Romantic chemistry is all about warm, gooey feelings that gush from the deepest depths of the heart... right? Not quite. Actually, the real boss behind attraction is your brain, which runs through a very quick, very complex series of calculations when assessing a potential partner. Dawn Maslar explores how our five senses contribute to this mating game, citing some pretty wild studies along the way.

In the first of a new TED-Ed series designed to catalyze curiosity, TED Curator Chris Anderson shares his boyhood obsession with quirky questions that seem to have no answers.

Physicists, philosophers, and UFO enthusiasts all have ideas on how many universes there may be or if there is extraterrestrial life. Chris Anderson summarizes the theories and expects that in the coming years physicists will arrive at more answers.

Who knows when we'll discover whether we are alone in the universe or not? Whatever the answer, the quest for more knowledge will never cease, nor grow dull.

"You're a fishmonger!" By taking a closer look at Shakespeare's words, and particularly his insults, we can see why he is known as a master playwright whose works appeal to audiences all over the world.

When we look at insults used in Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet," we get a new insight into dynamics between the characters and how they relate to the development of the story.

Michael Jordan’s legendary slam dunk from the free throw line has been calculated at 0.92 seconds of pure hang time. But how many seconds could Jordan have gotten if he did the same jump on Mars? Or Jupiter?

A look at the communications of Humpback Whales and other baleen whales, which includes how they sing, why they sing, and why we might consider their vocalizations actual songs.

Dolphins are one of the smartest animal species on Earth. In fact, their encephalization quotient (their brain size compared to the average for their body size) is second only to humans. But exactly how smart are they? This video shares some incredible facts about dolphins.

Judging by the 26 billion views on over 2 million YouTube videos of them, one thing is certain: cats are very entertaining. But their strange feline behaviors, both amusing and baffling, leave many of us asking: Why do cats do that? Tony Buffington explains the evolutionary history behind some of your cat’s strangest behaviors.

Natalie Fee talks with candor and sensitivity about some usually taboo aspects of daily life and how they affect plastic pollution. She then shows a film clip by artist Chris Jordan that is very difficult to watch, as it shows how litter is killing seabirds.

Natalie Fee talks about impact the clip (at the end of the previous segment) had on her life and how she started out on her journey. One stop on that journey was a music video.

Natalie provides some facts and figures about how much garbage is getting flushed down the toilet in the UK, and goes on to tell us about a successful campaign she spearheaded, aimed at manufacturers of cotton swabs.

Natalie provides some tips for wasting less plastic and leaves us with a slogan to help us rethink our flushing habits. She involves the audience to bring the message home.

Natalie Fee concludes her Ted Talk with a few suggestions for what we can do to reduce how much single-use plastic we are sending into the earth's waterways.