In Insect Hunting with Africa's Giants, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains a unique partnership between carmine bee-eaters and elephants. These birds follow elephants across the African savanna to catch insects stirred up by the elephants' movements. This fascinating collaboration is a perfect example of how different species can work together to survive. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Planet Earth II, a breathtaking documentary series that highlights the natural wonders of our planet.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is months into a serious Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo species of the virus. Its rapid spread has prompted health officials to raise the risk assessment to "very high" nationally, "high" regionally, and "low" globally. The Bundibugyo species has a case fatality rate of about one in three people, and there's currently no approved vaccine for this type of Ebola. Scientists at the University of Oxford are racing to develop one, using a strategy that may sound familiar.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists were able to develop vaccines quickly by using a harmless virus to deliver genetic material from the coronavirus. It may sound like the world’s worst Amazon delivery, but that material acts as instructions to teach the immune system what to recognize, so it can fight the real virus if a person is exposed later. It’s like showing your immune system a "wanted poster" of a criminal, and giving your body time to figure out how to respond if faced with the actual criminal.
Now, scientists are using the same strategy for Ebola: a harmless virus delivers genetic instructions from the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, helping the immune system prepare without causing the disease itself. Health officials hope the outbreak can be contained without a vaccine, but because Ebola can spread quickly and cause severe illness, having a vaccine ready would provide another powerful tool to help stop it — a definite case of "better safe than sorry."
The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) is an annual motorcycle racing event held over two weeks in late May and early June. It's widely regarded as the world's fastest and most dangerous road race, and it draws fans from around the world.
Though the race is more than 100 years old, this year's event had some extra excitement. Channing Tatum and Eve Hewson were there filming scenes for a new Amazon MGM movie inspired by the TT. Parts of the film were shot alongside the real races, with film crews mixing in among actual competitors and fans. The movie is called Isle of Man, and Brad Pitt is one of its producers.
Movie stars weren't the only famous faces in the crowd — spectators also included Formula One drivers Oscar Piastri and Mark Webber and cyclist Mark Cavendish. Fans of movies and motorcycles alike had plenty to be excited about at this year's race.
Some high school students recently swapped their smartphones for basic "brick" phones — the kind with no social media or apps, just texting, calling, and the classic game Snake.
The three-week experiment offered a preview of what life might look like once the UK's proposed ban on social media for under-16s takes effect next year. Calls to limit young people's social media use have been building for years, as critics argue some app features are designed to keep users scrolling. Some young people spend up to 20 hours a day on screens, which can affect sleep and time for schoolwork. Many students — along with their parents or carers — say they're struggling to manage screen time.
Feedback from the students was mixed. Some missed chatting with friends online and keeping up with trends. Others found they spent more time outdoors or with family and friends in person. Many said they didn't end up missing screen time as much as they expected.
The new 4×4 Rubik's Cube has more layers than the classic 3×3, which makes it harder to solve. A 22-year-old student named Matt Pidden decided to build a robot that could solve one — and he designed, built, and programmed the whole thing in just 15 weeks as a school project. He named it "the Revenger."
The robot is a box with four mechanical "hands" that reach in from the sides to grip the cube. Two cameras scan the cube so the Revenger knows where every colored square is. Then a program Matt wrote figures out the fastest way to solve it, and the robot twists each side until the cube is solved.
The Revenger solved the cube in 55 seconds, breaking the old robot record of 1 minute and 18 seconds, set back in 2015. That's impressive — but it's still way behind the human world record of 15.71 seconds. So no need to worry about robots taking over the world just yet.
The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) is investigating attacks on birds of prey, also called raptors. Raptors hunt and feed on other animals, but even though they're near the top of the food chain, one of their biggest threats is humans.
There have been reports of raptors found dead in suspicious circumstances or caught in illegal traps. Investigators are reviewing footage from cameras near some traps to help identify who's responsible. The traps themselves are legal when used correctly, and any animal that isn't the intended target must be released unharmed. But footage has shown some people mistreating or killing these protected birds instead.
Investigators believe money is behind some of the attacks. Raptors sometimes hunt game birds, which people also hunt for sport or profit. By illegally removing birds of prey, some people may be trying to leave more game birds available for shooting. Officials are struggling to find ways to reduce these attacks — fines and prosecution haven't been very effective so far. Some campaigners want stronger licensing rules for trap use, while others argue that would be hard to enforce and might not stop illegal attacks either.
Cowboy culture might seem uniquely American, but one Chinese immigrant says it feels surprisingly familiar. Bruce Wang is originally from Yunnan, a region of China with a long history of horse breeding among many ethnic groups, but became fascinated with the cowboy lifestyle after moving to Texas as an international student at 20 years old.
At first, he dressed like a cowboy, but looking the part wasn't enough — he wanted the real experience. So he joined the cattle industry, learning to ride horses and work with livestock. Maybe he even learned to appreciate the smell of cow manure — or at least not complain about it.
After more than a decade in the United States, cowboy culture has become an important part of his identity, and he says it will stay with him even if he returns to China one day. By sharing his story, Bruce hopes people in China and the United States will better understand one another despite ongoing political tensions. What a moooooooo-ving story.
If you see "A.B. Rowlands" twice on a Royal Navy roll call sheet, it's not a typo! For the first time in the Royal Navy's nearly 500-year history, a mother and son are in training together.
Michelle started as a part-time reservist before serving full-time and eventually transferring to the regular Royal Navy. She began part-time so she could pursue her dream of joining the Navy while keeping her regular job and raising her young children. At the time, she didn't think a full-time military career was possible. She sure showed… well, herself! Now, she’s working to qualify as a technician to maintain Navy aircrew survival equipment while her son, Thomas, is training to become an engineer in the submarine service when he turns 18.
Normally, recruits spend their training months far from home, making time with family hard to come by. But Michelle and Tom still squeeze in games of badminton, and Michelle shows no mercy when it comes to the state of Tom's uniforms. After all, some parts of being a mum don't stop just because you're both in the Navy!
The UK might be looking at 2027 with a lot less scrolling and far fewer TikTok dances, as Prime Minister (at the time) Kier Starmer announced plans to ban people under 16 from using social media, planned for spring.
Many of the ban's strongest supporters are parents who lost children in cases linked to online harms and have been campaigning for this for years. Though they’re happy about the announcement, there’s still some skepticism about how the ban will actually work, the logistics of how it will be enforced, and what sort of pushback there will be.
Even before taking effect, the proposal has sparked debate. Some people argue the ban is too strict and that better guidance, education, and parental controls would be more effective. Others point out that many teenagers use social media to stay in touch with friends and family. Some also worry the ban could give parents a false sense of security if they rely on it instead of staying involved in their children's online lives.
Tech companies argue the ban may not keep children as safe as supporters hope, as a ban on widely-used platforms might push some young people toward less-regulated online spaces that aren’t included in the ban or entice them to find a work-around for the age verification.
Shhh! We're going inside Amazon's super-secret chip design lab! But not the kind where they invent new potato chips. Amazon gave the BBC a rare look inside Annapurna Labs, where engineers design custom computer chips that power artificial intelligence.
Their teams oversee the entire process, from testing newly built silicon chips to making sure they're ready to be installed in massive data centers. These chips are the brains behind AI tools that millions of people use every day — from chatbots and translation apps to online shopping recommendations and voice assistants. Each chip can perform more than 1,000 trillion calculations every second. If you solved just one calculation every second without ever stopping, it would take about 80 million years to do the same amount of work!
There are companies that specialize in making chips, but Amazon designs its own to help make AI systems faster, more energy-efficient, and less expensive to operate. As AI becomes more powerful and more common, Amazon is competing with companies like Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia to build the chips that will power the next generation of AI.
Journey beyond the Solar System to explore exoplanets, distant stars, and the search for new worlds. From planets orbiting faraway suns to potentially habitable worlds light-years from Earth, discover how astronomers are uncovering new corners of the universe.
This Kahoot explores the science of exoplanet discovery, space exploration, and the technologies that allow us to detect and study worlds we cannot directly see while revealing how each new discovery expands our understanding of the cosmos.
Watch the related videos linked below, then take the Kahoot and see how much you know about the incredible worlds waiting to be discovered beyond our Solar System.
Explore the search for life beyond Earth in this Kahoot about Mars, scientific discovery, and one of humanity's biggest questions. From evidence of ancient water to clues hidden in the planet's surface, discover why scientists believe Mars may once have had the conditions needed to support life.
This Kahoot explores Martian geology, the role of water in sustaining life, and the tools scientists use to investigate distant worlds while uncovering what researchers look for when searching for signs of life beyond Earth.
Watch the videos about Mars linked below, then take the Kahoot and see how much you know about the Red Planet and the ongoing search for life in our Solar System.
