In which John asks whether globalization is a net positive for humanity. While the new global economy has created a lot of wealth, and lifted a lot of people out of poverty, it also has some effects that aren't so hot. Wealth disparity,...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how the polarity of water makes life on the planet possible. Oxygen is highly electronegative and pulls the electrons closely creating a partial negative charge. The polarity of water (and the...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how energy can enter and leave a system. The amount of energy a substance can receive through heating or lose through cooling is measured using the specific heat capacity. Phase changing energy from...

Paul Andersen explains how disruptions in homeostasis can affect biological systems at all levels. He uses the example of dehydration in animals to explain how disruptions at the cellular level can affect an organism. He also uses the...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how the perceived frequency of a source depends on the motion of both the source and the observer. As a source approaches an observer the frequency will increase and as it moves away it will...

Without refrigerators, we'd have spoiled milk, moldy cheese, and warm sodas. However, there are some foods that don't fare so well in a chilly fridge, including tomatoes.

Explore the science of the groundbreaking technology for editing genes, called CRISPR- Cas9, and how the tool could be used to cure diseases. -- From the smallest single-celled organism to the largest creatures on Earth, every living...

In this video Paul Andersen discriminates between spontaneous (or thermodynamically favored) processes and those that are not spontaneous. A spontaneous process requires no external energy source. If the enthalpy change in a reaction...

This video is chapter 6 in my series on special relativity, and it covers the topic of relativistic addition of velocity: aka, how things that are moving relative to one inertial reference frame, which is moving relative to another...

Gender should be the least remarkable thing about someone, but transgender people are still too often misunderstood. To help those who are scared to ask questions or nervous about saying the wrong thing, Jackson Bird shares a few ways to...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how electric charge is quantized and how the smallest unit of charge is 1.6x10^-19 C, or the elementary charge. Robert Millikan discovered the elementary charge using the oil drop experiment. ...

With the ambitious goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050, the European Union has committed to creating a greener world for future generations. In this bold talk, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European...

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik and, with it, an international space race. The United States and the Soviet Union rushed to declare dominance of space for 18 years, until the two countries agreed to a...

Conventional wisdom about diets, including government health recommendations, seems to change all the time. And yet ads routinely come out claiming to have THE answer about what we should eat. So how do we distinguish what's actually...

Doesn't it seem like a lot of online news sites have moved beyond reporting the news to openly inciting your outrage (and your page views)? News analyst Sally Kohn suggests - don't engage with news that looks like it just wants to make...

Paul Andersen explains how genotypes can be expressed or not based on changes in the environment. He starts with a brief description of the Himalayan rabbit and how melanin production can be disrupted by high temperature. He explains...

This week, the truth about “biodegradable plastic,” and new insights into how global warming might eventually make winters colder.

Bridges. Bridges don't deal well with temperature changes. In order to combat this, engineers have come up with some work arounds that allow bridges to flex as they expand or contract. In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Shini talks...

Today we’re going to start thinking about materials that are used in engineering. We’ll look at mechanical properties of materials, stress-strain diagrams, elasticity and toughness, and describe other material properties like hardness,...

If your hair gets frizzy when the humidity is high, try not to think of it as a bad hair day—you're really just a human hygrometer!

Some call me a soul sonic superstar, says Jomama Jones, the alter ego of TED Fellow and theater artist Daniel Alexander Jones. In this stunning talk and performance, Jomama Jones invites us to consider how coming undone can be the first...

Even when you know what you want to do, sometimes actually doing the thing is hard. Luckily, research suggests a few ways you can make it a little easier.

In this video Paul Andersen explains how the continuity equation is an application of conservation of matter in a fluid. The continuity equation may apply to either mass or volumetric flow. Example problem and examples are included.

Film has the power to change the way we think about ourselves and our culture. Documentarian and TED Fellow Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy uses it to fight violence against women, turning her camera on the tradition of honor killings in Pakistan....