TED-Ed

Practice more problem-solving at https://brilliant.org/TedEd--Ah, spring. As Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, it’s your favorite season. Humans and animals look to you to balance the bounty of the natural world which, like any self-respecting Goddess, you do with a pair of magical dice. But then, along comes the trickster god Loki, who invades your land and curses your dice. Can you fix the dice a...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/different-ways-of-knowing-daniel-tammetDaniel Tammet has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia -- meaning that his perception of words, numbers and colors are woven together into a new way of perceiving and understanding the world. The author of "Born on a Blue Day," Tammet shares his art and his passion for languages in this glimpse into his beau...

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Explore how your circadian system acts as an internal clock to keep your body functioning.--An early bird rises with the sun, springing out of bed abuzz with energy. Meanwhile, a night owl groggily rises much later, not hitting their stride until late in the day. How many people are truly night owls or early birds? And are our sleep schedules predetermined at...

Dig into the Rubber Terror, the period in which King Leopold II’s horrific regime in the Congo resulted in the deaths of 10 million people.--In 1904, Chief Lontulu laid 110 twigs in front of a foreign commission. Every twig represented a person in his village who died because of King Leopold’s brutal regime in the Congo. His testimony joined hundreds of others to help bring an end to one of the gr...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-rosetta-stone-for-the-indus-script-rajesh-raoRajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles" - how to decipher the 4000 year old Indus script. At TED 2011, he tells how he is enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language, the key piece to understanding this ancient civilization. Talk by Rajesh Rao. Learn more ab...

Dig into the truth about piranhas and their feeding frenzies, and find out what would likely happen if you fell into their waters.--You’re peering into the Amazon River when, suddenly, you lose your footing and fall. Piranhas dart about in the rapidly approaching water. So, are you doomed? Will your fall trigger a feeding frenzy that will skeletonize your body within minutes? Antonio Machado-Allis...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/try-something-new-for-30-days-matt-cuttsIs there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals. Talk by Matt Cutts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the symbolism of Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square,” and how it pushed the boundaries of what art is and what it can be.--In 1915, an exhibition of radical artworks opened in Russia. Many pieces pushed the boundaries of form and style, but one was particularly controversial: Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square.” Criticized as simple and uninspired, Malevich’s work is more complicated than it...

Today medical scans produce thousands of images and terabytes of data for a single patient in mere seconds, but how do doctors parse this information and determine what's useful? In this talk, scientific visualization expert Anders Ynnerman shows us sophisticated new tools -- like virtual autopsies -- for analyzing this myriad data, and a glimpse at some sci-fi-sounding medical technologies in dev...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/unintended-consequences-edward-tennerEvery 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. Talk by Edward Tenner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

Dig into how African clawed frogs can help detect human pregnancy, and how their use in experiments had unintended consequences.--In the early 20th century, pregnancy testing required a slippery piece of equipment: a female African clawed frog. For decades, hospitals and research labs had a trusted supply of these handy creatures, employing their help in testing for pregnancy and in numerous other...

Get to know one of the most infamous scientific rivalries in history, known as the Bone Wars, where two scientists competed to find dinosaur fossils.--After the California Gold Rush of 1848, settlers streamed west to strike it rich. In addition to precious metals, they unearthed another treasure: dinosaur bones. Two wealthy scientists in particular— Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope— c...

Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world. (Filmed at TEDxRainier.)Talk by Patricia Kuhl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/doodlers-unite-sunni-brownStudies show that sketching and doodling improve our comprehension -- and our creative thinking. So why do we still feel embarrassed when we're caught doodling in a meeting? Sunni Brown says: Doodlers, unite! She makes the case for unlocking your brain via pad and pen. Talk by Sunni Brown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Explore the science of what attracts mosquitos, and find out why mosquitos bite some people more than others.--Some swear they’re cursed to be hunted by mosquitos while their close-by companions are regularly left unscathed. Are mosquitos really attracted to some people more than others? And if so, is there anything we can do about it? Maria Elena De Obaldia digs into what factors make people tast...

Ten years of research and 500 face-to-face-interviews led Richard St. John to a collection of eight common traits in successful leaders around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow Maxo, a warrior of the Chimu Empire, as he navigates the Inca-conquered streets of Chan Chan to receive a secret message.--It’s daybreak in the city of Chan Chan, and former soldier Maxo has been up all night fretting. Last night, a friend stopped by and instructed him to go to the plaza at noon to receive an important message. But with the recent defeat of their army and the overthrow of t...

Explore the economic strategy of quantitative easing, where a central bank purchases bonds in order to boost the economy.--In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rocked economies worldwide. Millions of people lost their jobs, and many businesses struggled to survive or shut down. Governments responded with some of the largest economic relief packages in history— the US alone spent $2.2 trillion on a...

For love or money? Based on hundreds of interviews and his personal experience, Richard St. John suggests that passion, not money, is one of the key drivers of success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Puzzle through a classic ethical dilemma and decide: can human existence be meaningful without its creativity and culture? --Life on your planet depends entirely on Nuronium for normal cognition. Unfortunately, its source has been compromised and you are now at risk of extinction. Scientists have found an alternate energy source, Polixate, but it can’t sustain cognition and would mean the loss of...

Nothing comes easy, and behind every success are hours of plain hard work. Sounds intimidating, but Richard St. John proposes a simple shift in attitude to turn mediocre into incredible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explore the possibilities and challenges of what a vegetarian world could look like if we all immediately stopped eating meat. --Imagine if a wizard of meatless dining suddenly appeared on Earth and with one wave of a wand wiped away all meat from our shelves— along with any desire to eat it. Farm animals destined for food vanish, whisked away to another planet. What happens in the following days,...

Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. In his talk, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work. (Filmed at TEDxMidWest.)Talk by Jason Fried. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/mysteries-of-vernacular-noise-jessica-oreckThe words noise, nausea, and naval all stem from the same Latin root. Jessica Oreck divulges how their spellings and meanings diverged from the original naus. Lesson and animation by Jessica Oreck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explore how marine creatures survive the frigid waters of Antarctica, and what traits allow them to live in such conditions.--The vast, white surface of Antarctica stretches for over 3 million square kilometers. On the coast of this expanse, just a few meters beneath the ice, lies a remarkably diverse realm that is home to over 8,000 species of sea denizens who rely on an arsenal of otherworldly t...