In Insect Hunting with Africa's Giants, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains a unique partnership between carmine bee-eaters and elephants. These birds follow elephants across the African savanna to catch insects stirred up by the elephants' movements. This fascinating collaboration is a perfect example of how different species can work together to survive. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Planet Earth II, a breathtaking documentary series that highlights the natural wonders of our planet.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is months into a serious Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo species of the virus. Its rapid spread has prompted health officials to raise the risk assessment to "very high" nationally, "high" regionally, and "low" globally. The Bundibugyo species has a case fatality rate of about one in three people, and there's currently no approved vaccine for this type of Ebola. Scientists at the University of Oxford are racing to develop one, using a strategy that may sound familiar.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists were able to develop vaccines quickly by using a harmless virus to deliver genetic material from the coronavirus. It may sound like the world’s worst Amazon delivery, but that material acts as instructions to teach the immune system what to recognize, so it can fight the real virus if a person is exposed later. It’s like showing your immune system a "wanted poster" of a criminal, and giving your body time to figure out how to respond if faced with the actual criminal.
Now, scientists are using the same strategy for Ebola: a harmless virus delivers genetic instructions from the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, helping the immune system prepare without causing the disease itself. Health officials hope the outbreak can be contained without a vaccine, but because Ebola can spread quickly and cause severe illness, having a vaccine ready would provide another powerful tool to help stop it — a definite case of "better safe than sorry."
The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) is an annual motorcycle racing event held over two weeks in late May and early June. It's widely regarded as the world's fastest and most dangerous road race, and it draws fans from around the world.
Though the race is more than 100 years old, this year's event had some extra excitement. Channing Tatum and Eve Hewson were there filming scenes for a new Amazon MGM movie inspired by the TT. Parts of the film were shot alongside the real races, with film crews mixing in among actual competitors and fans. The movie is called Isle of Man, and Brad Pitt is one of its producers.
Movie stars weren't the only famous faces in the crowd — spectators also included Formula One drivers Oscar Piastri and Mark Webber and cyclist Mark Cavendish. Fans of movies and motorcycles alike had plenty to be excited about at this year's race.
Some high school students recently swapped their smartphones for basic "brick" phones — the kind with no social media or apps, just texting, calling, and the classic game Snake.
The three-week experiment offered a preview of what life might look like once the UK's proposed ban on social media for under-16s takes effect next year. Calls to limit young people's social media use have been building for years, as critics argue some app features are designed to keep users scrolling. Some young people spend up to 20 hours a day on screens, which can affect sleep and time for schoolwork. Many students — along with their parents or carers — say they're struggling to manage screen time.
Feedback from the students was mixed. Some missed chatting with friends online and keeping up with trends. Others found they spent more time outdoors or with family and friends in person. Many said they didn't end up missing screen time as much as they expected.
The new 4×4 Rubik's Cube has more layers than the classic 3×3, which makes it harder to solve. A 22-year-old student named Matt Pidden decided to build a robot that could solve one — and he designed, built, and programmed the whole thing in just 15 weeks as a school project. He named it "the Revenger."
The robot is a box with four mechanical "hands" that reach in from the sides to grip the cube. Two cameras scan the cube so the Revenger knows where every colored square is. Then a program Matt wrote figures out the fastest way to solve it, and the robot twists each side until the cube is solved.
The Revenger solved the cube in 55 seconds, breaking the old robot record of 1 minute and 18 seconds, set back in 2015. That's impressive — but it's still way behind the human world record of 15.71 seconds. So no need to worry about robots taking over the world just yet.
The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) is investigating attacks on birds of prey, also called raptors. Raptors hunt and feed on other animals, but even though they're near the top of the food chain, one of their biggest threats is humans.
There have been reports of raptors found dead in suspicious circumstances or caught in illegal traps. Investigators are reviewing footage from cameras near some traps to help identify who's responsible. The traps themselves are legal when used correctly, and any animal that isn't the intended target must be released unharmed. But footage has shown some people mistreating or killing these protected birds instead.
Investigators believe money is behind some of the attacks. Raptors sometimes hunt game birds, which people also hunt for sport or profit. By illegally removing birds of prey, some people may be trying to leave more game birds available for shooting. Officials are struggling to find ways to reduce these attacks — fines and prosecution haven't been very effective so far. Some campaigners want stronger licensing rules for trap use, while others argue that would be hard to enforce and might not stop illegal attacks either.
