Hard-to-reach places, like the Amazon rainforest, can hide traces of past civilizations. But scientists are finding ways to explore these areas from above and discover the effects these ancient peoples had on their environment.

All across the world people need to get from one place to another. And sometimes to get to that other place we need bridges. Here are eight bridges that are extraordinary in their own way, from standing the test of time to handling...

Venomous snakes produce some of the world’s deadliest substances, so they have to be pretty careful about how they use it. But what happens if they accidentally inject themselves with their own harmful cocktail?

Some might call sand coarse, rough and irritating, but there’s no denying that it’s used everywhere: from glass to asphalt, sand is a key ingredient for all sorts of materials in construction and technology. But this heavy reliance on...

A lot of robots are developed to physically replicate our actions and behavior, like a bipedal, balanced walk, a large range of motion, and the ability to perceive and interact with the environment. But, maybe not to your surprise,...

Turns out, two atomic clocks are indeed better than one. And what role does sleep play in memory suppression?

Long before there were strip malls, skyscrapers, and combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bells, nature had its own architects: all kinds of creatures create all kinds of structures for living, raising offspring, or maybe just the occasional...

New information has helped us understand where domestic horses came from. And by counting some tree rings, researchers were able to find evidence of Norse presence in the Americas in 1021 CE.

You might think most planes look the same, but here are five of the most bizarre aircraft that, no matter their appearance, still managed to fly.

If you take a look at a map of Scotland, you'll notice an eerily straight line running through the highlands, this is the Great Glen Fault the product of half a billion years of time and geology.

If we're going to solve the climate crisis, we need to talk about construction. The four main building materials that humans currently use -- concrete, steel, masonry and wood -- have a heavy environmental impact, but what if we had a...

Though he was descended from some of the world's most successful conquerors, Babur struggled to gain a foothold among the many other ambitious princes in Central Asia. So he turned his attention to India, where his descendants stayed and...

Jessi and Squeaks decide to answer some interesting questions from viewers like you, to teach you about sand, butterflies, and computers!

Nestled in the forests of Canada sits the world's longest beaver dam. This 850-meter-long structure is large enough to be seen in satellite imagery and has dramatically transformed the region, creating a pond containing 70 million liters...

Today we’re going to step back from hardware and software, and take a closer look at how the backdrop of the cold war and space race and the rise of consumerism and globalization brought us from huge, expensive codebreaking machines in...

Do Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne, Philip K. Dick, Hugo Gernsback, Robert Heinlein, or Isaac Asimov hold a candle to H.G. Wells when it comes to correctly predicting the future of science via science fiction? And why does...

Sarah Parcak uses satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above earth to uncover hidden ancient treasures buried beneath our feet. There's a lot to discover; in the egyptian Delta alone, Parcak estimates we've excavated less than a...

This Nobel Prize season, dive into the world of the super small for physics and chemistry. It's where the nanocars roam and phase transitions get really weird.

Many ancient sites had some truly amazing effects on sound waves, suggesting that early cultures may have built spaces to evoke certain sensation. And by studying the acoustics of these structures, we can learn new things...

Imagine a distant future when humans reach beyond Earth, forge cities on planets thousands of light-years away, and maintain a galactic web of trade and transport. What would it take to make that leap? And where would we get enough...

Inspired by Star Trek, scientists are trying to learn more about animals' brains through virtual reality, and it turns out that a component of human milk helps protect babies from bacteria!

Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.

In sub-Saharan Africa, power outages, low technology penetration, slow internet and understaffed hospitals plague health care systems. To make progress on these problems in Malawi, TED Fellow Soyapi Mumba and his team created a new...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental...