TED-Ed

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-attraction-dawn-maslarRomantic chemistry is all about warm, gooey feelings that gush from the deepest depths of the heart...right? Not quite. Actually, the real boss behind attraction is your brain, which runs through a very quick, very complex series of calculations when assessing a potential partner. Dawn Maslar explores how our five sen...

Get to know Amy Tan’s novel “The Joy Luck Club,” a series of interconnected vignettes centered around four Chinese American families. --In her Auntie An-mei’s home, Jing-Mei reluctantly takes her seat at the eastern corner of the mahjong table. At the north, south and west corners are her aunties, long-time members of the Joy Luck Club. This gathering is the point of departure for a series of inte...

Explore the differences between weather and climate – what they are, how we predict them, and what those predictions can tell us. --From 2016 to 2019, the world saw record-breaking heat waves, rampant wildfires, and the longest run of category 5 tropical cyclones on record. The number of extreme weather events has been increasing for the last 40 years, and current predictions suggest that trend wi...

When Ramona Pierson was 22, she was hit by a drunk driver and spent 18 months in a coma. In this talk, she tells the remarkable story of her recovery -- drawing on the collective skills and wisdom of a senior citizens' home. (Filmed at TEDxDU.)Talk by Ramona Pierson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Puzzle through the classic game theory challenge, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, and decide: would you choose to spare or sacrifice? --Two perfectly rational gingerbread men, Crispy and Chewy, are out strolling when they’re caught by a fox. Instead of simply eating them, he decides to put their friendship to the test with a cruel dilemma. He’ll ask each gingerbread man whether he’d opt to Spare or Sacrif...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-atoms-bond-george-zaidan-and-charles-mortonAtoms 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 simple oxygen to complex human chromosome 13, George Zaidan and Charles M...

Why do our muscles get tired and sore after exercise? Explore how our muscles function, and how you can exercise longer without experiencing muscle fatigue.--You're lifting weights. The first time feels easy, but each lift takes more and more effort until you can’t continue. Inside your arms, the muscles responsible for the lifting have become unable to contract. What’s going on? Christian Moro ex...

Join #TeamSeas! Together, we're going to raise $30M to remove 30M pounds of plastic and trash from our ocean, rivers and beaches. Learn more and get involved here: https://bit.ly/3mrdV3JTrace the history of the invention of plastic, and how the material ushered in what became known as the plastics century.--For centuries, billiard balls were made of ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hu...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-sweaty-teacher-s-lament-justin-lambJustin Lamb would love to be the compassionate teacher. Or the tough but fair teacher. He'd even settle for the wacky teacher, if it meant he could shake his current, less flattering alias: the sweaty teacher. In "Sweaty Teacher," a lively spoken word performance, Lamb defends the "geysers he calls armpits," remindi...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-don-t-oil-and-water-mix-john-pollardSalt dissolves in water; oil does not. But why? You can think of that glass of water as a big, bumpin' dance party where the water molecules are always switching dance partners -- and they'd much rather dance with a salt ion. John Pollard explains how two chemistry principles, energetics and entropy, rule the dance...

In her talk, Melinda Gates makes a provocative case for nonprofits taking a cue from corporations such as Coca-Cola, whose plugged-in, global network of marketers and distributors ensures that every remote village wants -- and can get -- a Coke. Why shouldn't this work for condoms, sanitation, vaccinations too? (Filmed at TEDxChange.)Talk by Melinda French Gates. Learn more about your ad choices....

Discover Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic, “Dune,” which tells the story of a man catapulted into the middle of a planetary revolution. --A mother and son trek across an endless desert. Wearing special suits to dissipate heat and recycle moisture, the travelers aren’t worried about dying of thirst. Their fears are much greater. Soon, the sound of the desert is drowned out by a hissing: a mo...

Explore how fiber optics uses light to transmit data over long distances, and with integrated photonics, expands our virtual world beyond the internet.--In 2012, a team of researchers set a world record, transmitting 1 petabit of data— that’s 10,000 hours of high-def video— over a fifty-kilometer cable, in a second. This wasn’t just any cable. It was a souped-up version of fiber optics, the hidden...

Dennis Hong introduces seven award-winnning, all-terrain robots -- like the humanoid, soccer-playing DARwIn and the cliff-gripping CLIMBeR -- all built by his team at RoMeLa, Virginia Tech. Watch to the end to hear the five creative secrets to his lab's incredible technical success. (Filmed at TEDxNASA.)Talk by Dennis Hong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explore the ancient Greek philosophy of cynicism, which calls for the rejection of materialism and conformity in favor of a simple life. --In the 4th century BCE, a young Diogenes of Sinope was found to be counterfeiting coins. He was stripped of his citizenship, his money, all his possessions and sent into exile. He decided he would live self-sufficiently, close to nature, without materialism, va...

Dive into the Japanese folktale of a scholar’s quest to purify his body and mind, and the spiritual secret he discovers along the way.--In ancient Kyoto, a Shinto scholar found himself distracted from his prayers and sought to perform a purification ritual that would cleanse him. He decided to travel to the revered Hie Shrine; walking the path alone, ignoring any distractions in his quest for bala...

Follow Pheidias, the chief builder for the Parthenon, as he supervises the construction of the new temple and faces charges of embezzlement.--The year is 432 BCE. As dawn breaks over Athens, Pheidias is already late for work. He is the chief builder for the Parthenon — Athens’ newest and largest temple— and when he arrives onsite, city officials accuse him of embezzling gold from the temple’s sacr...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/population-pyramids-powerful-predictors-of-the-future-kim-preshoffPopulation statistics are like crystal balls -- when examined closely, they can help predict a country's future (and give important clues about the past). Kim Preshoff explains how using a visual tool called a population pyramid helps policymakers and social scientists make sense of the st...

Dive into the stories of horror savant H.P. Lovecraft, whose fantastical tales, such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” created a new era of Gothic horror.-- Arcane books of forbidden lore, disturbing secrets in the family bloodline, and terrors so unspeakable the very thought of them might drive you mad. These have become standard elements in modern horror stories. But they were largely popularized by a s...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-extremophiles-bode-well-for-life-beyond-earth-louisa-prestonLife on Earth requires three things: liquid water, a source of energy within a habitable range from the sun and organic carbon-based material. But life is surprisingly resilient, and organisms called extremophiles can be found in hostile living conditions (think extreme temperatures and litt...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-stage-fright-and-how-to-overcome-it-mikael-choHeart racing, palms sweating, labored breathing? No, you're not having a heart attack -- it's stage fright! If speaking in public makes you feel like you're fighting for your life, you're not alone. But the better you understand your body's reaction, the more likely you are to overcome it. Mika...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-fundamentals-of-space-time-part-2-andrew-pontzen-and-tom-whyntieView part 1 here: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-fundamentals-of-space-time-part-1-andrew-pontzen-and-tom-whyntieLight always travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. But if you're in motion too, you're going to perceive it as traveling even faster -- which isn't possible! In...

You’ve promised to get your son the cutest creature in creation: the cuddly. Can you outsmart the cuddly incubator and go home a hero?--You’ve promised to get your son the cutest creature in creation: the cuddly. It’s part of the Wuddly species, cousin to the terrifying duddly and the hideous fuddly. To make one, 100 eggs are placed in an incubator to undergo egg fusion, and the resulting combinat...

Trace the 7,000 year old history of alcohol, from its first known origins in China to cultures all over the world fermenting their own drinks.--Nobody knows exactly when humans began to create fermented beverages. The earliest known evidence comes from 7,000 BCE in China, where residue in clay pots has revealed that people were making an alcoholic beverage from fermented rice, millet, grapes, and...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-case-of-the-missing-fractals-alex-rosenthal-and-george-zaidanA bump on the head, a mysterious femme fatale and a strange encounter on a windswept peak all add up to a heck of a night for Manny Brot, Private Eye. Watch as he tries his hand at saving the dame and getting the cash! Shudder at the mind-bending geometric riddles! Thrill to the stunning so...