Explore a series of interdisciplinary explainers on climate science

Discover trends in Earth's climate system: What are indicators of climate change?

A comprehensive deep dive tracking components of the climate system over time, such as temperature, sea level, sea ice amounts, ocean heat, greenhouse gases, and more (w/charts and graphs).

The weather time machine

A fun interactive on how old ships’ logs are giving scientists new insights into the past and future of the Earth’s changing climate (w/maps and pictures).

Explore a simulation of the greenhouse effect

Investigate how cloud cover, surface albedo—a measure of a surface's reflectiveness—greenhouse concentrations, and atmospheric layers affect the energy balance on a simulated planet. Using either the wave or particle models of light, users can also explore how changes in solar intensity affect planetary surface temperature.

View an illustrative guide to climate change for kids

While climates have changed throughout Earth's history, they are now changing faster than usual, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases, which trap more of the sun's radiation.

Climate science 101: climate change, its impacts, and potential solutions

How do we know that this warming is happening and that it’s caused by humans? How strong is the evidence? What risks can we expect and what can we do about them?

How is the climate like baseball?

A two-minute video taking a lighthearted look at an unexpected analogy, explaining why some people call carbon dioxide (and the other greenhouse gases) the steroids of the climate system.

Four video explainers on quantum fundamentals

Ready to level up your working knowledge of quantum mechanics? Check out these four TED-Ed Lessons written by Chad Orzel, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College

What are climate models?

Climate modeling what is a global climate model? What are their uses? Why do we believe them? What do they agree on? Why do they disagree? How do we improve them?

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Explore a gallery of astronomical images curated by the European Space Agency

The collection includes illustrations and images of aurorae, planets, stars, galaxies, stellar nurseries, star clusters, exoplanets, quasars and black holes. Mission photography of astronauts, shuttles and telescopes is also featured.

The best photos of scientists at work in 2025

The winners of Nature's 2025 photo competition capture the essence of scientific fieldwork in diverse and challenging environments. From a biologist battling waves for whale research to ice core drilling in polar night conditions, this gallery details the research being each winning photo.

How glaciers melt

Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world’s glacial ice, including its only two ice sheets, making them areas of particular interest to scientists. Watch this three-minute video to learn why understanding them is not just interesting, but crucial to our near-term adaptability and our long term survival in a changing world.

Explore a timeline of research from the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

Since its founding in 1960, the group of research institutions has pooled together observational and computational resources to make significant advancements in the atmospheric sciences. These include the discovery of coupled atmospheric systems, the development of increasingly accurate climate models, and the creation of the National Scientific Balloon Facility.

The science of springtime, 101

Dive into the basics on springtime including the astronomy that brings it about, natural signs of spring's arrival, and some of the cultural approaches to the season.

Why David Attenborough was skeptical about global warming before bringing attention to it

Believing he was "experiencing the untouched natural world" in his early documentary series, Attenborough has admitted that many of his assumptions about human action were incorrect. It was not until attending a 2004 lecture on greenhouse gases and global temperatures that he became convinced of the science.

Hear firsthand how scientists and policymakers saved the ozone layer

In this episode, atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon and Protocol architect Stephen Andersen recount how scientific discovery, diplomacy, and public pressure drove the Montreal Protocol—and share lessons for tackling climate change.

Rivers in the sky

A short introduction to atmospheric rivers, including a handy illustration on the science behind them, the phenomena that help transport water vapor from the tropics across the globe.

The food industry's hard-to-solve pollution

One-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions result from food and agriculture. That whopping number includes production and post-farm processes like distribution. See a visualization of the data along with a breakdown explaining how each process contributes to emissions, and why it’s so difficult to improve the agriculture industry.

How the moon moves, an interactive lesson

How exactly does the moon move, and why does it move that way? In this ridiculously comprehensive interactive explainer, you can conduct experiments to see how the moon rotates and as it moves around the Earth, while learning how gravity works by controlling the path and speed of different objects. Dive into this beautiful, simple explainer to learn the basics on gravity and the moon.

A simple pictorial explanation of ocean geography

Visualizing ocean geographical features, such as a coastal zone, continental shelf and abyssal plain. This article from the US Geological Survey also provides several links to diverse ocean facts.

Authentic storytelling and audience awareness drive effective science communication

Bill Nye suggests that making people care about science requires limits on technical jargon, ensuring content is relatable to viewers, and injecting some comedy to help make the ideas stick. Having clear learning objectives can help educators stay on track and efficiently write content.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

A video introduction to demography

The Big Think’s video provides a thorough introduction to the field of demography. Demography provides the tools to address and understand many of the world’s problems. It uses quantitative data and mathematical models to analyze populations....

The science behind the movie 'Interstellar'

Christopher Nolan's 2014 sci-fi action film "Interstellar" relies on real science for its wild space-time travel. This infographic dives into the physics basis of the fictionalized Gargantua black hole, the relativity effect, and more.

How facts, hypotheses, theories, and laws in science differ from everyday language

Facts are observations of the world, and they can be pooled together for a given phenomenon to develop a hypothesis—a proposed explanation consistent with observations that requires further investigation. Experiments and additional data can rule out many hypotheses or graduate a proposed explanation into a widely accepted and validated theory.

A simple infographic explaining how coral bleaching works

When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.

Explore the human family tree

This interactive human family tree shows the various species that constitute the human evolutionary family. Click on each species or group image to learn more.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.