Mark Rober’s $60 Million Science Experiment | TED — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:04I want to start off tonight with a two-step experiment.
2. 0:07For step one,
3. 0:09I've got a two-liter bottle here.
4. 0:10It’s half-filled with liquid nitrogen
5. 0:12that’s negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. 0:15As you can see, it's violently boiling off into a gas,
7. 0:18just like boiling water does on a hot stove,
8. 0:21because to this freezing-cold liquid nitrogen,
9. 0:23the nice comfy air in this room is super hot.
10. 0:26But here’s the catch:
11. 0:28the gas form of nitrogen
12. 0:30occupies 700 times the volume of the liquid,
13. 0:33so you’ve got to be really careful, as it’s turning into a gas
14. 0:36you don’t trap it in a small container --
15. 0:38like if the lid was screwed on top here.
16. 0:40So then for step two,
17. 0:42I'm going to go ahead and screw the lid on top.
18. 0:45And when I do, if everything goes according to plan,
19. 0:47the contents of this bottle should experience
20. 0:49what we refer to at NASA
21. 0:51as an “energetic, spontaneous, rapid disassembly.”
22. 0:54(Laughter)
23. 0:55It's going to explode.
24. 0:56(Laughter)
25. 0:57All right, here we go.
26. 1:00Put that on.
27. 1:02OK, now, this is going to be --
28. 1:04Oh, you know what?
29. 1:05What the heck, might as well throw these on top.
30. 1:08(Laughter)
31. 1:09This is going to be real boring until it's not.
32. 1:13If you don't like loud noises, cover your ears.
33. 1:15But according to my calculations,
34. 1:17things could get real interesting here
35. 1:19in about three, two, one.
36. 1:23One.
37. 1:25(Laughter)
38. 1:26One.
39. 1:28I said one.
40. 1:30I’m just kidding -- it’s really impossible to actually calculate exactly --
41. 1:34Whoa!
42. 1:35(Cheers and applause)
43. 1:39Let’s go!
44. 1:40(Applause)
45. 1:43How's your jet lag now?
46. 1:44(Laughter)
47. 1:47Alright, my apologies,
48. 1:49my friends in the front row,
49. 1:51you should be warned, it will get worse before it gets better.
50. 1:54(Laughter)
51. 1:56I'm like science Gallagher up here.
52. 2:00So a lot of people would look at that --
53. 2:02Thank you, yeah.
54. 2:03You keep those as souvenirs, actually.
55. 2:05Please don’t throw them back the whole time.
56. 2:08A lot of people look at that and be like,
57. 2:10"Oh, neat, the ping-pong balls exploded."
58. 2:12But what actually happened is so much cooler.
59. 2:14Because as more and more of that nitrogen turned into a gas,
60. 2:17those gas molecules got more and more crowded
61. 2:20as they pushed back on the plastic molecules
62. 2:23comprising the walls of the two-liter bottle.
63. 2:26And then eventually,
64. 2:27the pressure got so great, it got so crowded,
65. 2:30the walls of the two-liter bottle lost the game of molecular Red Rover,
66. 2:34and all the gas came rushing out.
67. 2:37But where could it go?
68. 2:38Because it can’t go down or to the sides --
69. 2:41trash can's too thick.
70. 2:43Therefore, the only option is to go up,
71. 2:46and since all the ping-pong balls are in the way,
72. 2:48they just happen to go along for the ride.
73. 2:51But here's the really cool part.
74. 2:53This is exactly how cannons fire cannonballs.
75. 2:58It's how Nerf blasters fire Nerf darts.
76. 3:02It's how T-shirt cannons fire T-shirts.
77. 3:07And for my friends in the front row,
78. 3:09it’s how straws fire spit wads.
79. 3:11I'm just kidding.
80. 3:12(Laughter)
81. 3:14The trick for all those is you simply build up enough pressure,
82. 3:18you suddenly release it in one direction
83. 3:20and plop whatever you want in the way to go along for the ride.
84. 3:23And I love when I get like, that aha moment.
