TED Blog

The 10 most popular TED-Ed lessons so far

The TED-Ed team is excited to have just passed our one-year mark — we launched our YouTube Channel on March 12, 2012. And what a year it has been! In 365 days, we have published more than 100 TED-Ed Originals plus nearly 100 TED Talks, totaling more than 16 million views. And we have almost 100 additional projects in production as we speak.

This milestone would not be possible without the brilliant educators and talented animators who have contributed to the TED-Ed initiative, making curiosity-inspiring Lessons available to people all around the globe. These collaborators have put great efforts — and many late hours — into each Lesson. And it shows.

In honor of our first birthday, we’d like to celebrate our top 10 most-watched videos so far, on topics ranging from chemistry to Shakespeare to origami.

  1. How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries by Adam Savage: 969,931 views
  2. Questions no one knows the answer to from Chris Anderson: 889,724 views
  3. Sex determination: More complicated than you thought courtesy of Aaron Reedy: 889,022 views
  4. Just how small is an atom? asks Jonathan Bergmann: 763,982 views
  5. What’s invisible? More than you think by John Lloyd: 531,415 views
  6. How big is infinity? from Dennis Wildfogel: 507,805 views
  7. Why can’t we see evidence of alien life? asks Chris Anderson: 469,687 views
  8. The secret life of plankton by Tierney Thys: 428,630 views
  9. Insults by Shakespeare courtesy of April Gudenrath: 402, 630 views
  10. How folding paper can get you to the moon from Adrian Paenza: 401,127 views

Here’s to ten more!

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