TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Leonora Neville: The princess who rewrote history
Anna Komnene, daughter of Byzantine emperor Alexios, spent the last decade of her life creating a 500-page history of her father's reign called "The Alexiad." As a princess writing about her own family, she had to balance her loyalty to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why are sharks so awesome? - Tierney Thys
Sharks have been celebrated as powerful gods by some native cultures. And today, sharks are recognized as apex predators of the world's ocean. What is it that makes these fish worthy of our ancient legends and so successful in the seas?...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How brass instruments work - Al Cannon
What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And what makes the trombone so jazzy? Al Cannon shows how these answers lie not in the brass the instruments are made of, but in the journey that air takes...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Birth of a nickname - John McWhorter
Where do nicknames come from? Why are Ellens called Nellie and Edwards Ned? It's all a big misunderstanding from the early days of the English language, a misunderstanding that even the word nickname itself derives from. John McWhorter...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The ferocious predatory dinosaurs of Cretaceous Sahara - Nizar Ibrahim
In Cretaceous times (around 100 million years ago), North Africa was home to a huge river system and a bizarre menagerie of giant prehistoric predators -- including the Spinosaurus, a dinosaur even more fearsome than the Tyrannosaurus...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A day in the life of a Cossack warrior - Alex Gendler
Join the Cossack soldier Stepan as he tries to keep order in the battalion and help his people regain their independence. -- The year is 1676, and a treaty has officially ended hostilities between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Can you solve the counterfeit coin riddle? - Jennifer Lu
You're the realm's greatest mathematician, but ever since you criticized the Emperor's tax laws, you've been locked in the dungeon. Luckily for you, one of the Emperor's governors has been convicted of paying his taxes with a counterfeit...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why the Arctic is climate change's canary in the coal mine - William Chapman
The Arctic may seem like a frozen and desolate environment where nothing ever changes. But the climate of this unique and remote region can be both an early indicator of the climate of the rest of the Earth and a driver for weather...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Sarcophagus - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Dating back to the early Roman Empire, the word sarcophagus originally referred to the limestone a coffin was made of, rather than the coffin itself. From flesh-eating stone to a stone coffin, Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel unbury the...
TED-Ed
The epic of Gilgamesh, the king who tried to conquer death | Soraya Field Fiorio
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...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why can parrots talk? | Grace Smith-Viduarre and Tim Wright
Whether they're belting Beyoncé, head-banging to classic rock, or rattling off curse words at zoo-goers, parrots are constantly astounding us. They are among the only animals that produce human speech, and some parrots do it almost...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Life of an astronaut - Jerry Carr
Astronaut Jerry Carr knows space. As commander of Skylab, he spent over 2000 hours in space, orbiting the Earth over 1000 times. Recounting his life story, Carr remembers the enchanting years he spent at NASA. Lesson by Jerry Carr,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the troll’s paradox riddle? - Dan Finkel
You and your brother have discovered another realm and set off exploring the new wonderful world. Along the way, you see a troll catching creatures in an enormous net. The troll agrees to release the creatures if you can come up with a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the rebel supplies riddle? - Alex Gendler
You're overseeing the delivery of supplies to a rebel base in the heart of enemy territory. To get past customs, all packages must follow this rule: if a box is marked with an even number on the bottom, it must be sealed with a red top....
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The treadmill's dark and twisted past - Conor Heffernan
The constant thud underneath your feet. The constrained space. The monotony of going nowhere fast. Running on a treadmill can certainly feel like torture, but did you know it was originally used for that very purpose? Conor Heffernan...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do competitors open their stores next to one another? - Jac de Haan
Why are all the gas stations, cafes and restaurants in one crowded spot? As two competitive cousins vie for ice-cream-selling domination on one small beach, discover how game theory and the Nash Equilibrium inform these retail hotspots.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could your brain repair itself? - Ralitsa Petrova
Imagine the brain could reboot, updating its damaged cells with new, improved units. That may sound like science fiction - but it's a potential reality scientists are investigating right now. Ralitsa Petrova details the science behind...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How many universes are there? - Chris Anderson
The fact that no one knows the answer to this question is what makes it exciting. The story of physics has been one of an ever-expanding understanding of the sheer scale of reality, to the point where physicists are now postulating that...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Should we get rid of standardized testing? - Arlo Kempf
Although standardized testing is a particularly hot topic in education right now, this approach to measurement has been in use for two millennia. And while the results of standardized testing can help us understand some things, they can...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A riddle of ice and fire dragons | Henri Picciotto
It's your first day as Center Realm's official cartographer, and you've already got a big problem. Center Realm is home to three elder dragons: two ice, one fire, and they've lived in harmony for centuries. But scouts have sighted three...
TED-Ed
A brief history of toilets | Francis de los Reyes
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...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How atoms bond - George Zaidan and Charles Morton
Atoms can (and do) bond constantly; it's how they form molecules. Sometimes, in an atomic tug-of-war, one atom pulls electrons from another, forming an ionic bond. Atoms can also play nicely and share electrons in a covalent bond. From...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The myth of Thor's journey to the land of giants - Scott A. Mellor
Thor-son of Odin, god of thunder, and protector of mankind-struggled mightily against his greatest challenge yet: opening a bag of food. How had the mighty god fallen so far? Scott Mellor tells the myth of Thor's journey to Utgard.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Odd - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Whether we're talking all things unusual or mathematical, the origins of the word odd point to the Indo-European root uzdho, which means pointing upwards. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain the evolution from the term for a triangle...