85. 3:26When I understand the world around me with a new framework.
86. 3:29But even more than that, I love giving that to other people.
87. 3:32This is why, for the last 15 years, once a month,
88. 3:36I've uploaded a free science or engineering video to YouTube
89. 3:40to my now 75 million subscribers
90. 3:42who also have a taste for those aha moments.
91. 3:45And the videos --
92. 3:47(Applause)
93. 3:49The videos can range anywhere from an elephant toothpaste volcano
94. 3:53that sets a world record
95. 3:55to a satellite that's orbiting above us right now that we built,
96. 3:58that you can upload your picture to for free,
97. 4:01and it will display it on a screen
98. 4:03and then give you a selfie in space with the Earth photobombing you.
99. 4:07(Laughter)
100. 4:09Or even a soccer goalie [that]
101. 4:11moves back and forth at 40 miles an hour,
102. 4:13and then we track your shot so effectively,
103. 4:16not even the world's greatest player can score on it.
104. 4:20(Laughter)
105. 4:21Sorry, Ronaldo.
106. 4:23(Laughter)
107. 4:24And 16 billion views later,
108. 4:27what I've learned is I can't teach you
109. 4:29if I don't have your attention.
110. 4:32But if I can get your attention with something remarkable,
111. 4:35well, now I suddenly have something to attach the learning to.
112. 4:39This is why it kills me if someone's like,
113. 4:41"Oh, I don't like science because it's boring."
114. 4:43But at the same time, I get it.
115. 4:44Because instead of learning about pressure
116. 4:46the way I did with these ping-pong balls,
117. 4:48a lot of the times it’s something like this --
118. 4:51with curiosity-murdering phrases
119. 4:54like, "consider a rigid container of volume V."
120. 4:57(Laughter)
121. 4:59It’s a freaking trash can, all right?
122. 5:01(Laughter)
123. 5:03And don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for equations,
124. 5:06but for a generation that is growing up on TikTok and YouTube,
125. 5:10you have to make it matter
126. 5:12with something that gets them to lean forward in their seat.
127. 5:15Something that ignites a little curiosity fire in their brain.
128. 5:19And we need that today more than ever.
129. 5:22I like to call this style of teaching “hiding the vegetables.”
130. 5:25(Laughter)
131. 5:27For example, it's really boring if you make a video
132. 5:29about the scientific method.
133. 5:30But what's not boring is if you make a video
134. 5:33about a 15-ton Jell-O pool
135. 5:35you can actually belly flop onto.
136. 5:37And in the process, I'm going to sneak in
137. 5:40all six steps of the scientific method.
138. 5:43What's also really boring is memorizing an equation about terminal velocity.
139. 5:47But what's not boring
140. 5:49is you point out that squirrels are one of the only mammals
141. 5:51that can survive a fall from any height
142. 5:53at their terminal velocity.
143. 5:55And then, in an effort to keep them from stealing all your birdseed,
144. 5:59you set up an eight-part Ninja Warrior obstacle course in your backyard,
145. 6:03and in the process,
146. 6:05what you might find
147. 6:06is they will voluntarily demonstrate this principle for you.
148. 6:10(Laughter)
149. 6:12It's a very true story.
150. 6:14(Laughter)
151. 6:15There's also a ton of super boring microcontroller tutorial videos online.
152. 6:20So when someone came by and stole a package from my porch,
153. 6:23I decided to dedicate a year of my life
154. 6:26to making the world's least boring microcontroller tutorial video.
155. 6:30Step one: you make a bait package like this.
156. 6:32And on the outside, you have something like a picture of headphones.
157. 6:36But inside, instead of headphones, you have this contraption.
158. 6:39And at the top there is a cup that spins a pound of the world’s finest glitter.
159. 6:43You have four phones that will record,
160. 6:45then upload their footage to the cloud in real time,
161. 6:47and as the pièce de résistance:
162. 6:49a very uncharitable amount of fart spray.
163. 6:53(Laughter)
164. 6:55That's foreshadowing.
