A lot of our food comes from plants, including honey! Mister Brown and Squeaks learn how honey goes from being watery nectar in a flower to the sweet sticky substance we all know and love - and it's all thanks to bees!

If we want to better understand the environment and combat climate change, we need to look deep underground, where diverse microscopic fungal networks mingle with tree roots to form symbiotic partnerships, says microbiologist Colin...

To restrain global warming, we know we need to drastically reduce pollution. The very next step after that: using both natural and technological solutions to trap as much excess carbon dioxide from the air as possible. Enter Orca, the...

At Paul Quinn College, where once there was a football field, now there's an organic farm. It's not just a symbol of renewal for this once-struggling historically black college in Dallas; it's where students work to pay tuition. As part...

A conflict between Ukraine and Russia since 2014 has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 2 million and put businesses on the border, like the Metinvest plant in Eastern Ukraine, in the crossfire. Metinvest is the largest plant in...

What has driven tens of thousands of Salvadorans to leave home, many for the U.S.? El Salvador's coffee beans suffered a devastating disease five years ago, and now face an even greater existential threat: climate change. Special...

In the United Kingdom just days ago, the attitude toward the novel coronavirus pandemic was “keep calm and carry on.” Now, however, the stakes are higher -- and the national feeling more grim. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered...

India suffers from chronic power interruptions and failures stemming from energy policies created to court voter blocs. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on efforts by social entrepreneurs to solve part of India's power...

Most rural Indian parents dream of an education and job in the city for their children, rather than a life spent farming. But with a growing migration to cities, there is concern India might not be able to produce enough food to feed its...

Paul Andersen introduces the concept of bioenergetics. He explains how living organisms utilize free energy in the Universe. He begins with a brief discussion of thermodynamics and Gibbs free energy. He then explains how reactions can...

What if we could "grow" clothes from microbes, furniture from living organisms and buildings with exteriors like tree bark? TED Fellow Suzanne Lee shares exciting developments from the field of biofabrication and shows how it could help...

Serotonin is the chemical messenger we can thank for being related to feelings of happiness, and one of the ways you can produce this chemical is to turn to our old friend nature! So maybe a visit to the dog park really can make you feel...

Have you ever panicked before a drug test because you just ate a poppy seed muffin? Check out this episode to see if there’s really something to worry about with poppy seeds.

Photosynthesis plays a huge role in regulating the earth's CO2. But what happens when the temperature gets high enough that photosynthesis slows down?

Raindrops and snowflakes generally start to form around something else in the air, like a speck of dust, but sometimes that something else is bacteria.

Stem cells are widely believed to hold great promise in medical research because of their ability to transform into all sorts of other cell types, and scientists can grow it in living mice.

Africa needs new energy sources to fuel its development, but the continent should invest in renewable energy instead of cheap, polluting alternatives like coal, says climate inclusion activist Chibeze Ezekiel. He tells the story of how...

When there’s only one species on an evolutionary branch, we call it a monospecific taxon. Studying these special species can help us better understand not just those sparse groups, but all life on this planet.

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Have you ever seen a tree with a big, twisted knot growing out of it? That's just one way that plants can show signs of cancer. Quick Questions explains.

If you've ever gone outside really early on a cold day in fall, you might have seen a thin layer of sparkly ice crystals covering everything! That ice is called frost, and it can only form if the weather is exactly...

Stretching over roughly nine million square kilometers and with sands reaching temperatures of up to 80° Celsius, the Sahara Desert receives about 22 million terawatt hours of energy from the Sun every year. That's well over 100 times...

Today Hank talks with Dr. Cara Nelson about invasive plants that use toxic chemicals and rapid reproduction to outcompete native plants, and Jessi brings some adorable invasive birds. Dr. Nelson is a professor of Restoration Ecology at...

From calories to sleep, there always seems to be something we're not doing right. Luckily scientists have looked into this and come up with some helpful advice to keep us happy and healthy.

What if you could take a smell selfie, a smelfie? What if you had a lipstick that caused plants to grow where you kiss? Ani Liu explores the intersection of technology and sensory perception, and her work is wedged somewhere between...