TED-Ed

Discover the shortcomings of using GDP to measure a country’s well-being, and what alternatives can be used to gauge quality of life.--What’s the best country to live in? Is it the one with the best food? The longest life expectancy? The best weather? For the past 70 years, most governments have relied heavily on a single number: the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. But it was never intended for it...

Explore the science of what causes total solar eclipses, and find out how civilizations throughout history reacted to them.--How can the shadow of the tiny moon eclipse the sight of the gargantuan sun? By sheer coincidence, the disc of the sun is 400x larger than the disc of the moon, but it's 390x farther from Earth -- which means that when they align just right, the moon blocks all but the sun's...

In Western society, bats are often characterized as creepy, even evil. Zoologist Emma Teeling encourages us to rethink our attitude toward bats, whose unique and fascinating biology gives us insight into our own genetic makeup. (Filmed at TEDxDublin.)Talk by Emma Teeling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover how alcohol impacts your body’s processes and causes hangovers, and find out what causes the most common hangover symptoms.--The molecule responsible for hangovers is ethanol, which we colloquially refer to as alcohol. Ethanol is present in all alcoholic beverages, and generally speaking, the more ethanol, the greater the potential for a hangover. So, how exactly does alcohol cause a hang...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-emergence-of-drama-as-a-literary-art-mindy-ploeckelmannWhen presented with the problem of hoards of illiterate commoners, English clergymen in the 11th century created plays to spread word about the Bible. Eventually, the plays moved out of the church and into the streets. Mindy Ploeckelmann tracks the development of drama from mystery plays to moral...

Explore the possibility of plastivores— organisms that can eat and break down plastic— helping reduce the plastic waste on Earth.--Each year humanity produces roughly 400 million tons of plastic, 80% of which is discarded as trash. Of that plastic waste, only one-tenth is recycled. 60% gets incinerated or goes into the landfills, and 30% leaks out into the environment. Fortunately, there are micro...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/tracking-grizzly-bears-from-space-david-laskinGrizzly bears have adapted cleverly to their diminishing habitat by developing a mostly vegetarian diet in sync with plant growing seasons. Using NASA satellites, scientists track the shifting, interrelated patterns of grizzlies and plants. David Laskin explains how this data can help protect the threatened b...

Discover what it took to build the Panama Canal, and how this colossal construction project changed the region. --In the 19th century, the California gold rush brought thousands of settlers to America's west coast. But finding gold may have been easier than transporting it back east. The only hope for avoiding a grueling six month wagon journey was to travel the narrowest portion of the continent...

Discover the extraordinary capabilities of hagfish, the slime-producing fish that has survived on Earth for over 300 million years.--In 2017, a truck screeched to a halt. One of its containers slid off, hit a car, and spilled its contents— thousands of kilograms of hagfish. The result of this accident was an absolute mess: the highway was coated in a thick slime that took the fire department 7 hou...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-you-decide-where-to-go-in-a-zombie-apocalypse-david-hunterCan geography save your life in case of, say, a zombie apocalypse? Understanding the push and pull factors that create geographic movement -- or how people, resources, and even ideas travel -- might help you determine the location that's best for survival. David Hunter playfully analyzes th...

Explore the common causes and treatments of yeast infections, which affect 3 out of every 4 people with a vagina.--The vagina harbors hundreds of different kinds of microorganisms. Candida yeasts are usually present in small quantities and most of the time, these fungi are harmless. But, under certain conditions, Candida yeasts can cause infections. One species in particular is the usual culprit o...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/cheese-dogs-and-a-pill-to-kill-mosquitoes-and-end-malaria-bart-knolsWe can use a mosquito's own instincts against her. At TEDxMaastricht speaker Bart Knols demos the imaginative solutions his team is developing to fight malaria -- including limburger cheese and a deadly pill. (Filmed at TEDxMaastricht.)Talk by Bart Knols. Learn more about your ad choices...

View full lesson here: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-plural-word-s-john-mcwhorterAll it takes is a simple S to make most English words plural. But it hasn't always worked that way (and there are, of course, exceptions). John McWhorter looks back to the good old days when English was newly split from German -- and books, names and eggs were beek, namen and eggru! Lesson by John McWho...

Dig into the 4 biggest existential risks that threaten the survival of humanity, and explore how we can safeguard our future.--With the invention of the atomic bomb, humanity gained the power to destroy itself for the first time in our history. Since then, our risk of either extinction or the collapse of civilization has steadily increased. Just how likely are we to destroy ourselves? And what pos...

Mice, bugs and hamsters are no longer the only way to study the brain. Functional MRI (fMRI) allows scientists to map brain activity in living, breathing, decision-making human beings. Read Montague gives an overview of how this technology is helping us understand the complicated ways in which we interact with each other. Talk by Read Montague. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-new-way-to-diagnose-autism-ami-klinEarly diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder can improve the lives of everyone affected, but the complex network of causes make it incredibly difficult to predict. At TEDxPeachtree, Ami Klin describes a new early detection method that uses eye-tracking technologies to gauge babies' social engagement skills and reliably...

Trace the rise and fall of the Islamic Empire, from the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century to the sacking of Baghdad. --In the 7th century CE, the prophet Muhammad united the people of the Arabian Peninsula through the formation of Islam. Over the next 30 years, caliphs conquered vast areas beyond Arabia, including their mighty neighbors the Persians and Byzantines. But an empire this vast was at...

Dig into how foreign corporations exploit African nations like Mali for their gold mining, and often rob them of proper compensation.--In 2020, Mali produced over 71 tons of gold— an amount worth billions of dollars. But Mali saw only $850 million dollars from that gold. And this situation isn’t unique: a number of other gold-rich countries in Africa aren’t seeing the income they should given the...

When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous. Talk by Ben Goldacre. Learn more...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-mysterious-workings-of-the-adolescent-brain-sarah-jayne-blakemoreWhy do teenagers seem so much more impulsive, so much less self-aware than grown-ups? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in adolescents to that of adults, to show us how typically "teenage" behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain...

Is infinite economic growth possible on a planet with finite resources? Explore how countries can balance efficiency with sustainability.--Many economists think that an eternally growing economy is necessary to keep improving people’s lives, and that if the global economy stops growing, people would fight more over the fixed amount of value that exists, rather than working to generate new value. W...

Download a free audiobook version of "Take a Nap: Change Your Life" by Sara Mednick or Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" and support TED-Ed's nonprofit mission: https://www.audible.com/ted-ed--Your eyes get heavy and gradually close… But wait! It’s only lunch time and you still have so much to do. Would taking a nap help? Or would it derail your day? Well, that depends on a few things— especially wh...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/mining-literature-for-deeper-meanings-amy-e-harterWriting a great English paper can be tough because literature doesn't always reveal its deeper meanings immediately. You might not know Mr. Darcy's true feelings for Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" or grasp the complex moral universe of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" at first reading....

Discover the tradition of worm grunting, and find out why earthworms come to the surface when they sense vibrations in the earth.--In the middle of Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest, a bizarre, almost magical scene is unraveling. Sliding a metal strip over a wooden stake, a master summoner is sending deep croaking noises reverberating throughout the area. And, as if in a trance, hundreds of e...

Because of poor acoustics, students in classrooms miss 50 percent of what their teachers say and patients in hospitals have trouble sleeping because they continually feel stressed. Julian Treasure sounds a call to action for designers to pay attention to the "invisible architecture" of sound. Talk by Julian Treasure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices