Eighty percent of the world's biodiversity is within Indigenous territories, yet these communities often don't have a say when it comes to protecting the lands they inhabit. Environmental activist Jupta Itoewaki explains why Indigenous...

Common, the award-winning musician, actor, activist, and now author, says that in a world of division and anxiety, he wanted to offer solution-oriented resources for healing that have helped him overcome trauma and tough times in his...

In the aftermath of recent mass shootings, calls for expanding gun safety regulations have increased. Although some of these ideas are popular among Americans overall, how do gun owners specifically feel about them? William Brangham...

Richard Powers, author of our November pick for the NewsHour-New York Times book club, Now Read This, joins Jeffrey Brown to answer reader questions on “The Overstory,” and Jeff announces the December book selection.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the world's largest private philanthropic organization, with an endowment of $50 billion. Melinda Gates plays a huge role in shaping its work, and her new book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering...

Suicides by active duty U.S. troops last year exceeded the number of servicemen and women killed in combat in Afghanistan. Ray Suarez talks to psychiatrist and retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, who says more than half of the...

There is a fundamental limit to the knowability of the universe. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle tells us that the more precisely we try to define one property, the less definable is its counterpart. Knowing a particle's location...

Everyone knows, you need a bunch of rules to make good theater. That's what the French thought in the 17th century, anyway. The French Neoclassical revival had a BUNCH of French playwrights following a bunch of rules. Unsurprisingly,...

Michael Aranda substitutes for Hank again in this week's News to tell you about the winners of the 2012 Visualization Challenge, an annual competition run by the journal Science that selects the most elegant and educational graphics,...

Real World Telekinesis (feat. Neil Turok)

In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You'll...

Pulsed plasma thrusters use the same stuff that’s on your frying pan to make spacecraft zoom around the universe. And they’ve been doing it since the 1960s.

Hank brings you the SciShow news of the week. Recent record high temperatures and other extreme weather events around the world are climate change in action; a new fossil of an ancient human ancestor; some disturbing discoveries about...

How many different verb tenses are there in a language like English? At first, the answer seems obvious - there's past, present, and future. But it isn't quite that simple. Anna Ananichuk explains how thanks to something called...

Historically, the union between Shiva and Parvati was a glorious one: a sacred combination which brought fertility and connection to all living things. Yet a rift had grown between these two forces. Setting out to prove the importance of...

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that our climate is changing, Earth is getting warmer, sea levels are rising, and it's primarily because of humans putting lots of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Yet 4 in 10 Americans aren't convinced....

By the light of the moon, a group sneaks into the woods, where they take mind-altering substances, switch it up romantically and brush up against creatures from another dimension. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” sees Shakespeare play with...

In this talk and tech demo, filmmaker Diego Prilusky introduces the next chapter in moviemaking: volumetric video, a 360-degree experience powered by hundreds of cameras that capture light and motion from every angle. Check out how this...

Musician and activist Bono accepts the 2005 TED Prize with a riveting talk, arguing that aid to Africa isn't just another celebrity cause; it's a global emergency.

How often do you think about the air you're breathing? Probably not enough, says entrepreneur and TED Fellow Romain Lacombe. He introduces Flow: a personal air-quality tracker that fits in your hand and monitors pollution levels in real...

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that...

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as...

It seems silly to ask if plants can count, but even the New York Times has called Venus flytraps 'Plants That Can Count.' Is counting a thing plants can do?

We're at a unique moment in history, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: we can use today's interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic -- and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and...