TED-Ed

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/urbanization-and-the-future-of-cities-vance-kiteAbout 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers, aided by rudimentary agriculture, moved to semi-permanent villages and never looked back. With further developments came food surpluses, leading to commerce, specialization and, many years later with the Industrial Revolution, the modern city. Vance Kite plots our u...

Get to know the Russian classic “The Master and Margarita,” a genre-defying blend of political satire and occult mysticism about a visit from the Devil.--The Devil has come to town. But don’t worry– all he wants to do is stage a magic show. This absurd premise forms the central plot of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece, “The Master and Margarita.” Its blend of political satire, historical fiction and...

Get to know the life of West African revolutionary Thomas Sankara, and his pursuit of liberating Burkina Faso from colonial rule.--In 1972, Thomas Sankara was swept into the revolution seeking to wrest control of Madagascar from France’s lingering colonial rule. The protests inspired the West African native to read works by socialist leaders and seek wisdom from military strategy. Leaving Madagasc...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/sugar-hiding-in-plain-sight-robert-lustigWhile sugar is easy to spot in candy, soft drinks and ice cream, it also hides out in foods you might not expect -- including peanut butter, pasta sauce and even bologna! Robert Lustig decodes confusing labels and sugar's many aliases to help determine just how much of that sweet carbohydrate makes its way into ou...

Discover history’s first empire: Sumer, located in Mesopotamia, which built the world’s first cities and created the first writing system.--History’s first empire rose out of a hot, dry landscape, without rainfall to nourish crops, without trees or stones for building. In spite of all this, its inhabitants built the world’s first cities, with monumental architecture and large populations— and they...

A classroom erupts into a war of words as students grapple with a seemingly simple prompt: what is the opposite of a gun?--A TED-Ed ProductionA film by Anna Samo + Lisa LaBracioA poem by Brendan ConstantinePoem performed by Brendan ConstantineSound Design by Weston FongerAnimation & Design by Anna Samo + Lisa LaBracioProduced by Gerta XheloThis animation is part of our series, "There's a Poem for...

Dig into the psychology of political partisanship, how to recognize it and what strategies can be used to combat it. --Can someone’s political identity actually affect their ability to process information? The answer lies in a cognitive phenomenon known as partisanship. While identifying with social groups is an essential and healthy part of life, it can become a problem when the group’s beliefs a...

Download a free audiobook version of "Children of Time" and support TED-Ed's nonprofit mission: https://www.audible.com/ted-edCheck out our full book recommendation: https://shop.ed.ted.com/collections/ted-ed-book-recommendations/products/children-of-time--Imagine a distant future when humans reach beyond Earth, forge cities on planets thousands of light-years away, and maintain a galactic web of...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-many-ways-can-you-arrange-a-deck-of-cards-yannay-khaikinOne deck. Fifty-two cards. How many arrangements? Let's put it this way: Any time you pick up a well shuffled deck, you are almost certainly holding an arrangement of cards that has never before existed and might not exist again. Yannay Khaikin explains how factorials allow us to pinpoint the ex...

Dig into the ancient manuscripts, scrolls, and books of Timbuktu— and find out why they’ve been hidden for centuries. --On the edge of the vast Sahara desert, citizens snuck out of the city of Timbuktu and took to the wilderness. They buried chests in the desert sand, hid them in caves, and sealed them in secret rooms. Inside these chests was a treasure more valuable than gold: the city’s ancient...

Dig into the burden of proof fallacy, which assumes that something is true unless proven false and relies on arguments from ignorance.--It’s 1950. Anti-communist sentiment in the United States is at an all-time high. Senator Joseph McCarthy claims he has a list of communists who are influencing government policy. He makes his first accusation without providing any legitimate evidence, yet the sena...

Discover how scientists are using light and integrated photonics technology to create medical devices that can diagnose illness.--It’s an increasingly common sight in hospitals around the world: a nurse measures our height, weight, blood pressure, and attaches a glowing plastic clip to our finger. Suddenly, a digital screen reads out the oxygen level in our bloodstream. How did that happen? Sajan...

