Digital archaeologist Chance Coughenour is using pictures -- your pictures -- to reclaim antiquities that have been lost to conflict and disaster. After crowdsourcing photographs of destroyed monuments, museums and artifacts, Coughenour...

Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

Among the dinosaurs, giant sea dragons roamed the ancient ocean. Millions of years later, paleontologist Dean R. Lomax and his team freed the remains of one of these colossal creatures from the Earth. Settle in to learn about the...

In Colchis, the hide of a mystical flying ram hangs from the tallest oak, guarded by a dragon who never sleeps. The only way Jason can pry it from King Aeetes' clutches and win back his promised throne is by facing three perilous tasks—...

He was born in the 1330s in the Chaghatayid Khanate, formerly the Mongol Empire. On the steppe, he rose from a lowly sheep thief to become one of history's greatest conquerors, uniting nearly all of Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran...

As the sun rises in 55 BCE, Camma lays two pigeons on the altar at the center of her village. She wrings the birds' necks and cuts them open to examine their entrails for divine messages. Camma is a druid. She conducts religious rites,...

Cú Chulainn, hero of Ulster, stood at the ford at Cooley, ready to face an entire army single handedly— all for the sake of a single bull. The army in question belonged to Queen Meadhbh of Connaught. Enraged at her husband's possession...

When Bran Ferren was just 9, his parents took him to see the Pantheon in Rome — and it changed everything. In that moment, he began to understand how the tools of science and engineering become more powerful when combined with art, with...

Shielded from the gorgon's stone gaze, Perseus crept through Medusa's cave. When he reached her, he drew his sickle and brought it down on her neck. From Medusa's neck sprung two children. One was a giant wielding a golden sword; the...

Life makes our planet an incredibly exotic place compared to the rest of the known universe, says astrobiologist Betül Kaçar, whose research uses statistics and mathematical models to simulate ancient environments and gather insights...

Princess Savitri was benevolent, brilliant, and bright. Her grace was known throughout the land, and many princes and merchants flocked to her family's palace to seek her hand in marriage. But upon witnessing her blinding splendor in...

As the sun rises over Delphi in 500 BCE, Aristonike hurries to the temple of Apollo where a single oracle known as the Pythia communicates Apollo's will. Reserved only for women, this is the most important job in the city— and one that...

emily Parsons-Lord re-creates air from distinct moments in earth's history -- from the clean, fresh-tasting air of the Carboniferous period to the soda-water air of the Great Dying to the heavy, toxic air of the future we're creating. By...

After a skirmish at sea and long days of being battered by waves, Väinämöinen— a powerful bard as old as the world itself— washed up on the shores of distant Pohjola. A cunning witch nursed him back to health but demanded a reward for...

For tens of thousands of years our ancestors understood the world through myths, and the pace of change was glacial. The rise of scientific understanding transformed the world within a few centuries. Why? Physicist David Deutsch proposes...

What happens when you discover a dinosaur? Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara details his unearthing of Dreadnoughtus -- a 77-million-year-old sauropod that was as tall as a two-story house and as heavy as a jumbo jet -- and considers how...

In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dusty remains, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was a 4,000-year-old story inscribed on crumbling clay...

On sunny days, citizens of ancient Rome could be found exchanging news and gossip while attending to more urgent business at the public latrines. Today, most cultures consider trips to the restroom to be a more private occasion. But even...

Around the world, hundreds of thousands of lost ancient sites lie buried and hidden from view. Satellite archaeologist Sarah Parcak is determined to find them before looters do. With the 2016 TED Prize, Parcak is building an online...

It's a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Malcolm...

It was dark when two mysterious, shrouded figures appeared in a hillside village. The strangers knocked on every door in town, asking for food and shelter. But, again and again, they were turned away. Soon, there was just one door left:...

A 50-foot-long carnivore who hunted its prey in rivers 97 million years ago, the Spinosaurus is a "dragon from deep time." Paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim and his crew found new fossils, hidden in cliffs of the Moroccan Sahara desert, that...

We have archives of films, newspapers, even seeds -- what if we could make one for the entire surface of the earth? Drawing on his experience mapping an ancient city in the Honduran jungle, archaeologist Chris Fisher makes the case for...

It's 1631. Mumtaz Mahal, beloved wife of Emperor Shah Jahan, is giving birth to their 14th child. A healthy girl is born, but Mumtaz dies soon after. Sobbing uncontrollably, the emperor decides to build a tomb worthy of his queen: a...