Currently browsing: perception

You are fluent in a language that you don’t even realize you know! And it might be a place we can find some real fun and eventually share the struggle for connection.

Image: Person kayaking through some rocks

11 minutes

[ Nature ]

Meeting the Salween River

On this Saturday Around the World, we’re traveling through the beautiful Salween River in China and seeing the efforts put into place to protect it.

Image: Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

12 minutes

[ Culture ]

It’s True, We Don’t See the World the Same

Our own perception of the world differs greatly from those around us. We’ve all had different experiences, and like it or not, they shape us. Let’s explore why and how that might make us more tolerant of others.

Image: Women Rangers are training to guard elephants from poachers

7 minutes

[ Animals ]

Single Mothers are Saving Africa’s Endangered Wildlife

The best thought leaders among us are quick to accept the risk of abandoning assumptions. Their courage often brings out the best in others, and here’s an amazing example of that alchemy!

11 minutes

Lost Wallets Proving It’s Still an Amazing World

When YouTuber Mark Rober lost his wallet, he turned it into an opportunity see if a lost wallet could prove people are good (or not) and the results… well, they’re pretty surprising.

Image: Microsculpture is a photographic project be British photographer Levon Biss. Please email Levon for any enquiries. Longhorn Beetle, Nigeria.Species of the genus Sternotomis (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae).Once magnified the secret to the spectacular patterning of this beetle is revealed – a covering of extremely fine pigmented scales similar to those of butterflies and moths.

8 minutes

[ Creativity ]

Insects Have Never Looked So Good!

The amazing, intricate structures of insects are something that belongs in museums—oh wait, they’re already there! Photographer Levon Biss has teamed up with one exhibit to bring us closer than we’ve ever been to these tiny creatures with his Microsculptures. You’ll never look at a bug the same way after you see these.

12 minutes

[ Art ]

Synesthesia: Wiring the Senses Together

By Louisa Ulrich-Verderber

Synesthesia could be called a superpower, so what is life like for people who can see music or taste color? This is the fascinating science behind it all!

4 minutes

[ Art ]

The (Actual) Magic of Mona Lisa’s Smile

Great art can be hard to “get”, but here’s how Leonardo da Vinci used his masterful understanding of human perception to craft the Mona Lisa and transfix us 500 years later!

Image: A group of traditionally dressed girls in China laughing and having a conversation

15 minutes

[ Psychology ]

How Does Language Shape the Way You See the World?

Lera Boroditsky shows us how our language shapes our perception of the world in her fascinating TED talk! What are the implications of these variations?

Image: An abstract photograph of a school of fish

9 minutes

[ Education Enrichment ]

Exploring Emergence, The Universal Property That Shapes Us

At what point do you become you? How many neurons does it take to make you who you are? How many cells? Today, we celebrate emergence, the universal property that makes us who we are and shapes every corner of our world.

Image: Roman Justice Scales statue with hashtag symbol in clouds around it

10 minutes

[ Culture ]

Let Us Bridge Some #GenerationalDifference

Let’s talk about a controversy that we’ve all had to experience. What do you call this little symbol: “#”? Whether you call it a hashtag or a pound sign, today we explore its fascinating origins.

22 minutes

[ History ]

Could Holograms Change our History Records?

In this exhibit, you can sit across from a holocaust survivor and ask them about their story. The thing is, these people aren’t really there! So, how does this work? And what is it like for them to know their experience is protected from time?

Image: Path cutting through flower garden

15 minutes

[ Education Enrichment ]

When You (Really) Can’t Smell the Roses

Your sense of smell is one of the most powerful and elusive of all the senses. But how does it even work? And what is it like when it doesn’t?

Image: Mount Bromo erupting at sunrise in Java

8 minutes

[ Culture ]

Life at the Base of a Volcano

A vast majority of us don’t live anywhere close to a volcano — especially not an active one. Indonesia has the largest number of active volcanos in the world, so how do the residents handle the constant threat? What’s the appeal? Here’s a gorgeous film that may give us a hint.