165. 6:57And then step two: you have the thief come by,
166. 7:00and when he lifts the lid, takes it home --
167. 7:03of course -- it sprays the glitter followed by the fart spray.
168. 7:07I should point out, by the way,
169. 7:09this whole video was sort of a modern-day homage
170. 7:13to the greatest film of a generation.
171. 7:14I'm talking, of course, about "Home Alone."
172. 7:17And so the thief here, who’s pretending,
173. 7:21is none other than my buddy Macaulay Culkin.
174. 7:23(Laughter and applause)
175. 7:26And so then for step three:
176. 7:27what you and Macaulay are going to do
177. 7:29is you're going to make 20 of these,
178. 7:31put them on porches all across America,
179. 7:33and it won't take long
180. 7:34before you start getting back some incredible footage like this.
181. 7:39(Video) Hello.
182. 7:44Machine: Keep the change, you filthy animal.
183. 7:48Person 1: Whoa!
184. 7:52Machine: Hello.
185. 7:56You guys give up?
186. 7:58Or are you thirsty for more?
187. 8:00(Fart spray)
188. 8:03Operation “Whoever Smelt It, Dealt It” initiated.
189. 8:08(Laughter)
190. 8:11Person 2: Oh.
191. 8:12Machine: Operation "Butt Trumpet" initiated.
192. 8:15(Laughter)
193. 8:17Person 2: Oh.
194. 8:19(Fart spray)
195. 8:22Person 2: Alright, alright.
196. 8:23Alright, we get it, OK.
197. 8:26Smells like ... in here.
198. 8:29(Laughter and applause)
199. 8:36Mark Rober: By the way, I was watching.
200. 8:38And when that thief was about to lift the lid on the glitter bomb,
201. 8:41not a single one of you was looking down or was on your phones.
202. 8:45I had your undivided attention.
203. 8:47And that makes for the most fertile brain soil,
204. 8:49because learning is best when it’s attached to a visceral experience.
205. 8:53Basically, if you feel something here, you remember it here.
206. 8:57This is why memorizing a boring equation is hard.
207. 9:00But you know, remembering that song you sang as a teenager
208. 9:03that made you feel all those feels, that’s easy --
209. 9:05and you remember every single lyric, you know, 30 years later.
210. 9:09And to be fair, I didn’t come up with this style of teaching --
211. 9:12all great teachers know this.
212. 9:13For me, it was Mr. Malloy.
213. 9:15He was my high school statistics teacher.
214. 9:17Hello, Mr. Malloy, if you're watching this.
215. 9:20And he was great,
216. 9:21not just because he had a killer Doctor Evil impression --
217. 9:24(Laughter)
218. 9:25Or because, and I mean this with all sincerity,
219. 9:27he had way better hair than whatever I was trying to figure out here.
220. 9:31(Laughter)
221. 9:33He was great because he made it matter.
222. 9:35Like encouraging us to use what we learned in statistics
223. 9:38to predict where our arch-rival soccer team
224. 9:40was going to kick their penalty kicks.
225. 9:42And it worked.
226. 9:43He was so good at attaching emotions to learning.
227. 9:46He was so good at hiding the vegetables.
228. 9:50And the thing is, with a really good teacher, their impact is immeasurable.
229. 9:54Just like Mr. Malloy impacted his students
230. 9:56and we're now, in turn, impacting the world.
231. 9:58That's why I love teachers.
232. 10:00I think they have the most important job on the planet.
233. 10:03In fact, please.
234. 10:04(Cheers and applause)
235. 10:08I've said for like a decade,
236. 10:10my dream job is to be a middle-school science teacher,
237. 10:13and I will be.
238. 10:14But until that time --
239. 10:16and buckle up,
240. 10:17because this is the first time the world is hearing about this --
241. 10:20for the last two and a half years,
242. 10:23myself, with a team of about 50 people,
243. 10:26including some of the best science teachers in the country,
244. 10:29have been secretly working on a full science curriculum,
245. 10:32and it uses all the tricks I’ve learned from the past 15 years
246. 10:35on how to hide the vegetables.