Cowboy culture might seem uniquely American, but one Chinese immigrant says it feels surprisingly familiar. Bruce Wang is originally from Yunnan, a region of China with a long history of horse breeding among many ethnic groups, but became fascinated with the cowboy lifestyle after moving to Texas as an international student at 20 years old.
At first, he dressed like a cowboy, but looking the part wasn't enough — he wanted the real experience. So he joined the cattle industry, learning to ride horses and work with livestock. Maybe he even learned to appreciate the smell of cow manure — or at least not complain about it.
After more than a decade in the United States, cowboy culture has become an important part of his identity, and he says it will stay with him even if he returns to China one day. By sharing his story, Bruce hopes people in China and the United States will better understand one another despite ongoing political tensions. What a moooooooo-ving story.
If you see "A.B. Rowlands" twice on a Royal Navy roll call sheet, it's not a typo! For the first time in the Royal Navy's nearly 500-year history, a mother and son are in training together.
Michelle started as a part-time reservist before serving full-time and eventually transferring to the regular Royal Navy. She began part-time so she could pursue her dream of joining the Navy while keeping her regular job and raising her young children. At the time, she didn't think a full-time military career was possible. She sure showed… well, herself! Now, she’s working to qualify as a technician to maintain Navy aircrew survival equipment while her son, Thomas, is training to become an engineer in the submarine service when he turns 18.
Normally, recruits spend their training months far from home, making time with family hard to come by. But Michelle and Tom still squeeze in games of badminton, and Michelle shows no mercy when it comes to the state of Tom's uniforms. After all, some parts of being a mum don't stop just because you're both in the Navy!
The UK might be looking at 2027 with a lot less scrolling and far fewer TikTok dances, as Prime Minister (at the time) Kier Starmer announced plans to ban people under 16 from using social media, planned for spring.
Many of the ban's strongest supporters are parents who lost children in cases linked to online harms and have been campaigning for this for years. Though they’re happy about the announcement, there’s still some skepticism about how the ban will actually work, the logistics of how it will be enforced, and what sort of pushback there will be.
Even before taking effect, the proposal has sparked debate. Some people argue the ban is too strict and that better guidance, education, and parental controls would be more effective. Others point out that many teenagers use social media to stay in touch with friends and family. Some also worry the ban could give parents a false sense of security if they rely on it instead of staying involved in their children's online lives.
Tech companies argue the ban may not keep children as safe as supporters hope, as a ban on widely-used platforms might push some young people toward less-regulated online spaces that aren’t included in the ban or entice them to find a work-around for the age verification.
Shhh! We're going inside Amazon's super-secret chip design lab! But not the kind where they invent new potato chips. Amazon gave the BBC a rare look inside Annapurna Labs, where engineers design custom computer chips that power artificial intelligence.
Their teams oversee the entire process, from testing newly built silicon chips to making sure they're ready to be installed in massive data centers. These chips are the brains behind AI tools that millions of people use every day — from chatbots and translation apps to online shopping recommendations and voice assistants. Each chip can perform more than 1,000 trillion calculations every second. If you solved just one calculation every second without ever stopping, it would take about 80 million years to do the same amount of work!
There are companies that specialize in making chips, but Amazon designs its own to help make AI systems faster, more energy-efficient, and less expensive to operate. As AI becomes more powerful and more common, Amazon is competing with companies like Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia to build the chips that will power the next generation of AI.
Journey beyond the Solar System to explore exoplanets, distant stars, and the search for new worlds. From planets orbiting faraway suns to potentially habitable worlds light-years from Earth, discover how astronomers are uncovering new corners of the universe.
This Kahoot explores the science of exoplanet discovery, space exploration, and the technologies that allow us to detect and study worlds we cannot directly see while revealing how each new discovery expands our understanding of the cosmos.
Watch the related videos linked below, then take the Kahoot and see how much you know about the incredible worlds waiting to be discovered beyond our Solar System.
Explore the search for life beyond Earth in this Kahoot about Mars, scientific discovery, and one of humanity's biggest questions. From evidence of ancient water to clues hidden in the planet's surface, discover why scientists believe Mars may once have had the conditions needed to support life.
This Kahoot explores Martian geology, the role of water in sustaining life, and the tools scientists use to investigate distant worlds while uncovering what researchers look for when searching for signs of life beyond Earth.
Watch the videos about Mars linked below, then take the Kahoot and see how much you know about the Red Planet and the ongoing search for life in our Solar System.