12 minutes

[ Culture ]

Embracing a Language that Brings Us Closer 🙂

You’ve probably shared a few of these in your messages if you’ve communicated through technology in the past decade, but could emotion depicting icons have an even longer history than we assume? And where could these emojis bring the human race in the future? Jenna Schilstra discusses this on the TED stage.

Image: Screen Capture from Box by Bot and Dolly of Person walking into geometric shapes

12 minutes

[ Art ]

Mind Bending Technology and Magic

Technology and magic are combining to transform possibility. Bot & Dolly’s “Box” is a performance that pushes us past the boundaries of reality!

Image: A future spacecraft blasting through space

19 minutes

[ Curators' Best ]

Celebrate the New Year with a Tour of the Future!

There is no better way to ring in the New Year than celebrating all the potential in the future! Here are some great reasons to go into 2018 with a whole new mindset!

Image: Silhouette of a skier on a mountain

36 minutes

Rewriting Stories on Mountainsides

We typically don’t want to go back to a place we had a terrible experience. But what if we did? Here’s the story of three U.S. Army Captains returning to Iraq for the first time since combat to experience something completely different.

15 minutes

[ Conservation & Sustainability ]

Humanizing What’s Under the Surface

It can be difficult to feel a connection to something when it isn’t a part of your day to day life. But what if it could be? There are people throughout the world creating ways for us to have a closer look at what’s happening under the water, so here’s two of them. Artist, Katrina Fuller, will bring the ocean to us, while innovator, David Lang, brings us into those waters!

9 minutes

Retrain Your Brain: Mindfulness

By Bethany Leduc

Sometimes our own thoughts can lead us into a deep, dark, and endless pit. Thankfully, there just so happens to be an easily learned way to lighten it up a bit! Today we learn about Mindfulness and all it can do to help us dig our way out.

Image: A mural made of colorful plastic bits of medical equipment.

5 minutes

[ Art ]

Giving New Meaning to “The Little Things”

It’s so easy these days to get bogged down by the scale of the world’s problems, but what if we turned that focus upside down? Turns out there is remarkable connection, beauty, and possibility just waiting for us in our routines and ordinary moments! Here’s what one nurse was able to create by doing just that…

Image: Aaron Fotheringham in his wheelchair hand planting on rail.

15 minutes

Flipping Perceptions

How do you react when someone tells you you’re incapable of doing something? For a lot of us, there are usually two routes we take: agree and shrink, or prove those words wrong. WCMX athlete, Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, chose the latter and has spent years creating history and crushing stereotypes. Here’s his story…

Image: Greenland mountains and misty valley

23 minutes

[ Nature ]

The Greatness of Testing Our Limits (ft. Greenland)

What can a climb into an unexplored environment teach us about ourselves? Today we sit back, relax, and watch as a team of athletes spend weeks journeying through Greenland on the hunt for a mountain captured in a blurry photo.

Image: Graffiti of a cubist style painting of a face

[ Business ]

Stories Behind the Faces of Power

What if we removed the veil of power and could see people at “the top” for who they really are? Here’s a photographer whose stories do just that!

Image: Ammonium Chloride crystalization in a red pigment underneath a microscope!

9 minutes

[ Art ]

Where Could the Beauty of Science Take Us?

Could this combination of art and science inspire a fascination for the sciences in more people? This education brand brings another level to science class!

Image: A team of 10 people taking the superman pose, in zero gravity airplane

20 minutes

[ Science ]

Weightlessness in a Heavy World

Gravity is acting upon us from the moment of conception, and because of that, it is completely beyond our awareness, until now! Take a look at some fun to be had in zero gravity flights, and you’ll be amazed at all there is to appreciate! (And we may also eliminate some other things that could be “weighing us down.”)

Image: Feeling of magic as a performer blows dust into the air.

25 minutes

[ Art ]

Can Clowns Teach Us to be More Human?

When an art form meant to highlight our own humanity has begun eliciting fear… it may just be time to look back at its roots. Today, we learn a bit more about the amazing, mystical world of clowning!

Image: One of our favorite motivational speakers , Daniel Kish. riding a bike without sight.

15 minutes

Living Beyond Expectations: Daniel Kish