Restore Your Brain with Nature | David Strayer | TEDxManhattanBeach

For the past 10 years, Professor David Strayer has been researching brain-based measures of cognitive restoration. In his informative, researched-based talk, David shares his findings that spending time in nature - without digital devices - allows the brain to rest and restore. David Strayer is a professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. Dr. Strayer is a prolific writer and his research examines attention and multitasking in real-world contexts.

Feeling Tired, Irritable, Stressed Out? Try Nature | Short Film Showcase

Presented like a prescription drug commercial, Nature Rx offers a timeless prescription for whatever ails you—laughter mixed with the great outdoors. Side effects may include confidence, authenticity, remembering you have a body, and being in a good mood for no apparent reason.

Why Millennials Love Their Houseplant Jungles

The plant expert Summer Rayne Oakes cares for a vast collection of indoor foliage—more than a thousand plants, from pothos to succulents. She explains why so many millennials have developed houseplant fever.

How Do Honeybees Get Their Jobs? | National Geographic

Every honeybee has a job to do. Some are nurses who take care of the brood; some are janitors who clean the hive; others are foragers who gather pollen to make honey. Collectively, honeybees are able to achieve an incredible level of sophistication, especially considering their brains are only the size of sesame seeds. But how are these jobs divvied up, and where do bees learn the skills to execute them?

The Health Benefits of Going Outside

As people spend more time indoors, ecotherapy is emerging as a way to help rebuild our relationships with nature—and improve mental and physical health. James Hamblin visits San Francisco to learn more.

Time-Lapse: Watch Flowers Bloom Before Your Eyes | Short Film Showcase

Witness dozens of different types of flowers unfurling in this stunning time-lapse video from filmmaker David de los Santos Gil. He used 5,000 out of 50,000 shots of his floral subjects for the final video, which was filmed over a period of nine months.

The World is Poorly Designed. But Copying Nature Helps.

Japan’s Shinkansen doesn’t look like your typical train. With its long and pointed nose, it can reach top speeds up to 150–200 miles per hour.

It didn’t always look like this. Earlier models were rounder and louder, often suffering from the phenomenon of "tunnel boom," where deafening compressed air would rush out of a tunnel after a train rushed in. But a moment of inspiration from engineer and birdwatcher Eiji Nakatsu led the system to be redesigned based on the aerodynamics of three species of birds.

Nakatsu’s case is a fascinating example of biomimicry, the design movement pioneered by biologist and writer Janine Benyus. She's a co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit encouraging creators to discover how big challenges in design, engineering, and sustainability have often already been solved through 3.8 billion years of evolution on earth. We just have to go out and find them.

The Hidden Beauty of Pollination - Louie Schwartzberg

Pollination: it's vital to life on Earth but largely unseen by the human eye. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life," inspired by the vanishing of one of nature's primary pollinators, the honeybee.

Talk by Louie Schwartzberg,

The Healing Power of Nature!

Many of us spend the vast majority of our lives indoors, surrounded by metal and plastic, under florescent lights, staring at bright screens while breathing in stale polluted air. We’ve become addicted to technology and man-made innovation, but the truth is…nature had it right all along.

Black-Tailed Deer

Find out more about our neighbors the Black-Tailed Deer, with naturalist Michael Ellis.