Learn how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, and how the antibiotic has changed medicine and the treatment of infections. --In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming returned to his lab and found something unexpected: a colony of mold growing on a Petri dish he’d forgotten to place in his incubator. And around this colony of mold was a zone completely and surprisingly clear of bacteria. What was...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/lee-hotz-inside-an-antarctic-time-machineScience columnist Lee Hotz describes a remarkable project at WAIS Divide, Antarctica, where a hardy team are drilling into ten-thousand-year-old ice to extract vital data on our changing climate. Robert Lee Hotz is the science columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he writes about cutting-edge research on cl...

Learn about the science of stem cells and how these incredible, transforming cells could lead to personalized medicine for individual bodies.--Is personalized medicine for individual bodies in our future? Possibly -- with the use of stem cells, undifferentiated cells with the power to become any tissue in our bodies. Craig A. Kohn describes the role of these incredible, transforming cells and how...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/janet-echelman-taking-imagination-seriouslyJanet Echelman found her true voice as an artist when her paints went missing -- which forced her to look to an unorthodox new art material. Now she makes billowing, flowing, building-sized sculpture with a surprisingly geeky edge. A transporting 10 minutes of pure creativity. Talk by Janet Echelman. Learn more...

Dive into the most popular milks— dairy, almond, soy and oat— to find out which is healthiest for you and for the planet.--If you go to the store in search of milk, there are a dizzying number of products to choose from. There’s dairy milk, but also plant-based products such as almond, soy, and oat milks. So which milk is actually best for you? And which uses the fewest resources and produces the...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/pixar-the-math-behind-the-movies-tony-deroseThe folks at Pixar are widely known as some of the world's best storytellers and animators. They are perhaps less recognized as some of the most innovative math whizzes around. Pixar Research Lead Tony DeRose delves into the math behind the animations, explaining how arithmetic, trigonometry and geometry help b...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-is-love-brad-troegerIs love a signal winding through your neural pathways? A cliche? A cult? Love is easy to compare but difficult to define, maybe because we're fundamentally biased; we try to define love while falling in or out of it. And love feels differently to every person who feels it, but this subjective emotion has evolutionary explanations...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-true-power-of-the-performing-arts-ben-cameronArts administrator and live-theater fan Ben Cameron looks at the state of the live arts -- asking: How can the magic of live theater, live music, live dance compete with the always-on Internet? In his talk, he offers a bold look forward. (Filmed at TEDxYYC.) Talk by Ben Cameron. Learn more about your ad ch...

How can trees help in the fight against climate change? Dig into the efforts to rebuild damaged ecosystems and reduce carbon emissions.--Today humanity produces more than 1,400 tons of carbon every minute. To combat climate change, we need to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and draw down excess CO2 to restore the balance of greenhouse gases. Like all plants, trees consume atmospheric carbon through...

Test your wits with a set of hypothetical health studies and find out just how good you are at spotting clickbait.--Health headlines are published every day, sometimes making opposite claims from each other. There can be a disconnect between broad, attention-grabbing headlines and the often specific, incremental results of the medical research they cover. So how can you avoid being misled by grabb...

Dig into the history of the construction of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and how John Roebling designed a hybrid suspension system to build it. --In the mid-19th century, suspension bridges were collapsing all across Europe. Their industrial cables frayed and snapped under the weight of their decks. So when German American engineer John Roebling proposed building the largest and most expensive suspe...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/rnai-slicing-dicing-and-serving-your-cells-alex-dainisRNA, the genetic messenger, makes sure the DNA recipe gives your cells exactly what they ordered. But sometimes that means inhibiting some other RNA that got the recipe wrong. This process is called RNA interference (RNAi), and it acts as a self-correcting system within the complicated genetic kitchen...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-fundamentals-of-space-time-part-1-andrew-pontzen-and-tom-whyntieSpace is where things happen. Time is when things happen. And sometimes, in order to really look at the universe, you need to take those two concepts and mash them together. In this first lesson of a three-part series on space-time, hilarious hosts Andrew Pontzen and Tom Whyntie go throu...