TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

Can you solve the honeybee riddle? | Dan Finkel

09 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You're a biologist on a mission to keep the rare honeybee Apis Trifecta from going extinct. The last 60 bees of the species are in your terrarium. You...

Ethical dilemma: The burger murders | George Siedel and Christine Ladwig

09 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You founded a company that manufactures meatless burgers that are sold in stores worldwide. But you've recently received awful news: three people in o...

No one can figure out how eels have sex | Lucy Cooke

09 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From Ancient Greece to the 20th century, Aristotle, Freud, and numerous other scholars were all looking for the same thing: eel testicles. Freshwater ...

How do our brains process speech? | Gareth Gaskell

23 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The average 20-year-old knows between 27,000 and 52,000 different words. Spoken out loud, most of these words last less than a second. With every word...

The myth of Jason, Medea, and the Golden Fleece | Iseult Gillespie

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Colchis, the hide of a mystical flying ram hangs from the tallest oak, guarded by a dragon who never sleeps. The only way Jason can pry it from Kin...

The rise and fall of the Celtic warriors | Philip Freeman

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One summer evening in 335 BCE, Alexander the Great was resting by the Danube River when a band of strangers approached his camp. Alexander had never s...

The Egyptian myth of the death of Osiris | Alex Gendler

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Long jealous of his older brother Osiris, the god who ruled all of Egypt, the warrior god Set plotted to overthrow him. Hosting an extravagant party a...

The race to decode a mysterious language | Susan Lupack

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1900s, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovered nearly 3,000 tablets inscribed with strange symbols. He thought the script, dubbed Linear...

Volcanic eruption explained | Steven Anderson

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In February of 1942, Mexican farmer Dionisio Pulido thought he heard thunder coming from his cornfield. However, the sound wasn't coming from the sky....

What happened when the United States tried to ban alcohol | Rod Phillips

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On January 17, 1920, less than one hour after spirits had become illegal throughout the United States, armed men robbed a Chicago freight train and ma...

The tale of the boy who tricked the Devil | Iseult Gillespie

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a small town, a proud mother showed off her newborn son. Upon noticing his lucky birthmark, townsfolk predicted he would marry a princess. But soon...

The greatest mathematician that never lived | Pratik Aghor

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Nicolas Bourbaki applied to the American Mathematical Society in the 1950s, he was already one of the most influential mathematicians of his time...

Why the @#$% is there so much traffic? | Benjamin Seibold

28 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You're cruising down the highway when all of a sudden endless rows of brake lights appear ahead. There's no accident, no stoplight, no change in speed...

Why should you read "Moby Dick"? | Sascha Morrell

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A mountain separating two lakes. A room papered floor to ceiling with bridal satins. The lid of an immense snuffbox. These seemingly unrelated images ...

How do ventilators work? | Alex Gendler

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 16th century, physician Andreas Vesalius described how a suffocating animal could be kept alive by inserting a tube into its trachea and blowin...

Can you solve the world's most evil wizard riddle? | Dan Finkel

19 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The evil wizard MoldeVort has been trying to kill you for years, and today it looks like he's going to succeed. But your friends are on their way, and...

How do you know if you have a virus? | Cella Wright

18 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new virus emerges and spreads like wildfire. In order to contain it, researchers must first collect data about who's been infected. Two main viral t...

What is a coronavirus? | Elizabeth Cox

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For almost a decade, scientists chased the source of a deadly new virus through China's tallest mountains and most isolated caverns. They finally foun...

A day in the life of an Aztec midwife | Kay Read

12 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The midwife Xoquauhtli has a difficult choice to make. She owes a debt to her patron Teteoinnan, the female warrior goddess at the center of the Aztec...

What causes opioid addiction, and why is it so tough to combat? | Mike Davis

08 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s and 90s, pharmaceutical companies began to market opioid painkillers aggressively, while actively downplaying their addictive potential. ...

Which is better: Soap or hand sanitizer? | Alex Rosenthal and Pall Thordarson

05 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Your hands, up close, are anything but smooth. With peaks and valleys, folds and rifts, there are plenty of hiding places for a virus to stick. If you...

What really happened during the Salem Witch Trials | Brian A. Pavlac

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You've been accused of a crime you did not commit. It's impossible to prove your innocence. If you insist that you're innocent anyway, you'll likely b...

What happens if you cut down all of a city's trees? | Stefan Al

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By 2050, it's estimated that over 65% of the world will be living in cities. We may think of nature as being unconnected to our urban spaces, but tree...

The wildly complex anatomy of a sneaker | Angel Chang

23 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Australians call them "runners." The British know them as "trainers." Americans refer to them as "sneakers." Whatever you call them, these casual shoe...

What's the point(e) of ballet? | Ming Luke

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A baby cursed at birth. A fierce battle of good and evil. A true love awoken with a kiss. Since premiering in 1890, "The Sleeping Beauty" has become o...

The Gauntlet | Think Like A Coder, Ep 8 | Alex Rosenthal

16 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 8 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

The bug that poops candy | George Zaidan

14 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Aphids can reproduce incredibly fast: they can make 20 new generations within a single season. And that means lots of poop. Some aphid populations can...

The hidden life of Rosa Parks | Riché D. Richardson

13 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout her life, Rosa Parks repeatedly challenged racial violence and the prejudiced systems protecting its perpetrators. Her refusal to move to t...

How does alcohol make you drunk? | Judy Grisel

09 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ethanol: this molecule, made of little more than a few carbon atoms, is responsible for drunkenness. Often simply referred to as alcohol, ethanol is t...

How Sun Wukong escaped the underworld | Shunan Teng

07 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Monkey King, a legendary troublemaker hatched from stone and schooled in divine magic, had stolen the Dragon Lord's most treasured weapon: a magic...

The art forger who tricked the Nazis | Noah Charney

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It was one of the strangest trials in Dutch history. The defendant in a 1947 case was an art forger who had counterfeited millions of dollars worth of...

Can you solve the sea monster riddle? | Daniel Finkel

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

According to legend, once every thousand years a host of sea monsters emerges from the depths to demand tribute from the floating city of Atlantartica...

History vs. Sigmund Freud | Todd Dufresne

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Working in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, he began his career as a neurologist before pioneering the discipline of psychoanalysis, and his in...

How the world's longest underwater tunnel was built | Alex Gendler

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Flanked by two powerful nations, the English Channel has long been one of the world's most important maritime passages. Yet for most of its history, c...

What is schizophrenia? | Anees Bahji

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Schizophrenia was first identified more than a century ago, but we still don't know its exact causes. It remains one of the most misunderstood and sti...

Why isn't the Netherlands underwater? | Stefan Al

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1953, a tidal surge shook the North Sea. The titanic waves flooded the Dutch coastline, killing almost 2,000 people. 54 years later, a simi...

The princess exiled from ancient Mesopotamia | Soraya Field Fiorio

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

4,300 years ago in ancient Sumer, the most powerful person in the city of Ur was banished to wander the vast desert. Her name was Enheduanna, and by t...

The imaginary king who changed the real world | Matteo Salvadore

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1165, copies of a strange letter began to circulate throughout Europe. It spoke of a fantastical realm, containing the Tower of Babel and the Fount...

How one scientist took on the chemical industry | Mark Lytle

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1958, after receiving a letter describing the deaths of songbirds due to the pesticide known as DDT, Rachel Carson began an investigation into the ...

How can we solve the antibiotic resistance crisis? | Gerry Wright

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Antibiotics: behind the scenes, they enable much of modern medicine. We use them to cure infectious diseases, and to safely facilitate everything from...

The tale of the doctor who defied Death | Iseult Gillespie

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A husband and wife were in despair. The woman had just given birth to their 13th child, and the growing family was quickly running out of food and mon...

The meaning of life according to Simone de Beauvoir | Iseult Gillespie

10 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 21, Simone de Beauvoir became the youngest person to take the philosophy exams at France's most esteemed university. But as soon as she ...

What's a squillo, and why do opera singers need it? | Ming Luke

09 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An orchestra fills an opera house with music, but a singer's voice soars above the instruments. Its melody rings out across thousands of patrons— al...

The Tower of Epiphany | Think Like A Coder, Ep 7 | Alex Rosenthal

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 7 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

How good are you at calculating risk? | Gerd Gigerenzer

25 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new drug reduces the risk of heart attacks by 40%. Shark attacks are up by a factor of two. Drinking a liter of soda per day doubles your chance of ...

Vultures: The acid-puking, plague-busting heroes of the ecosystem | Kenny Coogan

24 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the African grasslands, a gazelle suffering from tuberculosis takes its last breath. The animal's corpse threatens to infect the water, but for the...

The secret messages of Viking runestones | Jesse Byock

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With their navigational skills and advanced longships, the Vikings sustained their seafaring for over 300 years. But for all their might, they left fe...

