TED-Ed

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/are-elvish-klingon-dothraki-and-na-vi-real-languages-john-mcwhorterWhat do Game of Thrones' Dothraki, Avatar's Na'vi, Star Trek's Klingon and LOTR's Elvish have in common? They are all fantasy constructed languages, or conlangs. Conlangs have all the delicious complexities of real languages: a high volume of words, grammar rules, and room for messiness a...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-track-a-tornado-karen-kosibaAtmospheric scientist Karen Kosiba studies how tornadoes form and do damage. Getting measurements near the surface of these twisters is difficult, though, and driving into them is a practice mostly reserved for the big screen. In this TEDYouth Talk, Kosiba describes how she and her team use observations and modeling to...

Sebastian Wernicke thinks every TED Talk can be summarized in six words. In this talk, he shows how to do just that -- and less. (Filmed at TEDxZurich.)Talk by Sebastian Wernicke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The adventure ends! Episode 10: Can Ethic make it to the World Machine and stop Hedge from covering the world in a giant maze? --This is episode 10 of our animated series “Think Like A Coder.” This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as they attempt to save the world. The two embark on a quest to collect three artifacts and must solve their way through a ser...

Dive into the world of Chinese folktales with the myth of the white snake, a story of the demon Bai Su Zhen and her love, Xu Xian. (Part One of the myth of the white snake).--The talented herbalist Xu Xian had just started his own medicine shop where he created remedies with the help of his wife, Bai Su Zhen. One day a monk named Fa Hai approached him, warning him that there was a demon in his hou...

Dig into the science of radiosurgery: a procedure that uses light beams of radiation to target tumors, without making a single incision.--Every year, tens of thousands of people have brain surgery without a single incision: there’s no scalpel, no operating table, and the patient loses no blood. Instead, this procedure uses a machine that emits invisible beams of light at a precise target inside th...

The adventure continues! Episode 5: Ethic and Hedge arrive in the 198forest in search of the second artifact. Can they sneak past the guards to get to the tower? --This is episode 5 of our animated series “Think Like A Coder.” This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as they attempt to save the world. The two embark on a quest to collect three artifacts and...

How does your body fight a virus? Take a look inside your cells to witness how they produce antibodies and fight to keep you healthy.--All living things are made of cells. In the human body, these highly efficient units are protected by layer upon layer of defense against icky invaders like the cold virus. Shannon Stiles takes a journey into the cell, introducing the microscopic arsenal of weapons...

Dive into the history and controversy of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, “The Rite of Spring,” which shattered the conventions of classical ballet. --Ballet is typically thought of as harmonious, graceful and polished— hardly something that would trigger a riot. But at the first performance of Igor Stravinsky's “The Rite of Spring,” audience members were so outraged that they drowned out the orchestra....

Explore the U.S. bail system’s reliance on cash bail and how it disproportionately hurts people in low-income communities and communities of color.--Since 2000, the annual number of people convicted of crimes in the United States has stayed steady, but the average number of people in jail each year has shot up. How can that be? The answer lies in the bail system— which isn’t doing what it was inte...

Discover the myth of how the weak and pimply Aztec god Nanahuatl sacrificed himself to become Lord Sun and created a new world. --Nanahuatl, weakest of the Aztec gods, sickly and covered in pimples, had been chosen to form a new world. There had already been four worlds, each set in motion by its own “Lord Sun,” and each had been destroyed. For a new world to be created, another god had to leap in...

Women aren't micro--so why do they only get micro-loans? Reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that women running all types of firms-- from home businesses to major factories-- are the overlooked key to economic development. (Filmed at TEDxWomen.)Talk by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover how pregnancy changes every organ in the body— from the heart, to the brain and kidneys— and what we still don’t know about it.--Muscles and joints shift and jostle. The heart’s pounding rhythm speeds up. Blood roars through arteries and veins. Over the course of a pregnancy, every organ in the body changes. Initiated by a range of hormones, these changes begin as soon as a pregnancy begi...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-family-structure-of-elephants-caitlin-o-connell-rodwellBiologist Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell has come to one big conclusion from her last twenty years studying elephants -- they're just like us. In this TEDYouth Talk, O'Connell-Rodwell details her work observing these incredible, social animals, examining several individual (and very familiar) characte...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/birth-of-a-nickname-john-mcwhorterWhere 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 tracks the accidental evolution of some familiar diminutives. Lesson by John McWhorter...

Discover the Siekopai myth of the air goblins, spirits who fly and control the winds, as they clash with the human world. --Deep in the Amazon rainforest in the river Nea’ocoyá lived a school of particularly big and tasty fish. When the rains came and the water rose the fish appeared, and swam away as the waters fell. Villagers along the river followed them to a lagoon and set up camp. But their y...

Take a look at the LIDAR and integrated photonics technologies that help self-driving cars navigate obstacles, no matter the environment, weather or light.--It’s late, pitch dark and a self-driving car winds down a narrow country road. Suddenly, three hazards appear at the same time. With no human at the wheel, the car uses smart eyes, sensors that’ll resolve these details all in a split-second. H...

Explore the history and technology of Viking longships, which helped the Scandinavians conquer trade routes and new territories.--As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by the 11th century, they had spread far from Scandinavia, gaining control of trade routes throughout Europe, conquering kingdoms as far as Africa, and building outposts i...

Follow a queen fire ant as she builds a colony, protects it from neighboring ant armies and fends off would-be usurpers vying for her throne. --In the spring, just after a heavy rainfall, male and female fire ants swarm the skies for a day of romance, known as the nuptial flight. Thousands of reproduction-capable ants take part in a mating frenzy, and for one successfully mated female, her work is...

Explore the creation of national parks and the importance of finding a balance between public use and ecological preservation.--In 1903, US President Theodore Roosevelt took a camping trip in California’s Yosemite Valley with conservationist John Muir. Roosevelt famously loved the outdoors, but Muir had invited him for more than just camping: Yosemite was in danger. It was part of a struggle to se...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-networked-beauty-of-forests-suzanne-simard Deforestation causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all trains, planes and automobiles combined. What can we do to change this contributor to global warming? Suzanne Simard examines how the complex, symbiotic networks of our forests mimic our own neural and social networks -- and how those connections mi...

Download a free audiobook version of "Crime and Punishment" and support TED-Ed's nonprofit mission: https://www.audible.com/ted-edCheck out our full book recommendation: https://shop.ed.ted.com/products/crime-and-punishment--What drives someone to kill in cold blood? What goes through the murderer’s mind? And what kind of a society breeds such people? Over 150 years ago Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoye...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/human-sperm-vs-the-sperm-whale-aatish-bhatiaTraveling is extremely arduous for microscopic sperm -- think of a human trying to swim in a pool made of...other humans. We can compare the journey of a sperm to that of a sperm whale by calculating the Reynolds number, a prediction of how fluid will behave, often fluctuating due to size of the swimmer. Aatish...

Each kind of light has a unique wavelength, but human eyes can only perceive a tiny slice of the full spectrum -- the very narrow range from red to violet. Microwaves, radio waves, x-rays and more are hiding, invisible, just beyond our perception. Here is a closer look at the waves we can't see. Animated by Pew36 Animation Studios. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Within this generation, an extra 30 years have been added to our life expectancy -- and these years aren't just a footnote or a pathology. In this talk, Jane Fonda asks how we can think about this new phase of our lives. (Filmed at TEDxWomen.)Talk by Jane Fonda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices