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In 1944, while Tokyo was under Allied aerial attack, sirens warned citizens to remain indoors as the government blacked out the city. Hisako Koyama, a Tokyo resident then aged 28, used these perilous, dark moments as an opportunity to pursue her passion for astronomical observation. But as this evocatively animated video from TED-Ed explores, it was her meticulous and innovative daylight sketches of the Sun that would ultimately capture the attention of the astronomy world. Melding Koyama’s inspiring biography with the science of sunspots and solar flares, the short is at once a glimpse into the Sun’s somewhat hidden cycles and a celebration of the contributions of citizen scientists.
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Ageing and death
Death is a trip – how new research links near-death and DMT experiences
9 minutes
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The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
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Technology and the self
Adaptive technologies have helped Stephen Hawking, and many more, find their voice
5 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away
5 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
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Music
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes
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Biology
In the jungle of Suriname, Maria Sibylla Merian discovered insect metamorphosis
4 minutes
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Neuroscience
The brain repurposed our sense of physical distance to understand social closeness
5 minutes
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Physics
Spectacular fractal patterns emerge when electricity meets a wooden surface
4 minutes