They are also, like all of us, driven by brain functions. What is happening in their brains to make them act as they do? In this intriguing dialogue, Tim Verstynen & Bradley Voytek apply the various human medical...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Mysteries of vernacular: Earwig - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
An earwig is neither an ear nor a wig; it is an insect. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how folklore gave this bug its name, combining entomology with etymology.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Cell vs. virus: A battle for health - Shannon Stiles
All living things are made of cells. In the human body, these highly efficient units are protected by layer upon layer of defense against icky invaders like the cold virus. Shannon Stiles takes a journey into the cell, introducing the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The case of the vanishing honeybees - Emma Bryce
In the past decade, the US honeybee population has been decreasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. While this is obviously bad news for honeypots everywhere, bees also help feed us in a bigger way -- by pollinating our nation's...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Eli the eel: A mysterious migration - James Prosek
They're slippery. They're slithery. And while they totally look like underwater snakes, eels are, in fact, unique fish that can breathe through their skin and even survive out of water. James Prosek tracks the life journey of Eli the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Jellyfish predate dinosaurs. How have they survived so long? - David Gruber
Some are longer than a blue whale. Others are barely larger than a grain of sand. One species unleashes one of the most deadly venoms on earth; another holds a secret that's behind some of the greatest breakthroughs in biology. They've...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Penguins: Popularity, peril and poop - Dyan deNapoli
Penguins are odd birds. For one, they cannot fly (but they are amazing swimmers), and, contrary to popular belief, the majority of penguin populations live in warmer regions. But these beloved birds are in danger, with populations...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How we see color - Colm Kelleher
There are three types of color receptors in your eye: red, green and blue. But how do we see the amazing kaleidoscope of other colors that make up our world? Colm Kelleher explains how humans can see everything from auburn to aquamarine.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why are we so attached to our things? - Christian Jarrett
After witnessing the _violent rage" shown by babies whenever deprived of an item they considered their own, Jean Piaget _ a founding father of child psychology _ observed something profound about human nature: Our sense of ownership...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is depression? - Helen M. Farrell
Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world; in the United States, close to ten percent of adults struggle with the disease. But because it's a mental illness, it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The three different ways mammals give birth - Kate Slabosky
All mammals share certain characteristics, like warm blood and backbones. But despite their similarities, these creatures also have many biological differences - and one of the most remarkable differences is how they give birth. Kate...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mary's Room: A philosophical thought experiment - Eleanor Nelsen
Imagine a neuroscientist who has only ever seen black and white things, but she is an expert in color vision and knows everything about its physics and biology. If, one day, she sees color, does she learn anything new? Is there anything...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's the big deal with gluten? - William D. Chey
If you've been to a restaurant in the last few years, you've likely seen the words gluten-free written somewhere on the menu. But what exactly is gluten, and why can't some people process it? And why does it only seem to be a problem...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we survive prolonged space travel? - Lisa Nip
Prolonged space travel plays a severe toll on the human body: microgravity impairs muscle and bone growth, and high doses of radiation cause irreversible mutations. As we seriously consider the human species becoming space-faring, a big...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Solid, liquid, gas and plasma? - Michael Murillo
Have you ever seen static electricity cause a spark of light? What is that spark? What about lightning, the Northern Lights, or the tail of a comet? All of those things and many others _ in fact, 99.9% of the universe -- are made of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How plants tell time - Dasha Savage
Morning glories unfurl their petals like clockwork in the early morning. A closing white waterlily signals that it's late afternoon. And moon flowers, as their name suggests, only bloom under the night sky. What gives plants this innate...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Is radiation dangerous? - Matt Anticole
When we hear the word radiation, it's tempting to picture huge explosions and frightening mutations. But that's not the full story - radiation also applies to rainbows and a doctor examining an X-ray. So what is it, really, and how much...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared? - Dan Kwartler
Human beings are everywhere. With settlements on every continent, we can be found in the most isolated corners of Earth's jungles, oceans and tundras. Our impact is so profound, most scientists believe humanity has left a permanent mark...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How memories form and how we lose them - Catharine Young
Think back to a really vivid memory. Got it? Now try to remember what you had for lunch three weeks ago. That second memory probably isn't as strong-but why not? Why do we remember some things, and not others? And why do memories...