What happens if you're injected with the wrong blood type? | Bill Schutt

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1881, doctor William Halsted rushed to help his sister Minnie, who was hemorrhaging after childbirth. He quickly inserted a needle into his arm, wi...

The legend of Annapurna, Hindu goddess of nourishment | Antara Raychaudhuri and Iseult Gillespie

13 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Historically, the union between Shiva and Parvati was a glorious one: a sacred combination which brought fertility and connection to all living things...

One of the most epic engineering feats in history | Alex Gendler

11 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the mid-19th century, suspension bridges were collapsing all across Europe. Their industrial cables frayed and snapped under the weight of their de...

The accident that changed the world | Allison Ramsey and Mary Staicu

10 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 pl...

Everything changed when the fire crystal got stolen | Alex Gendler

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Someone has tripped the magical alarms in the Element Temple. When you and the other monks arrive on the scene, you know you have a disaster on your h...

Do politics make us irrational? | Jay Van Bavel

04 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Can someone's political identity actually affect their ability to process information? The answer lies in a cognitive phenomenon known as partisanship...

The life, legacy & assassination of an African revolutionary | Lisa Janae Bacon

03 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972, Thomas Sankara was swept into the revolution seeking to wrest control of Madagascar from France's lingering colonial rule. The protests inspi...

The Chasm | Think Like A Coder, Ep 6 | Alex Rosenthal

30 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 6 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

Licking bees and pulping trees: The reign of a wasp queen | Kenny Coogan

28 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the sun rises, something royal stirs inside a pile of firewood. It's the wasp queen; one of thousands who mated in late autumn and hibernated throu...

How bones make blood | Melody Smith

27 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bones might seem rock-solid, but they're actually quite porous inside. Most of the large bones of your skeleton have a hollow core filled with soft bo...

Why is cotton in everything? | Michael R. Stiff

24 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Centuries ago, the Inca developed ingenuous suits of armor that could protect warriors from even the fiercest physical attacks. These hardy structures...

What was so special about Viking ships? | Jan Bill

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by the 11th century, they had spread far from Scand...

Mating frenzies, sperm hoards, and brood raids: The life of a fire ant queen | Walter R. Tschinkel

16 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The Artists | Think Like A Coder, Ep 5 | Alex Rosenthal

13 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 the...

Can you solve the dragon jousting riddle? | Alex Gendler

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After years of war, the world's kingdoms have come to an agreement. Every five years, teams representing the elves, goblins, and treefolk will compete...

The mysterious life and death of Rasputin | Eden Girma

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On a night in 1916, Russian aristocrats set a plot of assassination into motion. If all went as planned, a man would be dead by morning, though others...

Could a breathalyzer detect cancer? | Julian Burschka

06 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How is it that a breathalyzer can measure the alcohol content in someone's blood, hours after they had their last drink, based on their breath alone? ...

A brief history of alcohol | Rod Phillips

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Why should you read "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding? | Jill Dash

12 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After witnessing the atrocities of his fellow man in World War II, William Golding was losing his faith in humanity. Later, during the Cold War, as su...

Hacking bacteria to fight cancer | Tal Danino

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1884, an unlucky patient who had a rapidly growing cancer in his neck came down with an unrelated bacterial skin infection. As he recovered from th...

The Train Heist | Think Like A Coder, Ep 4 | Alex Rosenthal

09 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 4 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

How does chemotherapy work? | Hyunsoo Joshua No

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

During World War I, scientists were trying to develop an antidote to the poisonous yellow cloud known as mustard gas. They discovered the gas was irre...

Why doesn't the Leaning Tower of Pisa fall over? | Alex Gendler

03 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1990, the Italian government enlisted top engineers to stabilize Pisa's famous Leaning Tower. There'd been many attempts during its 800 year histor...

How corn conquered the world | Chris A. Kniesly

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Corn currently accounts for more than one tenth of our global crop production. And over 99% of cultivated corn is the exact same type: Yellow Dent #2....

Is marijuana bad for your brain? | Anees Bahji

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1970, marijuana was classified as a schedule 1 drug in the United States: the strictest designation possible, meaning it was completely illegal and...

Can you outsmart this logical fallacy? | Alex Gendler

25 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Meet Lucy. She was a math major in college, and aced all her courses in probability and statistics. Which do you think is more likely: that Lucy is a ...

History's "worst" nun | Theresa A. Yugar

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. They had been invited to test Juana's knowledge w...