247. 10:37(Cheers and applause)
248. 10:41And the reason we're doing this is because it breaks my heart
249. 10:46when I see teachers who get paid salaries [that],
250. 10:48as a society, we should be ashamed of,
251. 10:50spending their own money on resources that totally suck.
252. 10:53(Applause and cheers)
253. 10:59So it's got everything they'd need,
254. 11:00from banger videos the kids are going to beg to rewatch,
255. 11:03that demonstrate the science --
256. 11:05yes, that is a wrench in an MRI machine,
257. 11:08because how else am I supposed to talk
258. 11:10about the invisible magnetic fields all around us?
259. 11:13It's got ready-to-teach classroom slide decks
260. 11:16that are super clean and easy to use.
261. 11:18And then it’s got these really thought-out
262. 11:20curated science demos
263. 11:23where the kids get to viscerally interact with the science
264. 11:25that the teachers can make
265. 11:27just with stuff they have lying around their classroom.
266. 11:29The idea is that together we teach the classroom,
267. 11:32and the teacher becomes the hero,
268. 11:34as we engage the students in real science and engineering
269. 11:37they actually care about.
270. 11:39We're starting with grades three through eight.
271. 11:42It exceeds all the state science standards,
272. 11:45but most importantly,
273. 11:46it’s exactly what science class is meant to be:
274. 11:49super freaking fun.
275. 11:51(Video) Your teacher and I are about to launch this class into hyperdrive.
276. 11:57Let’s go!
277. 11:58[You've never]
278. 12:00[Had a class]
279. 12:02[Like this]
280. 12:04We’ll build stuff,
281. 12:06ask a ton of questions
282. 12:08and even smash a few things along the way.
283. 12:12If everything goes according to plan,
284. 12:15you'll see the world around you in an entirely new way.
285. 12:19Kristin Bell: Oh my God, that’s crazy.
286. 12:21MR: Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride.
287. 12:25It's basically magic,
288. 12:27but science.
289. 12:30Which makes it cooler than magic.
290. 12:33Mr. Beast: I knew it felt too light.
291. 12:37MR: What do you guys want to do now?
292. 12:40(Cheers and applause)
293. 12:45The world has evolved,
294. 12:46and teaching science is long overdue for disruption.
295. 12:49I'm happy to report that of the teachers
296. 12:51who are assigned to teach the pilot lessons to their students,
297. 12:54because of our ability to explain complicated things simply
298. 12:58and for our very unique experience in solving the science motivation gap
299. 13:02for 15 years,
300. 13:0495 percent of the teachers said that when we're done,
301. 13:06they would want this to be their full science curriculum.
302. 13:09And so the idea is you combine incredible teachers
303. 13:13with incredible resources
304. 13:14to get this explosive output,
305. 13:15sort of like you'd expect to see
306. 13:17if you combine this bucket of boiling water
307. 13:19with this trash can of freezing-cold liquid nitrogen.
308. 13:22(Laughter)
309. 13:24So to all those teachers out there in the trenches,
310. 13:26I want you to know reinforcements are on the way.
311. 13:29In fact, a bunch of the videos and lessons are already available right now,
312. 13:33and we'll finish the rest over the next four years,
313. 13:36because I know this will be the most important thing I do my whole life.
314. 13:40And even though this is going to cost us $60 million to make,
315. 13:46my official declaration tonight is every single lesson plan,
316. 13:50every teacher training,
317. 13:51every original class demo
318. 13:53will cost exactly zero dollars
319. 13:55and be 100 percent free for all teachers forever,
320. 13:59as we work to ignite those brain fires of curiosity
321. 14:02in the next generation of big problem solvers.
322. 14:05(Cheers)
323. 14:07Thank you so much.
324. 14:08(Cheers and applause)
325. 14:12Thank you.
326. 14:13(Cheers and applause)
327. 14:16Thank you.
328. 14:17(Applause)