TEDEd

How to access the videos:

Go to http://ed.ted.com/
Enter the name of the video in the search box.

Note: Each lesson comes with questions on the right side

Subject/Topic Contents:

Arts (Visual)
Arts (Music)
Arts (Theatre)
Counseling
Debate
Design/Technology
French
Language & Literature
Logic & Reasoning (Riddles)
Mathematics
Physical & Health Education
Sciences
Social Studies/World Cultures
Spanish
Special Education
U.S. History

ARTS (Music)

A Different Way to Visualize Rhythm
Animation Basics: The Art of Timing and Spacing
A-rhythm-etic. The Math Behind the Beats
Beatboxing 101
A Brief History of Goths
Earworms: Those Songs That Get Stuck in Your Head
From Aaliyah to Jay-Z: Captured Moments in Hip-Hop History
How Bass Instruments Work
How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain
How to Practice Effectively
How to Read Music
Johann Sebastian Bach’ Life
Music and Creativity in Ancient Greece
Music and Emotion Through Time
Music and Math: The Genius of Beethoven
Music as a Language
The Physics of Playing a Guitar
The Secrets of Mozart’s Magic Flute
Why You Should Listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Why We Love Repetition in Music

ARTS (THeatre)

Development of English Drama
Did Shakespeare Write His Plays?
Does the Wonderful Wizard of Oz Have a Hidden Message?
The History of Social Dance
In on a Secret? That’s Dramatic Irony
Shakespeare’s Best Insults
Kabuki: The People's Dramatic Art
Poetry, Pentameter, Pirates (Shakespeare & Iambic Pentameter)
The Science of Stage Fright (and How to Overcome It)
Shakespearean Dating Tips
Slowing Down Time (in Writing & Film)
What's the Definition of Comedy?
Why Is Aristophanes Called the Father of Comedy?
Why Is This Painting So Captivating? (Las Meninas)
Why Shakespeare Loved Iambic Pentameter
Why Tragedies Are Alluring?

arts (visual)

The Amazing Math in Da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans: Why Is This Art?
Brief History of Graffiti
Brief History of Religion in Art
Bringing a Pop-up Book to Life
The Case for Andy Warhol
Cave Paintings
The Chaotic Brilliance of Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Complex Geometry and Islamic Design
The Dawn of Art
Doodlers Unite
Eye vs. Camera
Frida Kahlo: The Woman Behind the Legend
Gyotaku: The Ancient Japanese Art of Printing Fish
The History of Graffiti
The History of Tattoos
How Ancient Art Influenced Modern Art
How Art Can Help You Analyze
How One French Poet Combined Poetry and Visual Art
Inside a Cartoonist’s World
Is There a Difference Between Art and Craft
The Many Meanings of Michelangelo’s Statue of David
Math and Van Gogh
The Mathematics of Sidewalk Illusions
My Cat Could Make That (What Is Abstract Expressionism?)
Taking Imagination Seriously
What Color is Tuesday? Exploring Synesthesia
What Is Color?
What Is Minimalist Art and Why Does It Matter?
Who Decided What Art Means
Why Babies in Medieval Paintings Look Like Ugly Old Men
Why Is This Painting So Captivating? (Girl with the Pearl Earring)
Why Is This Painting So Captivating? (Las Meninas)
Why Is This Painting So Shocking? (Guernica)

counseling

Addiction
Are You a Giver or a Taker?
Are You a Good Listener?
The Distracted Mind
Does School Prepare Students for the Real World
Debunking the Myths of OCD
The Equation for Reaching Your Dreams
Five Tips to Improve Critical Thinking
Five Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now
Five Ways You Can Help a Friend Suffering from Depression
Friendships and Vulnerability
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Good and Bad Childhoods
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: An Introduction
How Does Stress Affect the Brain?
How I Learned to Organize My Scatterbrain
How Miscommunication Happens (and How to Avoid It)
How to Be Confident
How to Be More Empathetic
How to Manage Your Time More Effectively
How to Practice Effectively
How to Stay Calm Under Pressure
How to Stop Being Bored and Start Being Bold
How to Talk to People You Disagree With
Is Binge-Watching Bad for You?
J.K. Rowling on the Importance of Failing
Learning to Listen
Manners
Overcoming Obstacles
The Science of Decision-Making
Seven Healthy Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep
A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit
Stay in--or Leave--a Relationship?
The Surprising Link Between Stress and Memory
Teach Girls Bravery Not Perfection
Three Quick Tips to Boost Your Confidence
What Causes Addiction
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
What Is Depression?
What Is Empathy?
What Trying to Help My Friend Taught Me About Mental Health
What You Can Do When Friendship Becomes Harmful
Why Do People Join Cults?
Why Do We Make Irrational Decisions?
Why Perfect Grades Don’t Matter
Why We Fear the Wrong Things

debate

Are Boys Smarter Than Girls?
Is There a Limit to Technological Progress?
The Lost Art of Democratic Debate
Private School vs. Public School
The Pros and Cons of Pesticides
Should We Get Rid of Standardized Testing?
Should We Look for Life Elsewhere in the Universe?
Would You Sacrifice One Person to Save Five?