How does laser eye surgery work? | Dan Reinstein

19 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1948, Spanish ophthalmologist Jose Ignacio Barraquer Moner was fed up with glasses. He wanted a solution for blurry vision that fixed the eye itsel...

The Furnace Bots | Think Like A Coder, Ep 3 | Alex Rosenthal

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 3 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

The myth of Loki and the master builder | Alex Gendler

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Asgard, a realm of wonders, was where the Norse Gods made their home. There Odin's great hall of Valhalla towered above the mountains and Bifrost, the...

Game theory challenge: Can you predict human behavior? | Lucas Husted

05 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Given a range of integers from 0 to 100, what would the whole number closest to 2/3 of the average of all numbers guessed be? For example, if the aver...

How close are we to uploading our minds? | Michael S.A. Graziano

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a future where nobody dies— instead, our minds are uploaded to a digital world. There they could live on in a realistic, simulated environme...

The Resistance | Think Like A Coder, Ep 2 | Alex Rosenthal

14 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 2 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

The Prison Break | Think Like A Coder, Ep 1 | Alex Rosenthal

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode 1 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as the...

How does impeachment work? | Alex Gendler

26 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For most jobs, it's understood that you can be fired – whether for crime, incompetence, or just poor performance. But what if your job happens to be...

A brief history of cannibalism | Bill Schutt

25 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

15th century Europeans believed they had hit upon a miracle cure: a remedy for epilepsy, hemorrhage, bruising, nausea and virtually any other medical ...

The Opposites Game | Brendan Constantine

03 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A classroom erupts into a war of words as students grapple with a seemingly simple prompt: what is the opposite of a gun? This animation is part of th...

The genius of Marie Curie | Shohini Ghose

05 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Skłodowska Curie's revolutionary research laid the groundwork for our understanding of physics and chemistry, blazing trails in oncology, techn...

How to spot a pyramid scheme | Stacie Bosley

02 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, a nutrition company offered a life-changing opportunity to earn a full-time income for part-time work. There were only two steps to get star...

Frida Kahlo: The woman behind the legend | Iseult Gillespie

28 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1925, Frida Kahlo was on her way home from school in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with a streetcar. She suffered near-fatal inj...

Why do we love? A philosophical inquiry | Skye C. Cleary

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing... often all at the same time! If romantic love has a purpose, neither...

How stress affects your brain | Madhumita Murgia

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Stress isn't always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you're playing a competitive sport or have to speak ...

What is depression? | Helen M. Farrell

01 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world; in the United States, close to ten percent of adults struggle with the disease. But becaus...

Why is ketchup so hard to pour? | George Zaidan

22 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ever go to pour ketchup on your fries...and nothing comes out? Or the opposite happens, and your plate is suddenly swimming in a sea of red? George Za...

What would happen if you didn't drink water? | Mia Nacamulli

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Water is essentially everywhere in our world, and the average human is composed of between 55 and 60% water. So what role does water play in our bodie...

The wars that inspired Game of Thrones | Alex Gendler

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Beginning around 1377, medieval England was shaken by a power struggle between two noble families, which spanned generations and involved a massive ca...

The science of spiciness | Rose Eveleth

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When you take a bite of a hot pepper, your body reacts as if your mouth is on fire -- because that's essentially what you've told your brain! Rose Eve...

How Thor got his hammer | Scott A. Mellor

07 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Loki the mischief-maker, writhes in Thor's iron grip. The previous night, he'd snuck up on Thor's wife and shorn off her beautiful hair. To fix what h...

The history of the world according to cats | Eva-Maria Geigl

03 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In ancient times, wildcats were fierce carnivorous hunters. And unlike dogs, who have undergone centuries of selective breeding, modern cats are genet...

Are we running out of clean water? | Balsher Singh Sidhu

06 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Despite water covering 71% of the planet's surface, more than half the world's population endures extreme water scarcity for at least one month a year...

Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut? | Mia Nacamulli

29 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kurt Vonnegut found the tidy, satisfying arcs of many stories at odds with reality, and he set out to explore the ambiguity between good and bad fortu...

Does time exist? | Andrew Zimmerman Jones

23 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The earliest time measurements were observations of cycles of the natural world, using patterns of changes from day to night and season to season to b...

How do cigarettes affect the body? | Krishna Sudhir

13 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Cigarettes aren't good for us. That's hardly news -- we've known about the dangers of smoking for decades. But how exactly do cigarettes harm us, and ...