Investigate the theories surrounding cosmic dust bunnies and discover how the tiny particles could hold the key to the formation of life on Earth. -- Consider the spot where you’re sitting. Travel backwards in time and it might’ve...

Amanda Williams shares her lifelong fascination with the complexity of color: from her experiences with race and redlining to her discovery of color theory to her work as a visual artist. Journey with Williams to Chicago's South Side and...

Chemist Lee Cronin is working on a 3D printer that, instead of objects, is able to print molecules. An exciting potential long-term application: printing your own medicine using chemical inks.

Known worldwide for her courage and clarity, Christiane Amanpour has spent the past three decades interviewing business, cultural and political leaders who have shaped history. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Amanpour...

Why Do Rivers Curve

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences.

What is a border? It's a line on a map, a place where cultures mix and merge in beautiful, sometimes violent...

Light always travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. But if you're in motion too, you're going to perceive it as traveling even faster -- which isn't possible! In this second installment of a three-part series on space-time,...

The cell membrane, like a good jacket, protects the cell from everything outside of it. How is it simultaneously sturdy, flexible, and capable of allowing the right things to pass through? Ethan Perlstein rediscovers the scientists and...

Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain's incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He's researching ways to harness the brain's plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.

After a friend of mine got a tattoo with a representation of the cosecant function, it got me thinking about how there's another sense in which this function is a tattoo on math, so to speak.

Our planet shares a lot with other rocky planets in our solar system, but astronomers have found a few mountains out there that are nothing like ours.

How did ancient civilizations move massive stones to build Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Easter Island statues? In this quick, delightful talk, TED Fellow Brandon Clifford reveals some architectural secrets of the past and shows how...

If you live in a cold climate, you might know the agony of trying to get your car started on a chilly winter morning, or standing helplessly by as your phone's battery level plummets. So why do cold weather and batteries seem to just not...

What's the best sleeping position? Well, with all the pseudoscience to consider, it might just depend on who you are. *The graphic shows the stomach on the wrong side of the body. It should be pictured on the left side of the body, not...

In a world deeply divided, how do we have hard conversations with nuance, curiosity, respect? Veteran reporter Eve Pearlman introduces "dialogue journalism": a project where journalists go to the heart of social and political divides to...

Joe brings in a few friends to look at death in the animal kingdom.

Scientists have found at least three cycles in nature that can be traced back to the alignment of the planets. And while they won’t tell you anything about your love life or personality, by studying them, we can learn about our planet’s...

SciShow Space shares the latest news from around the universe, including new insights into the giant supercluster of galaxies that we call home, and the first "data baby" from Rosetta's rendezvous with a comet.

Guns in Space

Most of us don’t really give fish scales a second thought, but for some fish, the scales of others can make for a tasty snack.

You might think you need a brain to be able to sleep, but organisms with super simple neural networks can still "sleep" sort of like we do. So, if these organisms can sleep too, then what is sleep anyway?

Scientists have used a bacteria that commonly infects us to track how ancient humans spread to the Americas from Siberia. And other scientists have discovered a new species of hyrax in the forests of Africa by listening to their barks...

In this video Paul Andersen gives an overview of the human urinary system. The system consist of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra. The kidneys excrete waste from the blood in urine. He explains how the nephron is responsible...

In the early days of the Cold War, it was difficult to send and receive messages across the globe. Before the US launched its first satellite in January 1958, the military tried a creative solution: bouncing radio waves off the Moon.