Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic • 2019 In a Nutshell

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Modern life would be impossible without plastic – but we have long since lost control over our invention. Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers? This video is a collaboration with UN Environment and their Clean Seas campaign, If you want to take action to turn the tide on plastics, go to http://www.cleanseas.org and make your pledge.

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In a Nutshell • 2014 - 2023 • 46 episodes •

What is Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

What is dark energy? What is dark matter? Well, if we knew exactly we would have a nobel prize – we know that they exist though. So what do we know about those strange things?

2015 • Astronomy

What Is Light?

We are so used to some things that we stopped wondering about them. Like light. What is light? Some kind of wavy thing, right? Kind of.

2015 • Physics

How Small is an Atom?

Atoms are very weird. Wrapping your head around exactly how weird, is close to impossible – how can you describe something that is SO removed from humans experience? But then again, they kind of make up everything, so let us try anyways.

2015 • Physics

Everything We Think We Know About Addiction Is Wrong

This video is adapted from Johann Hari's New York Times best-selling book 'Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.' For more information, and to take a quiz to see what you know about addiction, go to www.chasingthescream.com

2015 • Health

Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology

Where are the limits of human technology? And can we somehow avoid them? This is where quantum computers become very interesting.

2015 • Technology

The History and Future of Everything -- Time

Time makes sense in small pieces. But when you look at huge stretches of time, it's almost impossible to wrap your head around things.

2015 • History

What is Something?

What is something? On the most fundamental level thinkable, what are things? Why are things? And why do things behave the way they do?

2015 • Physics

The Immune System Explained I – Bacteria Infection

Every second of your life you are under attack. Bacteria, viruses, spores and more living stuff wants to enter your body and use its resources for itself. The immune system is a powerful army of cells that fights like a T-Rex on speed and sacrifices itself for your survival. Without it you would die in no time. This sounds simple but the reality is complex, beautiful and just awesome. An animation of the immune system.

2014 • Health

Overpopulation – The Human Explosion Explained

In a very short amount of time the human population exploded and is still growing very fast. Will this lead to the end of our civilization?

2016 • Economics

What Happens If We Bring the Sun to Earth?

What would happen if we bring a sample (the size of a house) of the Sun to Earth?

2017 • Astronomy

Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument

"We humans are unable to experience the true nature of the universe..."

2017 • Technology

The Rise of the Machines – Why Automation is Different this Time

Automation in the Information Age is different.

2017 • Technology

How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body – The Microbiome

What happens when microbes talk to your brain?

2017 • Health

Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever?

If you could decide today... how long do you want to live?

2017 • Health

Space Elevator

It's hard to get to space.But there is a concept that might make it possible: the space elevator. How exactly does it work.

2016 • Astronomy

How to Cure Aging – During Your Lifetime?

What if we could stop aging forever?

2017 • Health

Emergence

How can many stupid things combine to form smart things? How can proteins become living cells? How become lots of ants a colony? What is emergence?

2017 • Science

Universal Basic Income Explained – Free Money for Everybody? UBI

What is UBI? How would free money change our lives.

2017 • Economics

How Far Can We Go? Limits of Humanity.

Is there a border we will never cross? Are there places we will never be able to reach, no matter what? It turns out there are. Far, far more than you might have thought…

2016 • Astronomy

Why Alien Life Would be our Doom - The Great Filter

Finding alien life on a distant planet would be amazing news - or would it? If we are not the only intelligent life in the universe, this probably means our days are numbered and doom is certain.

2018 • Astronomy

String Theory Explained – What is The True Nature of Reality?

Is String Theory the final solution for all of physic’s questions or an overhyped dead end?

2018 • Physics

Homeopathy Explained – Gentle Healing or Reckless Fraud?

What are the principles behind Homeopathy and does it work?

2018 • Health

A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – Egoistic Altruism

Why should you care about the well-being of people half a globe away?

2018 • Economics

The Deadliest Being on Planet Earth – The Bacteriophage

A war has been raging for billions of years, killing trillions every single day, while we don’t even notice. This war involves the single deadliest being on our planet: The Bacteriophage.

2018 • Science

How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY – Space Colonization 1

Did you know that we could start building a Lunar Base today?

2018 • Astronomy

Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World ??

Meat is a complicated issue. But also a delicious one. Let's talk about it.

2018 • Environment

Is Organic Really Better? Healthy Food or Trendy Scam?

Organic food is a huge trend: it promises a healthier and better life. But can Organic food really live up to the expectations or is it just baloney?

2019 • Health

Measles Explained — Vaccinate or Not?

Everybody is talking about Measles – but what does the virus actually do in the body? Is it really so harmful that you need a vaccination? We go deep into the body of an infected person and see what Measles does and how the immune system reacts to it!

2015 • Health

Loneliness

Everybody feels lonely sometimes. But only few of us are aware how important this feeling was for our ancestors - and that our modern world can turn it into something that really hurts us. Why do we feel this way and what can we do about it?

2019 • Lifehack

The Origin of Consciousness – How Unaware Things Became Aware

Consciousness is perhaps the biggest riddle in nature. In the first part of this three part video series, we explore the origins of consciousness and take a closer look on how unaware things became aware.

2019 • Brain

Fusion Power Explained – Future or Failure

How does Fusion Energy work and is it a good idea?

Technology

Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic

Modern life would be impossible without plastic – but we have long since lost control over our invention. Why has plastic turned into a problem and what do we know about its dangers? This video is a collaboration with UN Environment and their Clean Seas campaign, If you want to take action to turn the tide on plastics, go to http://www.cleanseas.org and make your pledge.

2019 • Environment

Tiny Bombs in your Blood - The Complement System

One of the key players of our immune system is the complement system. An army of millions and trillions of tiny bombs, which work together in a complex and elegant dance to stop intruders in your body.

2019 • Health

What Happened Before History? Human Origins

Humans. We have been around for a while now. When we think about our past we think about ancient civilizations, the pyramids, stuff like that. But this is only a tiny, tiny part of our history.

2016 • History

What are you?

So. Are you your body? And if so, how exactly does this work? Lets explore lots of confusing questions.

2016 • Physics

Time

Time makes sense in small pieces, but when you look at huge stretches of time, it's almost impossible to wrap your head around things.

2018 • History

The Most Extreme Things that are not Black Holes

Neutron stars are one of the most extreme and violent things in the universe. Giant atomic nuclei, only a few kilometers in diameter but as massive as stars. And they owe their existence to the death of something majestic.

2019 • Astronomy

An Antidote to Dissatisfaction

Everybody is familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be. That you are not successful enough, your relationships not satisfying enough. That you don’t have the things you crave. In this video we want to talk about one of the strongest predictors of how happy people are, how easily they make friends and how good they are at dealing with hardship. An antidote against dissatisfaction so to speak: Gratitude.

2019 • Lifehack

The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do

In December 2019 the Chinese authorities notified the world that a virus was spreading through their communities. In the following months it spread to other countries, with cases doubling within days. This virus is the “Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2”, that causes the disease called COVID19, and that everyone simply calls Coronavirus.

2020 • Health

Who Is Responsible For Climate Change? – Who Needs To Fix It?

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have released over 1.5 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide or CO2 into the earth's atmosphere. In the year 2019 we were still pumping out around 37 billion more. That’s 50% more than the year 2000 and almost three times as much as 50 years ago. And it’s not just CO2. We’re also pumping out growing volumes of other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. Combining all of our greenhouse gases, we’re emitting 51 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents each year. And emissions keep rising – but they need to get down to 0!

2020 • Environment

Could Solar Storms Destroy Civilization? Solar Flares & Coronal Mass Ejections

The sun. Smooth and round and peaceful. Except when it suddenly vomits radiation and plasma in random directions. These solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs can hit earth and have serious consequences for humanity.

2020 • Astronomy

Geoengineering: A Horrible Idea We Might Have to Do

By the end of the 21st century, humanity is becoming desperate. Decades of heatwaves and droughts have led to unusually poor harvests, while the warming oceans yield fewer fish each year. In the tropical zones, millions suffer from famine and resource wars have made millions more flee to the north. As things quickly get worse, in an act of desperation, the world's governments decide to enact an emergency plan...

2020 • Technology

The Largest Black Hole in the Universe - Size Comparison

The largest things in the universe are black holes. In contrast to things like planets or stars they have no physical size limit, and can literally grow endlessly. Although in reality specific things need to happen to create different kinds of black holes, from really tiny ones to the largest single things in the universe. So how do black holes grow and how large is the largest of them all?

Astronomy

Can YOU Fix Climate Change?

Never before in human history have we been richer, more advanced or powerful. And yet we feel overwhelmed in the face of rapid climate change. It seems simple on the surface. Greenhouse gases trap energy from the Sun and transfer it to our atmosphere. This leads to warmer winters, harsher summers. Dry places become drier and wet places wetter. Countless ecosystems will die while the rising oceans swallow coasts and the cities we build on them.

2021 • Environment

3 Arguments Why Marijuana Should Stay Illegal Reviewed

We take a fair look at some of the best counter arguments for legalization and see how they hold up in review.

2023 • Health

Your Body Killed Cancer 5 Minutes Ago

Somewhere in your body, your immune system just quietly killed one of your own cells, stopping it from becoming cancer, and saving your life. It does that all the time. The vast majority of cancer cells you develop will be killed without you ever noticing. Which is an incredibly hard job because of what cancer cells are: parts of yourself that start to behave as individuals even if it hurts you. What is cancer and how does your body kill it all the time?

2023 • Health

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Arctic Ocean

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S1E5Expedition: Deep Ocean • 2021 • Environment

Inside Chernobyl

Over three decades after the world's most devastating nuclear accident, Ben Fogle spends a week living alone inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Throughout the expedition, Ben ventures inside the ruins of a nearby hospital, explores the deserted radioactive remains of the ghost town of Pripyat, and goes deep inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

2021 • Environment

Humanity from Space

From the global perspective of space, this 2-hour special reveals the breathtaking extent of our influence, revealing how we’ve transformed our planet and produced an interconnected world of extraordinary complexity. A journey through 12,000 years, Humanity from Space shows how seemingly small flashes of innovation have changed the course of civilization; innovations that touch all of us today in ways unimaginable to our ancestors. And we’ll gaze into the future at the new challenges we’ll face in order to survive as our global population soars because of our success. In every case we’ll look at our progression in a unique and surprising way, revealing unforgettable facts and "who knew?" connections. To visualize these stories cutting-edge technology is used to turn raw data into authentic moving images, building on expertise from a previous (and highly-praised) project; "Earth From Space." Using this technique, we can map humanity’s behavior in stunning, never seen before detail, revealing how our civilization grew, how it works today and what the future might hold.

2015 • Environment

Not Fit for Human Life

Scientists deployed to Antarctica are accustomed to frigid temperatures, but few have experienced the condition one storm that is sweeping over Scott Base and the Ross Ice Shelf. Scott Base shuts down all missions and flights to and from western Antarctica have been cancelled; leaving them more isolated from the outside world than ever.

2/6Continent 7: Antarctica • 2017 • Environment

Our Changing Planet Series 2

Chapter 1: Steve Backshall visits the Maldives, a country facing significant challenges because of climate change. Warming seas and the acidification of the oceans have led to coral bleaching on a massive scale. And increasingly unpredictable weather patterns could deal the final blow. 2022 saw the first mass coral bleaching during La Ni?a, a climate pattern that historically keeps oceans cool enough to avoid bleaching. The earth's reefs are now at a tipping point. But these extreme challenges are galvanising the science community to get out of their labs and into the field, experimenting with more novel and innovative techniques and trialling ideas that could just make a difference. Steve returns to Laamu Atoll to find out about one such cutting-edge project. Professor Steve Simpson and his team from Bristol University have identified that coral larvae, baby corals no bigger than a pinhead, move towards the sound of a healthy reef, a response that guides them to settle amongst a more biodiverse and healthier habitat, and in so doing, add to the coral population. Steve dives with Professor Simpson and records the sound of a healthy reef. With the help of a 360-degree camera, they are able to identify key marine life that make up these coral playlists. Liz Bonnin returns to California to investigate some surprising solutions for the relentless onslaught of the state's wildfire season. California's wildfires are becoming a yearly catastrophe, with the state government spending billions of dollars in the last five years to fight these out-of-control blazes. Liz discovers that ancient forest management techniques and the beaver, a misunderstood mammal, could help prevent them in the first place, providing powerful tools to sustainably protect our planet against the ravages of climate change. Liz visits the traditional reservation of the indigenous Tule River tribe, who have been practising a technique called 'controlled burning' for thousands of years. By regularly burning the twigs and leaf litter that collect on the forest floor, they reduce the amount of material that typically collects in forests and fuels megablazes. Liz joins the tribe on one of their cultural burns and finds out how they have protected their land and, importantly, their sacred sequoia trees. To prevent the fires from moving at speed across the landscape, scientists and indigenous communities are hoping that beavers can help solve the problem. Once found across North America, by 1900 beavers had been hunted virtually to extinction. Liz joins scientist Dr Emily Fairfax, who has been studying the benefits of introducing beavers into a landscape. Surrounded by burnt-out forest, a green oasis sits at it centre, the territory of a beaver family that has created what Emily describes as a 'speed bump' for wildfires. Chris Packham is in Greenland to learn more about the effects of global warming and the rate at which snow and ice are melting and retreating in the Arctic. He travels to a science research station on the island's remote north east coast, one of the most important locations in the world for the understanding of warming in the Arctic and its global impact. Chris joins an Arctic expedition as scientists from Aarhus University and Copenhagen Zoo track across the snow-covered tundra in search of musk oxen, an ice age survivor that can tolerate temperatures ranging from - 40 to +10 degrees Celsius. With the gradual warming of the Arctic, future conditions may not resemble anything the species has ever encountered. Now moving slowly northwards as temperatures rise, there are many questions to be answered: will populations become vulnerable to warm weather disease? How long will they have a territory that's cold enough for them to survive in? And what will they leave behind them? The conditions are gruelling. Chris and the team have to move fast across the vast landscape, hoping to dart and collar 21 of these huge, powerful creatures, taking hair, blood and stomach samples. We learn how the sophisticated collars and an array of science techniques will be able to tell us if they breed, feed, survive or perish in the years to come. Chapter 2: Gordon Buchanan returns to Brazil, Ella Al-Shamahi to Cambodia and Ade Adepitan to Kenya. Gordon Buchanan returns to Brazil, the most biodiverse country on our planet and home to one of the world's most important wetlands, the Pantanal. Gordon's here to revisit a pioneering project that is committed to saving one of the Amazon's iconic predators, the jaguar, and to understand the importance of a healthy ecosystem. The Pantanal is vital to the health of the jaguar's territory. Fed by the Amazon Rainforest's water cycle, it's an extraordinarily rich habitat, and home to an array of water and land species. Gordon takes to the water and sees first-hand how this place is perched on a knife edge. As climate change accelerates, the Pantanal is becoming drier, endangering its wildlife and vegetation, including the jaguar. Gordon hears from a local conservationist how the plans for up-river dams could severely impact this precious ecosystem. Habituating jaguars is a vital part of ecotourism, enabling paying guests to experience these iconic creatures. The profits fund vital research and this year Gordon follows the team on their annual collaring project, darting jaguars and collecting samples and data from these super-sized cats. Once sedated, Gordon gets the opportunity to get hands on with the scientists, witnessing for himself the range of samples and data the team are collecting. This will provide valuable insights into the jaguar's movements within their ever-changing habitat. Ella Al-Shamahi returns to Cambodia, an area experiencing increasing economic growth. This growth is putting massive pressure on natural resources, and is leading to expanding cities and potentially devastating over-exploitation of the natural world. Ella discovers the reality about our planet's most exploited resource after water – sand. The Mekong River is vital to the health of not only this region but to five other countries, and is being dredged for this valuable resource, endangering the structure and health of this mighty river system. Ella takes to the water with a leading Mekong expert to see the extent of the extraction. Unsustainable and highly destructive, mining could possibly sound the death bell for this precious ecosystem. UK scientists are using high quality satellite imagery that reveals the extent of the damage and there's hope that regulation can slow this exploitation. Biodiversity plays a vital role in building resilience in these threatened landscapes. Ella joins an expedition that will reintroduce the nearly extinct Siamese crocodile into the depths of the Cardamom Mountains. To date, the survival of these critically endangered animals has been down to the cultural connection between the local people and the crocodiles, who they consider sacred. Ella and the team are taking ten crocodiles to a safe and very remote site. The crocodiles are inserted into bamboo rolls, which are soaked in water to keep them cool, then bundled onto the back of mopeds and driven to the release site. It's a 24-hour journey, crossing rivers and tackling forest pathways, all the time ensuring the crocodiles are safely stowed. On arrival, the team acclimatise the animals before their final release. We meet those who discovered one of the last remaining crocodiles and an elder of the village explains the role of crocodiles and the natural world to his people. Ade Adepitan returns to Kenya to report on the devastating effect of rising temperatures and failed rains. The conditions are extreme, and the challenges, unimaginable. Both communities and wildlife are fighting to survive the worst drought in 40 years. When Ade visited Kenya in 2021, the elephants were severely affected by drought, but 2022 saw a new and sinister problem. People and elephants were now fighting over dwindling food and water supplies, even killing each other in their desperation to survive. Ade finds out about a project that could help farmers and elephants to co-exist until the next rains finally arrive. Using biology and behavioural science, leading elephant scientists, with the input of locals, have created affordable tools for repelling elephants from farms and reducing conflict. Ade travels to Sagalla, near Tsavo National Park, where its community is leading the way and testing these devices. He meets local farmer Jones, who has created what he calls a 'noisy gun' from tin cans and wood. Other devices include condoms full of chilli powder and beehives strung along fences. Ade finds a community under extreme pressure, but the ingenuity of the 'Human Elephant Coexistence' toolbox is providing a genuine ray of hope.

2023 • Environment

Why do buildings fall in earthquakes?

Earthquakes have always been a terrifying phenomenon, and they’ve become more deadly as our cities have grown — with collapsing buildings posing one of the largest risks. But why do buildings collapse in an earthquake? And how can it be prevented? Vicki V. May explains the physics of why it is not the sturdiest buildings, but the smartest, that will remain standing.

TED-EdEnvironment