My $60 million science experiment | Mark Rober
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Mark Rober spent years trying to land a rover on Mars. Now, the former NASA engineer turned science YouTuber with millions of subscribers is launching a new mission: to teach the next generation of big problem solvers. That's why he's spending 60 million dollars to build a STEM curriculum kids actually want. With squirrel obstacle courses, giant lasers and elephant toothpaste explosions, who wouldn't want to learn from YouTube's top engineer?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Science educator Mark Rober has spent years cracking the code on how to teach a generation raised on social media. |
| 0:17.9 | There is a time and a place for equations. For a generation that has grown up on TikTok and YouTube, you have to make it matter with |
| 0:25.9 | something that gets them to lean forward in their seat, something that ignites a little |
| 0:30.7 | curiosity fire in their brain. |
| 0:33.3 | We need that today more than ever. |
| 0:35.2 | In his talk, complete with live demos right on the TED stage, |
| 0:38.5 | Mark takes us inside his approach to creating the world's most exciting science lessons and debuts a |
| 0:44.1 | new initiative to help teachers across the world do the same. Quick heads up, the talk begins |
| 0:49.2 | with an explosion. It's all coming up right after a short break. |
| 1:02.7 | And now our TED Talk of the Day. |
| 1:06.7 | I want to start off tonight with a two-step experiment. |
| 1:09.8 | For step one, I've got a two-liter bottle here. |
| 1:11.8 | It's half filled with liquid nitrogen. It's half-filled with liquid nitrogen. |
| 1:14.2 | That's negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit. |
| 1:16.9 | It's violently boiling off into a gas. |
| 1:19.6 | Just like boiling water does on a hot stove, |
| 1:21.5 | because of this freezing-cold liquid nitrogen, |
| 1:24.4 | the nice, comfy air in this room is super hot. |
| 1:25.8 | But here's the catch. |
| 1:31.9 | The gas form of nitrogen occupies 700 times the volume of the liquid. So you've got to be really careful as it's turning into a gas. You don't trap it in a small |
| 1:36.2 | container like if the lid was screwed on top here. So then for step two, I don't go ahead and screw |
... |
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