What could be cooler than a permanent lava lake surrounded by snow!?

Self-driving cars were just the start. What's the future of big data-driven technology and design? In a thrilling science talk, Kenneth Cukier looks at what's next for machine learning -- and human knowledge.

Plants need light to survive. But apparently, that doesn't have to be sunlight.

The world needs clean water, and more and more, we're pulling it from the oceans, desalinating it, and drinking it. But what to do with the salty brine left behind? In this intriguing short talk, TED Fellow Damian Palin proposes an idea:...

Election infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, says technologist Tiana Epps-Johnson, and, even worse, election officials are increasingly being attacked simply for doing their jobs. How can the country rebuild trust in its...

SciShow News starts the new year off with unusual animal news, including a crisis for the iconic monarch butterfly, and new research into what makes bowhead whales the longest-living mammals on Earth.

All mammals produce milk, but you probably wouldn't want to dip your cookies in all of them.

What must our dogs be thinking when they look at us? Poet Billy Collins imagines the inner lives of two very different companions. It’s a charming short talk, perfect for taking a break and dreaming …

Dan Barasch and James Ramsey have a crazy plan — to create a park, filled with greenery, underneath New York City. The two are developing the Lowline, an underground greenspace the size of a football field. They're building it in a...

Globalization is on its deathbed, says economist Mike O'Sullivan. The question now is: What's next? Tracing the historical successes and failures of globalization, O'Sullivan forecasts a new world order where countries come together over...

Today, we're going to discuss how numbers, like statistics, and visual representations like charts and infographics can be used to help us better understand the world or profoundly deceive. Data is a really powerful form of evidence...

After more than two decades buzzing around above our heads, the life of the ISS will soon be coming to a close. But what does that actually look like? And what does it mean for the future of space experimentation?

The scene of the three wise men offering gifts to a newborn Jesus was widely painted during the Renaissance era, so how did painter Sandro Botticelli create a version that's still well known today? James Earle describes who and what set...

Imagine playing a video game controlled by your mind. Now imagine that game also teaches you about your own patterns of stress, relaxation and focus. Ariel Garten shows how looking at our own brain activity gives new meaning to the...

Archimedes once said "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth." While the idea of a person moving such a huge mass on their own might sound impossible, chances are you've seen this idea in action at your local playground....

If you uncover a bunch of rolly pollies under a log, you don't expect to find a bright blue one crawling among all the usual grays and browns. But it turns out your fun surprise is some very bad luck for that terrestrial isopod.

Today we're learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought millions of captive Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, with the largest number of people trafficked between 1700 and 1808. We'll look at...

Military leaders have known for millennia that the time to prepare for a challenge is before it hits you, says scientist and retired US Navy officer David Titley. He takes us from the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria to the icy shores...

Bill Gross has founded a lot of startups, and incubated many others -- and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other people's, and ranked each company on...

His reign marked the beginning of one of history's greatest empires . . . and the end of one of its first republics. Was Rome's first emperor a visionary leader who guaranteed his civilization's place in history, or a tyrant who...

The divisiveness plaguing American politics today is nothing new, says constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman. In fact, it dates back to the early days of the republic, when a dispute between Alexander Hamilton and James Madison led the...

In 1981, the US economy was struggling: unemployment rates were climbing and inflation had peaked at an all-time high. To combat these issues, President Reagan introduced a number of economic policies, including tax cuts for large...

Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they...

Long ago, all stories belonged to Nyame, the all-seeing Sky God. But one creature, Anansi, was determined to bring the stories down to Earth. Anansi went to Nyame and requested to take ownership of the world's stories. The Sky God told...