TED-Ed

Explore the science of parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction which allows animals to develop an embryo without fertilization.--In 2021, workers at a Sardinian aquarium were stunned by the birth of a smooth-hound shark. What was shocking was that, for the last decade, the shark’s mother had been living only with other females. So, how was this birth possible? And can other species reproduce this...

Dig into the unethical Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which spanned 40 years and lied to its participants about receiving treatment for syphilis.--Afflicting nearly 1 in 10 Americans, syphilis was ravaging the U.S. in the 1930s. Many doctors believed syphilis affected Black and white patients differently, and the Public Health Service launched an experiment to investigate, recruiting 600 Black men to ta...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-host-of-heroes-april-gudenrathWhat can some of literature's most famous heroes teach us? From the epic hero (like Beowulf) to the tragic hero (like Oedipus), each has something distinctive to share. April Gudenrath describes the many faces of the fictional hero -- and shows how they can inspire everyday people. Lesson by April Gudenrath, animation by B...

Get to know the Hawaiian legend of the sacred wind gourd and follow Paka’a's fight to restore his rightful place beside the king.--Long ago, the Hawaiian wind goddess wielded a gourd that housed the winds of the Islands. It came to hold her bones, along with the life force they carried, and was eventually passed to her grandson, Paka'a. Like his father before him, he became the trusted attendant t...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/pool-medical-patents-save-lives-ellen-t-hoenPatenting a new drug helps finance its immense cost to develop -- but that same patent can put advanced treatments out of reach for sick people in developing nations, at deadly cost. Ellen 't Hoen talks about an elegant, working solution to the problem: the Medicines Patent Pool. (Filmed at TEDxZurich.)Talk by...

Dig into the science of fecal microbial transplantation, where doctors transfer feces into a patient to help reset their gut microbiome.--1,700 years ago, Chinese alchemist Ge Hong was renowned for his soup that could cure diarrhea-stricken patients. It had a surprising secret ingredient: feces. While it might seem unwise to consume feces, exciting new research suggests that taking poop into the b...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-we-learned-from-5-million-books-erez-lieberman-aiden-and-jean-baptiste-michelHave you played with Google Labs' Ngram Viewer? It's an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel show us how it works, and a few of the surprising things we...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-40-year-plan-for-energy-amory-lovinsIn this intimate talk filmed at TED's offices, energy innovator Amory Lovins shows how to get the US off oil and coal by 2050, $5 trillion cheaper, with no Act of Congress, led by business for profit. The key is integrating all four energy-using sectors—and four kinds of innovation. Talk by Amory Lovins. Learn more a...

Discover what caused the hole in the ozone layer, and how the Montreal Protocol helped restore it by banning harmful chemicals.--In the 1980s, the world faced a huge problem: there was a rapidly expanding hole in the ozone layer. If it continued to grow, rates of skin cancer could skyrocket, photosynthesis would be impaired, agricultural production would plummet, and entire ecosystems would collap...

Explore the Rashomon effect, where individuals give significantly different but equally believable accounts of the same event. --A samurai is found dead in a quiet bamboo grove. One by one, the crime’s only known witnesses recount their version of the events. But as they each tell their tale, it becomes clear that every testimony is plausible yet different. And each witness implicates themselves....

Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side -- and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial. Talk by Tali Sharot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/making-a-ted-ed-lesson-animating-zombies-with-puppetsWhat style of animation perfectly mimics the movement of zombies? Puppet animation allows for just the right amount of zombie-like stiff limbs and jerky stumbles. TED-Ed animators show how to bring a zombie to life through 2D puppet animation (and how to try this at home).Lesson and animation by TED-Ed...

Vote here for Education Website: http://on.ted.com/EdWebbyVote here for Best Practices Website: http://on.ted.com/BPWebby Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trace the history of popcorn, from its origins in the Americas to its explosion of popularity in the 20th century.--Soft percussion and a toasty scent mark the violent transformation of tough seeds into cloud-like puffs. This is the almost magical process of popcorn-making. Dozens of kinds of popcorn are now grown in the US, with different strains assuming distinctive shapes when their kernels exp...

What makes for an effective outbreak response? Explore successful systems from around the world that prevented epidemics.--In 2013, an Ebola outbreak began in Guinea. The country had no formal response system and the outbreak became the largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history. Guinea then completely overhauled their response system, and were able to successfully combat another outbreak in 2021....

Oops! Nobody wants to see the 404: Page Not Found. But as Renny Gleeson shows us, while he runs through a slideshow of creative and funny 404 pages, every error is really a chance to build a better relationship. Talk by Renny Gleeson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/making-sense-of-how-life-fits-together-bobbi-seleskiFrom something as miniscule as a cell to the biosphere we all call home, living things fit together in numerous interesting ways. Bobbi Seleski catalogs biology from our body and beyond, tracking how unicellular organisms, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems,...

Dig into the breeding program that saved Takhi horses from extinction, and explore the role of zoos in animal conservation.--For thousands of years, native Takhi horses roamed the steppes of Central Asia. But by the late 1960s, their extinction seemed inevitable. To prevent this, scientists and zoos started a breeding program and soon began releasing new generations of Asia's ancient wild horse ba...

There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique -- called the memory palace -- and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him. Talk by Joshua Foer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Practice more problem-solving at https://brilliant.org/TedEd--Hundreds of years ago, your ancestor stole a magical tarot deck from Fate herself— and it came with a terrible cost. Once every 23 years, one member of your family must face Fate in a duel with rules only known to your opponent. And every time, generation after generation, the outcome is the same: Fate claims their soul. Today, it’s you...

Discover the unique adaptations of marine forests, the ecosystems that provide food and shelter for sharks and diverse coastal species.--Forests don’t usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks. But marine forests provide a home for 35% of the world’s sharks. Mangrove forests in particular function as an essential bridge between land and sea and have evolved various adaptations that protect them...

High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about a lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing call for science teachers to ditch the jargon and extreme precision, and instead make science sing through stories and demonstrations. (Filmed at TEDxBeaconStreet.)Talk by...

Explore the British policy called Operation Legacy, where the government hid incriminating documents from its former colonies.--In 2009, five Kenyan people took a petition to the British Prime Minister. They claimed they endured human rights abuses in the 1950s, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, and demanded reparations. They had no documentary evidence that Britain sanctioned systems o...

Get to know the works of William Faulkner, whose inventive literature made him one of America’s most remarkable writers.--William Faulkner is considered one of America’s most remarkable and perplexing writers. He confused his audience intentionally, using complex sentences, unreliable narrators, and outlandish imagery. His body of work is shocking, inventive, hilarious, and challenging. So how can...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/music-and-emotion-through-time-michael-tilson-thomasIn this epic overview, Michael Tilson Thomas traces the development of classical music through the development of written notation, the record, and the re-mix. Talk by Michael Tilson Thomas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices