The human brain is visibly split into a left and right side. This structure has inspired one of the most pervasive ideas about the brain: that the left side controls logic and the right side controls creativity. And yet, this is a myth, unsupported by scientific evidence. So how did this idea come about, and what does it get wrong? Elizabeth Wat...

The Sistine Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings on earth -- but there's a lot you probably don't know about it. In this tour-de-force talk, art historian Elizabeth Lev guides us across the famous building's ceiling and Michelangelo's vital depiction of traditional stories, showing how the painter reached beyond the religious iconography o...

By the early 1900's, nearly every region of the globe had been visited and mapped, with only two key locations left: the North and South Poles. After two Americans staked claim to reaching the North Pole, a Norwegian explorer and a British naval officer each set out for the last unmapped region in what newspapers called a "Race to the Pole." Eli...

It's 1997. The United States Senate has called a hearing about global warming. Some expert witnesses point out that past periods in Earth's history were warmer than the 20th century. Because such variations existed long before humans, they claim the current trend is also the result of natural variation. Can you spot the problem with this argumen...

When most people think of fishing, we imagine relaxing in a boat and patiently reeling in the day's catch. But modern industrial fishing -- the kind that stocks our grocery shelves -- looks more like warfare. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet explain overfishing and its effects on ecosystems, food security, jobs, economies, and coasta...

From a special black-footed ferret to coral that can withstand warming waters, genetic rescue efforts that use genomics and synthetic biology are helping nature thrive. But despite the huge successes of this kind of intervention, conservation innovator Ryan Phelan points out that fear of unintended consequences often stifles innovation -- riskin...

The world's largest volunteer animal rescue, saved more than 40,000 penguins after an oil spill off the coast of South Africa. Dyan deNapoli tells the triumphant story. How does a job this big get done? Penguin by penguin by penguin ...

Elizabeth Waters creates school-based research projects to engage students in rigorous, purposeful multiyear science experiments. At the core, her work gives everyone the opportunity to realize that we are all scientists -- with the ability to use the sum of our experiences to create our own knowledge to understand ourselves and our world. In h...