design/technology

Animal Architects
Animation Basics: Homemade Special Effects
Animation Basics: The Optical Illusion of Motion
A Brief History of Video Games (Part I)
Building the Brooklyn Bridge
Can Machines Read Your Emotions?
Can a Robot be Creative?
How a Bendy Straw Was Invented
How an Igloo Keeps You Warm
How Blue Jeans Were Invented
How Cars Went from Boxy to Curvy
How Computer Memory Works
How Computers Translate Human Language
How Do Hard Drives Work?
How Do Self-Driving Cars See?
How Do Touchscreens Work?
How Fan Films Shaped the Lego Movie
How Far Can We Go?
How the Band-Aid was invented?
How the Popsicle Was Invented
How the Romans Flooded the Colosseum for Sea Battles
How the Rubber Glove was Invented
How the Sandwich Was Invented
How Smudge-proof Lipstick Was Invented
How Superglue Was Invented
How a TV Works in Slow Motion
How Was the First Metro System Built?
Inside Your Computer
Is Google Killing Your Memory?
Is It Possible to Create a Perfect Vacuum?
A Life-Saving Device That Detects Heart Attacks
Magnetic Slime
Meet a 12-year-old App Developer
Nine Futuristic Materials
The Power of Creative Constraints
Teaching Design for Change
Ten Dangerous Fashion Trends
Think Like a Coder (Series)
This One Weird Trick Will Help You Spot Clickbait
What Are Mini Brains?
What If Cracks in Concrete Could Fix Themselves?
What Is the Internet of Things?
What Is a Smartphone Made of?
What Is the World Wide Web?
What’s So Special About Viking Ships?

Will We Ever Be Able to Teleport?
Will There Ever Be a Mile-High Skyscraper?

french

History vs. Napoleon Bonaparte
What Caused the French Revolution?

language/literature

Note: There are several poems from the “There’s a Poem for That” series in this list. They all are identified with the series’ name in parentheses after the title.

Accents (There’s A Poem for That series)
All the World Is a Stage (There’s a Poem for That series)
An Antihero of One’s Own
Animal Farm – Context and Background
The Art of the Metaphor
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
The Aztec Myth of the Unluckiest Sun God
Become a Slam Poet in Five Steps
Beware of Nominalizations (AKA Zombie Nouns)
A Brief History of Plural Word
The Cambodian Myth of Thunder, Lightning, and Rain
The Case of a Misplaced Modifier
The Chinese Myth of the Immortal White Snake I & 2
Comma Story
The Clues to a Great Story
Dare to Educate Afghan Girls
Does Grammar Matter?
Does the Wonderful World of Oz Have a Hidden Message?
Everything You Need to Know to Read The Canterbury Tales
Everything You Need to Know to Read Frankenstein
Everything You Need to Know to Read The Odyssey
The Evolution of the Book
First Kiss (There’s A Poem for That series)
Five Myths from Around the World
For Estefani, Third Grade, Who Made Me a Card (There’s A Poem for That series)
Francine’s Interview – Holocaust Survivor
A Global Culture to Fight Extremism
Grammar's Great Divide: The Oxford Comma
Harry Potter and the Translator’s Nightmare
Hero: A Lesson from a Volunteer Firefighter
A Host of Heroes
How Can You Change Someone’s Mind?
How Did English Evolve?
How Did Hitler Rise to Power?
How Do Languages Evolve?
How False News Can Spread
How Fiction Can Change Reality
How the Heart Actually Pumps Blood
How Many Verb Tenses Are There in English?
How Miscommunication Happens
How Misused Modifiers Can Hurt Your Writing

How to Build a Fictional World
How to Make Your Writing Suspenseful
How Many Verb Tenses Are There in English?
How to Recognize a Dystopia
How Thor Got His Hammer
How to Use Rhetoric to Get What You Want
How to Use a Semicolon
How to Write Fiction That Comes Alive
Insults by Shakespeare
The Irish Myth of the Giant’s Causeway
Is There Any Truth to King Arthur’s Legends?
The Key to Media's Hidden Codes
Lessons from Auschwitz: The Power of Our Words
The Magic, Mathematical Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges
To Make Use of Water (There’s a Poem for That series)
Making Sense of Spelling
Mining Literature for Deeper Meanings
Misleading Headlines
The Myth of Arachne
The Myth of Cupid and Psyche
The Myth of Hercules
The Myth of Icarus and Daedalus
The Myth of Jason & the Argonauts
The Myth of King Midas and His Golden Touch
The Myth of Oisin and the Land of Eternal Youth
The Myth of Pandora’s Box
The Myth of Prometheus
The Myth of Sisyphus
The New Colossus (There’s a Poem for That series)
The Nutritionist There’s a Poem for That series)
Ode to the Only Black Kid in Class (There’s a Poem for That series)
The Opposites Game (from There’s a Poem for That series)
Plato’s Allegory of a Cave
Plato’s Best and Worst Ideas
A Poetic Experiment: Walt Whitman Interpreted by Three Animators
The Poetry of Emily Dickenson
The Poet Who Painted with Words
The Power of a Great Introduction
The Power of Simple Words
The Punishable Perils of Plagiarism
Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Beauty of the Everyday
A Refresher on Edgar Allan Poe
The Road Not Taken (There’s a Poem for That series)
The Science Behind the Myth: Homer's "Odyssey"
The Secret Student Resistance to Hitler
The Second Coming (There’s a Poem for That series)
Situational Irony: The Opposite of What You Think
Speech Acts: Constative and Performative (Power of Words)
Thor’s Journey to the Land of Giants
Three Anti-Social Skills to Improve Your Writing
Three Months After (There’s a Poem for That series)
Titan of Terror: The Dark Imagination of H.P. Lovecraft
To Make use of Water (There’s a Poem for That series)
The Tragic Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
Vampires: Folklore, Fantasy and Fact
What Aristotle and Joshua Bell Can Teach Us About Persuasion
What Is an Antihero?

What Is the Definition of Comedy?
What Is Verbal Irony?
What Makes a Hero?
What Makes a Poem a Poem?
What Makes Something Kafkaesque?
What “Orwellian” Really Means
When to Use Apostrophes
When to Use Me, Myself, and I?
Where Do New Words Come From?
Who Am I?
Who Is Sherlock Holmes?
Who Were the Vestal Virgins?
Why Facts Don’t Convince People
Why Should You Read Charles Dickens?
Why Should You Read Crime and Punishment?
Why Should you Read Don Quixote?
Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe?
Why Should You Read Fahrenheit 451?
Why Should You Read the Handmaid’s Tale?
Why Should You Read Kurt Vonnegut?
Why Should You Read Macbeth?
Why Should You Read A Midsummer’s Night Dream?
Why Should You Read One Hundred Years of Solitude?
Why Should You Read Sylvia Plath?
Why Should You Read The Tempest?
Why Should You Read Waiting for Godot?
Why Should You Read War and Peace?
Why Should You Read Sci-Fi Superstar Octavia F. Butler?
The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen
Will the Real Sherlock Holmes Please Stand Up?
The World According to James Baldwin
The World’s Most Mysterious Book

logic & Reasoning

Can You Find the Next Number in This Sequence?
Can You Outsmart This Logical Fallacy?
Can You Solve the Airplane Riddle?
Can You Solve the Alien Probe Riddle?
Can You Solve the Bridge Riddle?
Can You Solve the Buried Treasure Riddle?
Can You Solve the Control Room Riddle?
Can You Solve the Counterfeit Coin Riddle?
Can You Solve the Cuddly, Duddly, Fuddly, Wuddly Riddle?
Can You Solve the Dark Coin Riddle?
Can You Solve the Egg Drop Riddle?
Can You Solve Einstein’s Riddle?
Can You Solve the False Positive Riddle?
Can You Solve the Fish Riddle?
Can You Solve the Frog Riddle?
Can You Solve the Giant Cat Army Riddle?
Can You Solve the Giant Iron Riddle?
Can You Solve the Jail Break Riddle?
Can You Solve the Killer Robo-Ants Riddle?
Can You Solve the Leonardo da Vinci Riddle?
Can You Solve the Locker Riddle?
Can You Solve the Mondrian Squares Riddle?
Can You Solve the Multiplying Rabbits Riddle?
Can You Solve the Multiverse Rescue Mission Riddle?
Can You Solve the Passcode Riddle?
Can You Solve the Penniless Pilgrim Riddle?
Can You Solve the Pirate Riddle?
Can You Solve the Prisoner Box Riddle?
Can You Solve the Prisoner Hat Riddle?
Can You Solve the Rebel Supplies Riddle?
Can You Solve the River Crossing Riddle?
Can You Solve the Rogue AI Riddle?
Can You Solve the Secret Werewolf Riddle?
Can You Solve the Seven Planets Riddle?
Can You Solve the Stolen Rubies Riddle?
Can You Solve the Temple Riddle?
Can You Solve the Three Gods Riddle?
Can You Solve the Time Travel Riddle?
Can You Solve the Troll’s Paradox Riddle?
Can You Solve the Unstoppable Blob Riddle?
Can You Solve the Vampire Hunter’s Riddle?
Can You Solve the Wizard Standoff Riddle?
Fire Crystal Riddle
Winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors

mathematics

A-rhythm-etic. The Math Behind the Beats
A Brief History of Banned Numbers
A Brief History of Numerical Systems
Can You Solve This?
The Case of the Missing Fractals
Check Your Intuition: The Birthday Problem
The Complex Geometry of Islamic Design
The Coin Flip Conundrum
Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man of Math
The Famously Difficult Green-Eyed Logic Puzzle
A Faster Way to Add and Multiply in Your Head
The Fundamentals of Probability
How Big Is Infinity?

How High Can You Count on Your Fingers?
How the Konigsberg Bridge Problem Changed Mathematics
How Many Ways Are There to Prove the Pythagorean Theorem?
How Many Ways Can You Arrange a Deck of Cards?
How Statistics Can Be Misleading
How to Make a Hexaflexagon
How to Prove the Pythagorean Theory
How to Spot a Misleading Graph
How to Visualize One Part Per Million
The Infinite Hotel Paradox
The Infinite Life of Pi
Is Math Discovered or Invented?
Is Our Climate Headed for Mathematical Chaos?
The Last Banana: A Thought Experiment in Probability
Making Sense of Irrational Numbers
The Math Behind Michael Jordan’s Legendary Hang Time
The Mathematical Secrets of Pascual’s Triangle
The Mathematics of Sidewalk Illusions
Mile of Pi - Numberphile
Music and Math: The Genius of Beethoven
Mysteries of Vernacular: Zero
Pixar: The Math Behind the Movies
Population Pyramids: Powerful Predictors of the Future
Riemann’s Paradox: Pi Equals Infinity Minus Infinity
Should I Stay or Should I Switch Doors?
SpongeBob's house is not a pineapple (Fibonacci Numbers)

A Trip Through Space to Calculate Distance
The Unexpected Math Behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
Welcome to the Virus Riddle
What Are Vectors?
What's an Algorithm?
What’s the Difference Between Accuracy and Precision?
Where Do Math Symbols Come From?
Why Are Manhole Covers Round?
Why Can’t You Divide by Zero?
Why Does Math Make So Many People Anxious?
Why Do People Get So Anxious About Math?
Why Do Honeybees Love Hexagons?
Why the Metric System Matters
Why You Can’t Divided by Zero

phys. Ed./health

An Athlete Uses Physics to Shatter World Records
Are Food Preservatives Bad for You?
The Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep
The Benefits of Good Posture
The Complicated History of Surfing
Could We Cure Aging During Your Lifetime?
The Different Types of Fats
Does Stress Cause Pimples?
Do Fad Diets Work?
The Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Eradicating HIV
The Fascinating Science of Phantom Limbs
Five Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain
Five Weird Involuntary Reflexes Explained!
The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line
The History of the Black Fives Era in Basketball
How Anesthesia Works
How Aspirin Was Discovered?
How Blood Pressure Works
How Close Are We to Eradicating HIV?
How Concussions Work
How Do Blood Transfusions Works?
How Do Cigarettes Affect the Body?
How Does Asthma Work?
How Does Caffeine Keep Us Awake?
How Does Sugar Affect the Brain?
How Does Your Body Know You’re Full?
How Does Your Body Process Medicine?
How Does Your Digestive System Work?
How Does Your Heart Pump Blood?
How Does Your Liver Work?
How Does Your Pancreas Work?
How Does Your Thyroid Manage Your Metabolism?
How Do Drugs Affect the Brain?
How Do Glasses Help You See?
How Do Vaccines Work?
How Do Viruses Jump from Animals to Humans?
How Do Vitamins Work?
How Do We Study Living Brains?
How Do Wounds Heal?
How Do You Get Rid of Acne?
How Do Your Kidneys Work?

How Do Your Lungs Work?
How Fast Can Humans Go?
How the Food You Eat Affects Your Brain
How the Food You Eat Affects Your Gut
How Hormones Work
How Microbes Form Communities
How Much Water Do We Need to Drink?
How Mucus Keeps Us Healthy
How Old Are Your Ears? (This is a hearing test that requires earphones connected to a computer set at 1080p.)
How One Scientist Averted a National Health Crisis
How Oxygen Travels Through the Body
How Playing Sports Benefits Your Body and Brain
How Old Is Your Body Really?
How to Practice Effectively
How Stress Affects the Brain
How Sugar Affects the Brain
How to Biohack Your Cells to Fight Cancer
How to Choose a Sunscreen
How to Eradicate a Disease
How to Help a Friend Suffering from Depression
How X-rays See Through Your Skin
How to Grow a Bone
How to Practice Effectively
How Your Immune System Works
How Your Muscular System Works
Is It Bad to Hold Your Pee?
Is Marijuana Bad for Your Brain?
Is Radiation Dangerous?
Lead and the Brain
The Mysterious Science of Pain
The Neuroscience of Pokemon Go
Protecting the Brain Against Concussion
Sickle Cell Disease
The Surprising Cause of Stomach Ulcers
The Surprising Reason Muscles Get Tired
The Surprising Reason You Feel Awful When You’re Sick
The Tortuous History of the Treadmill
23 and 1/2 Hours
Your Body vs. Implants

What Are Carbohydrates?
What Are Those Floaty Things in Your Eyes?
What Causes Addiction
What Causes Antibiotic Resistance?
What Causes Bad Breath?
What Causes Baldness?
What Causes Body Odor?
What Causes Cavities?
What Causes Headaches?
What Causes Kidney Stones?
What Causes Memory Loss?
What Did Dogs Teach Humans About Diabetes?
What Does Your Thyroid Do?
What Happens During a Heart Attack?
What Happens During a Stroke?
What Happens When You Get Heat Stroke?
What Happens When You Have a Concussion?
What Herpes Can Do to Your Brain
What Is a Calorie?
What Is Alzheimer's Disease?
What Is Depression?
What is Ebola?
What Is Fat?
What Is It Like to Have Tourette’s---and How Music Gives Me Back Control?
What’s the Big Deal with Gluten?
What Is the Menstrual Cycle?
What Is Narcissism?
What Is Obesity?
What Makes Muscles Grow
What Would Happen If You Didn’t Drink Water?
What Would Happen If You Didn’t Sleep?
Why Do Blood Types Matter?
Why Do Our Joints Pop?
Why Do We Age?
Why Do We Dream?
Why Do We Hiccup?
Why Do We Itch?
Who Do We Make Irrational Decisions?
Why Do We Pass Gas?
Why Do We Sweat?
Why Do Women Have Periods?
Why Do You Need to Get a Flu Shot Every Year?
Why Is Being Scared So Fun?
Why Is the Human Body Asymmetrical?
Why Is Meningitis So Dangerous?

Why Is It So Hard to Cure ALS?
Why Is It So Hard to Cure Cancer?
Why It’s So Hard to Cure HIV/AIDS
Why Sitting Is Bad for You
Why Some People Have Seasonal Allergies
The World’s Most Infectious Killer
Your Body vs. Implants

sciences

The 2,400-year Search for the Atom (History of Atomic Theory)
ABCs of Gas
The Accident That Changed the World (Discovery of Penicillin)
Activation Energy: Kickstarting Chemical Reactions
The Amazing Ways Plants Defend Themselves
Atoms from A to Easy!
An Athlete Uses Physics to Shatter World Records
Are GMOs Good or Bad?
Are Naked Mole Rats the Strangest Mammals?
Are We Running Out of Clean Water?
Attack of the Killer Algae
At What Moment Are You Dead?
A Baffling Balloon Behavior
Biodiesel: The Afterlife of Oil
Biofuels and Bioprospecting for Beginners
Birth of the Lightsaber
The Brilliance of Bioluminescence
Calculating the Odds of Intelligent Alien Life
Can Animals Adapt to Climate Change?
Can a Black Hole Be Destroyed?
The Cancer Gene We All Have
Can 100% Renewable Energy Power the World?
Cannibalism in the Animal Kingdom
Can Plants Communicate?
Can You Survive Nuclear Fallout?
The Carbon Cycle
Carl Sagan on the Existence of Extraterrestrials
The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees
Cell Membranes: Are They More Complicated Than You Think?
Cell vs. Virus: A Battle for Health
The Challenges of Nuclear Power
Climate Change: Earth's Giant Game of Tetris
Cloudy Climate Change: How Clouds affect Earth's Temperature
The Coelacanth: A Living Fossil of a Fish
The Colossal Consequences of Supervolcanoes
The Complicated Journey of Marine Plastic Pollution
Conserving Our Spectacular, Vulnerable Coral Reefs
Coral Reefs Aren’t as Doomed as You Think
Could a Blind Eye Regenerate?
Could the Earth Be Swallowed by a Back Hole?
Could Human Civilization Spread Across the Whole Galaxy?
Could You Survive 2.5 Million Years Ago?
Could Underwater Farms Help Fight Climate Change?
Could We Create Dark Matter?
Could We Survive in Outer Space?
Crazy Pool Vortex
Creatures of the Deep
Dark Matter: The Matter We Can't See
Dead Stuff: The Secret Ingredient in Our Food Chain
The Death of Bees Explained
The Death of the Universe
Describing the Invisible Properties of Gas
Diagnosing a Zombie: Brain and Behavior
Diagnosing a Zombie: Brain and Body
Disappearing Frogs
DNA: The Book of You
The Dramatic Origins of Germ Theory
The Dust Bunnies That Built Our Planet
Einstein's Brilliant Mistake: Entangled States
Einstein’s Twin Paradox Explained
Einstein’s Miracle Year
Electric Vocabulary
Eli the Eel: A Mysterious Migration
Endocrine System - Part 1 (How Hormones Work)
The Fascinating Science of Phantom Limbs
Finding Habitable Worlds
The First Asteroid Ever Discovered
Five Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain
Football Physics: The “Impossible” Free Kick
Four Ways to Understand the Earth's Age
A 40-year Plan for Energy
Free Falling in Outer Space
Fresh Water Scarcity: An Introduction to the Problem
From DNA to Silly Putty, the Diverse World of Polymers
From Outer Space to Under Our Skin: A Look at the Universe
From the Top of the Food Chain Down: Rewilding Our World
The Fundamentals of Space-time: Part 1
The Fundamentals of Space-time: Part 2
The Fundamentals of Space-time: Part 3
The Genius of Marie Curie
The Genius of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table
Gravity and the Human Body
A Guide to the Energy of the Earth
Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox Explained
The Hidden Beauty of Pollination
The Higgs Field, Explained
The History of the Barometer
How Bacteria "Talk"
How Batteries Work
How Big Is the Ocean?
How Brain Parasites Change Their Host’s Behavior
How Breathing Works
How the Choices You Make Affect Your Genes
How Clouds Were Named
How Cosmic Rays Help Us Understand the Universe
How CRISPR Lets You Edit DNA
How Deep Is the Ocean?
How Did Feathers Evolve?
How Do Animals See in the Dark?
How Do Cancer Cells Behave Differently from Healthy Ones?
How Do Crystals Work?
How Does an Atom-smashing Particle Accelerator Work?
How Does Cancer Spread?
How Does Fracking Work?
How Does Hibernation Work?
How Does Work . . . Work?
How Does Your Brain Respond to Pain?
How Do Fish Make Electricity?
How Do Germs Spread (and Why Do They Make Us Sick)?
How Do Nerves Work?
How Do Schools of Fish Swim in Harmony?
How Do Solar Panels Work?
How Do Tornadoes Form?
How Do We Extract Raw Materials from Nature?
How Do We Separate the Seemingly Inseparable?
How Do We Smell?
How Do We Study Living Brains?
How Do We Study the Stars?
How Do Wounds Heal?
How Far Would You Have to Go to Escape Gravity?
How Fast Are You Moving Right Now?
How Folding a Paper Can Get You to the Moon
How Giant Sea Creatures Eat Tiny Sea Creatures
How Heavy Is Air?
How Inventions Change History (for Better and for Worse)
How I Teach Kids to Love Science
How Levers Work
How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean
How Long Will Human Impacts Last?
How Many Universes Are There?
How Memories Form and Why We Lose Them
How Mendel’s Pea Plants Helped Us Understand Genetics
How Microbes Form Communities
How Oceanographers Found the Titanic
How Oxygen Travels Through Your Body
How Optical Illusions Trick Your Brain
How Small Are We in the Scale of the Universe?
How Smart Are Dolphins?
How Pandemics Spread
How Plants Tell Time
How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries
How Small Are We in the Scale of the Universe?
How Smart Are Orangutans?
How Spontaneous Brain Activity Keeps You Alive
How Squids Outsmart Their Predators
How Sugar Affects the Brain
How to Biohack Your Cells and Fight Cancer
How to Build a Dark Matter Detector
How to Create Cleaner Coal
How to Detect a Supernova
How to Eradicate a Disease
How to Fly Around the World Without Fuel
How to Grow a Glacier
How to Sequence the Human Genome
How to Speed Up Chemical Reactions (and Get a Date)
How to Squeeze Electricity Out of Crystals
How Squids Outsmart their Predators
How Tornadoes Form
How to Track a Tornado
How Tsunamis Work
How Turtle Shells Evolved
How We See Color
How Whales Breathe, Communicate . . . and Fart with Their Faces
How X-rays See Through Your Skin
Humans Are More See-Through Than They Look
If Matter Falls Down, Does Antimatter Fall Up?
If Molecules Were People
If Superpowers Were Real: Body Mass
If Superpowers Were Real: Flight
If Superpowers Were Real: Immortality
If Superpowers Were Real: Invisibility
If Superpowers Were Real: Super Speed
If Superpowers Were Real: Super Strength
The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
The Incredible Collaboration Behind the International Space Station
The Insanely Painful Sting of the Bullet Ant
Inside the Amazing Octopus Brain
Inside the Ant Colony
Inside the Minds of Animals
Insights into Cell Membranes Via Dish Detergent
Invasive Species
The Invisible Motion of Still Objects
Is DNA the Future of Data Storage?
Is Fire a Solid, Liquid, or Gas?
Is Light a Particle or a Wave?
Is Space Trying to Kill Us?
Is Telekinesis Real?
Is There a Center of the Universe?
Is Time Travel Possible?
The Journey to Pluto, the Farthest World Ever Explored
Just How Small Is an Atom?
The Life Cycle of a Neutron Star
The Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle
Light Seconds, Light Years, Light Centuries: How to Measure Extreme Distances
Light Waves, Visible and Invisible
Living with Less Water
The Loathsome, Lethal Mosquito
The Lovable (and Lethal) Sea Lion
Magical Metals, How Shape Memory Alloys Work
Mammoths vs. Mastodons
Meet the Frog That Barfs Up Its Babies
Meet the Tardigrade, the Toughest Animal on Earth
The Moon Illusion
The Most Groundbreaking Scientist You've Never Heard of
The Most Lightening-Struck Place on Earth
The Most Astounding Fact – Neil deGrasse
The Most Lightning Struck Place on Earth
The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
My Glacier Cave Discoveries
Nature's Smallest Factory: The Calvin Cycle
A Needle in Countless Haystacks: Finding Habitable Worlds
The Neuroscience of Pokemon Go
Newton’s 3 Laws, with a Bicycle
The Nurdles’ Quest for Ocean Domination (Plastics in the Ocean)
Origins of Gold
The Pangaea Pop-up
Parasite Tales: The Jewel Wasp's Zombie Slave
Pavlovian Reactions Aren't Just for Dogs
Penguins: Popularity, Peril and Poop
The Physics of the “Hardest Move” in Ballet
The Physics of Surfing
Poison vs. Venom: What's the Difference?
Proof of Evolution That You Can Find on the Body
The Race to Sequence the Human Genome
Radioactivity: Expect the Unexpected
A Rare, Spectacular Total Eclipse of the Sun
Reasons for the Seasons
RNAi: Slicing, Dicing and Serving Your Cells
Rosalind Franklin: DNAs Unsung Hero
Sally Ride on Dumb Questions
The Science of Skin
The Science of Skin Color
The Science of Smog
The Science of Symmetry
The Secret Language of Trees
The Secret Life of Plankton
The Secret Powers of Jellyfish
The Secrets of the X Chromosome
The Secret to Rising Sea Levels
Separation Techniques and Why They Matter
Seven Ocean Mysteries
Sex Determination: More Complicated Than You Thought
Should We Eat Bugs?
Should We Look for Life Elsewhere in the Universe?
The Single-Celled Organism That Almost Wiped Out Life on Earth
The Standard Model of Particle Physics
Solving the Puzzle of the Periodic Table
The Sonic Boom Problem
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Acids and Bases
Sunlight Is Way Older Than You Think
The Sun’s Surprising Movement Across the Sky
The Surprising Effects of Rewilding
The Surprising (and Invisible) Signatures of Sea Creatures
The Surprising Reasons Animals Play Dead
The Survival of the Sea Turtle
Symbiosis: A Surprising Tale of Species Cooperation
Synesthesia (Note: It’s the combination of two or more senses.)
Theory vs. Law: What’s the Difference
Three Different Ways Mammals Give Birth
Three Planets That Shouldn’t Exist
This Is Your Brain on Pain
Three Different Ways Animals Give Birth
Three Ways to Destroy the Universe
Turbulence: One of the Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of Physics
Twisting Tale of DNA
A Vanishing Island off the Louisiana Coast (Climate Change)
Visualizing Hidden Worlds Inside Your Body
Vultures: Heroes of the Ecosystem
The Wacky Story of Cell Theory
The Weird and Wonderful Metamorphosis of a Butterfly
The Weird, Wonderful World of Bioluminescence
What Is Dark Matter
What Are Gravitational Waves
What Are Meteors?
What Are Mini Brains?
What Are the Odds of Finding Intelligent Alien Life?
What Causes a Solar Eclipse?
What Happened to Antimatter?
What Happens When Continents Collide?
What If the Earth Stopped Spinning?
What If We Could Look Inside Human Brains?
What Is an Aurora?
What Is the Biggest Single-Celled Organism?
What Is the Coldest Thing in the World?
What Is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?
What Is Entropy?
What Is a Fungus?
What Is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
What Is Invisible? More Than You Think
What Is Metallic Glass?
What Is Plasma?
What Is the Shape of a Molecule?
What Is the Universe Made of?
What Is Work? (Understanding Physical Laws)
What Light Can Teach Us About the Universe
What Outer Space Does to Your Body
What Percentage of Your Brain Do You Use?
What Would Happen If Every Human Suddenly Disappeared?
What Would Happen If the World Went Vegetarian?
What Would It Be Like to Live on the Moon?
What's Wrong with Our Food System
What You Can Learn from an Ancient Skeleton
When Is Water Safe to Drink?
When Will the Next Ice Age Happen?
When Will the Next Mass Extinction Occur?
Where Does Gold Come From?
Where Do Genes Come From?
Where Have All the Honeybees Gone?
Where We Get Our Fresh Water
Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg?
Who Won the Space Race?
Why Are Blue Whales So Enormous?
Why Are Earthquakes So Hard to Predict?
Why Are Fish Fish-Shaped?
Why Aren't We Only Using Solar Power?
Why Are Sharks So Awesome?
Why Are Sloths So Slow?
Why Are Some People Left-handed?
Why Are There So Many Insects?
Why Be Skeptical? (of Scientific Studies)
Why Can't We See Evidence of Alien Life?
Why Do Animals Form Swarms?
Why Doesn’t Anything Stick to Teflon?
Why Does the Sun Really Shine?
Why Do Humans Have a Third Eyelid?
Why Do Mirrors Flip Vertically but Not Horizontally?
Why Don’t Ants Get Stuck in Traffic?
Why Don’t Perpetual Motion Machines Ever Work?
Why Do We Age?
Why Do We Cry? The Three Types of Tears
Why Do We Harvest Horseshoe Crab Blood?
Why Do We Pass Gas?
Why Do We Wrinkle When Wet?
Why Do Whales Sing?
Why Is Cotton in Everything?
Why Is Glass Transparent?
Why Is NASA Sending a Spacecraft to a Metal World?
Why Total Solar Eclipse Is Such a Big Deal?
Will Future Spacecraft Fit in Our Pockets?
Will the Ocean Ever Run Out of Fish?
Will We Ever Be Able to Teleport?
Would You Move to Mars?
Would You Weigh Less in an Elevator?
You Are Your Microbes

social studies

Actually, the World Isn't Flat
The Ancient Origins of the Olympics
The Arctic vs. the Antarctic
Are Ghost Ships Real?
The City of Walls: Constantinople
The Dangerous Race to the South Pole
A Day in the Life of an Ancient Athenian
A Day in the Life of a Roman Solider
Democracy: A Short Introduction
Did the Amazons Really Exist?
Did Ancient Troy Really Exist?
The Difference Between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England Explained
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: A Guide to the Underworld
The Fascinating History of Cemeteries
The Five Major World Religions
From Slave to Rebel Gladiator: The Life of Spartacus
A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome
Greeting the World in Peace
The Hidden Meanings of Yin and Yang
The History and Genghis Khan
The History of Japan
The History of Marriage
The History of Saint Patrick
History vs. Augustus
History vs. Che Guevara
History vs. Christopher Columbus
History vs. Cleopatra
History vs. Henry VIII
History vs. Napoleon Bonaparte
History vs. Vladimir Lenin
How Did Dracula Become the World’s Most Famous Vampire?
How Did Polynesian Wayfinders Navigate the Pacific Ocean?
How Do You Decide Where to Go in a Zombie Apocalypse? (Geography)
How Magellan Circumnavigated the Globe
How Much Food Can You Buy for $5 Around the World?
How the Normans Changed the History of Europe
How North America Got Its Shape
How to Make a Mummy
Incredible History of China’s Terracotta Warriors
Islam, the Quran, and the Five Pillars
It's a Church. It's a Mosque. It's Hagia Sophia
Learn to Read Chinese with Ease
Legend of Annapurna
The Life of an African Revolutionary
The Most Successful Pirate of All Time
The Murder of Ancient Alexandria’s Greatest Scholar
The Myth Behind the Chinese Zodiac
The Origins of Russia
Overpopulation: The Human Explosion Explained
The Paradox of Value
The Past, Present, and Future of the Bubonic Plague
The Pharaoh That Wouldn’t Be Forgotten
The Philosophy of the Buddha
The Population Pyramid
The Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire
The Rise and Fall of the Byzantine Empire
The Rise and Fall of the Inca Empire
The Secret Messages of Viking Runestones
The Secret Student Resistance to Hitler
The Silk Road: Connecting the Ancient World Through Trade
The Tale of Sunken Cities
Terra Cotta Warriors
This Is Sparta
The United Nations
Urbanization and the Evolution of Cities Across 10,000 years
The Wars That Inspired Games of Thrones
What Are the Universal Human Rights?
What Can You Learn from an Ancient Skeleton?
What Determines the Value of Money?
What Did Democracy Really Mean in Athens?
What Does It Mean to Be a Refugee?
What Gives a Dollar Bill Its Value?
What Happens When Continents Collide?
What History Lies Beneath the Sea?
What Is Power?
What Is the Tragedy of Commons?
What Makes the Great Wall of China So Extraordinary?
What Really Happened to the Library of Alexandria?
What’s So Great about the Great Lakes?
What’s So Special About Viking Ships?
Where Do Superstitions Come From?
Where Did Russia Come From?
Who Built Great Zimbabwe and Why?
Who Built the Pyramids?
Who Was Confucius?
Who Was Voltaire?
Why All World Maps Are Wrong
Why Can’t We Just Print More Money to Pay Off Debt?
Why Cultural Exchange Matters
William the Conqueror
World War II: Why It’s So Important 70 Years Later

spanish

The Psychology of Accents
The Real History of Cinco de Mayo

special education

ADHD: Finding What Works for Me
Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
The Fascinating Reason That Children Write Letters Backwards (blog post)
How Braille Was Invented
A New Way to Diagnose Autism
The Psychology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Toward a New Understanding of Mental Illness
What Does This Symbol Actually Mean?
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
What Is Dyslexia?
What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?
Was Leonardo da Vinci Dyslexic?

u.s. history

America's Native Prisoners of War
Bad Romance Parody: Women's Suffrage
The Breathtaking Courage of Harriet Tubman
The Contributions of Female Explorers
The Courage of Harriet Tubman
Democracy: A Short Introduction
A Digital Reimagining of Gettysburg
Does Your Vote Count? The Electoral College Explained
The Exceptional Life of Benjamin Banneker
The Fight for the Right to Vote in the United States
Gerrymandering: How Drawing Jagged Lines Can Impact an Election
The Historical Audacity of the Louisiana Purchase
The Historic Women’s Suffrage March in Washington
Historical Role Models
History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
History vs. Andrew Jackson
History vs. Christopher Columbus
How the Berlin Wall Fell
How Does Impeachment Work?
How Do U.S. Supreme Court Justices Get Appointed?
How One Piece of Legislation Divided a Nation (Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854)
How to Turn Protest into Powerful Change
How to Understand Power
How We Conquered the Deadly Smallpox Virus
The Infamous and Ingenious Ho Chi Minh Trail
Inventing the American Presidency
The Liberties Originally Omitted from the Constitution (The Missing Bill of Rights)
The Oddities of the First American Election
The Making of the American Constitution
The Missing Plague That Could Have Changed History (New World Colonization)
The Moral Dangers of Non-lethal Weapons
Neil DeGrasse Replies to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
The Oddities of the First American Election

The Past, Present and Future of the Bubonic Plague
The Story Behind the Boston Tea Party
A Three-Minute Guide to the Bill of Rights

The True Story of Sacajawea
Ugly History: The 1937 Haitian Massacre
Ugly History: Witch Hunts
An Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement
The Upside of Isolated Civilizations
The Watergate Scandal: United States vs. Nixon
What Happened to Trial by Jury?
What Is McCarthyism? And How Did It Happen?
What Is an Executive Order?
What Is Power?
What You Might Not Know About the Declaration of Independence
Why Is the Constitution So Hard to Amend?
Why Wasn’t the Bill of Rights Originally in the Constitution?
World War II: Why Is It So Important 70 Years Later?