Vídeos
TEDs
TED
The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything
- Josh Kaufman
- 4min27seg
Josh Kaufman is the author of the #1 international bestseller, 'The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business', as well as the upcoming book 'The First 20 Hours: Mastering the Toughest Part of Learning Anything.' Josh specializes in teaching people from all walks of life how to master practical knowledge and skills. In his talk, he shares how having his first child inspired him to approach learning in a whole new way.
TED
4 Lessons in Creativity
- Julie Burstein
- 4min27seg
Radio host Julie Burstein talks with creative people for a living -- and shares four lessons about how to create in the face of challenge, self-doubt and loss. Hear insights from filmmaker Mira Nair, writer Richard Ford, sculptor Richard Serra and photographer Joel Meyerowitz.
TED
Life in the "digital now"
- Abha Dawesar
- 4min27seg
One year ago, Abha Dawesar was living in blacked-out Manhattan post-Sandy, scrounging for power to connect. As a novelist, she was struck by this metaphor: Have our lives now become fixated on the drive to digitally connect, while we miss out on what's real?
TED
Architecture for the people by the people
- Alastair Parvin
- 4min27seg
Architect Alastair Parvin presents a simple but provocative idea: what if, instead of architects creating buildings for those who can afford to commission them, regular citizens could design and build their own houses? The concept is at the heart of Wikihouse, an open source construction kit that means just about anyone can build a house, anywhere.
TED
My architectural philosophy? Bring the community into the process
- Alejandro Aravena
- 4min27seg
When asked to build housing for 100 families in Chile ten years ago, Alejandro Aravena looked to an unusual inspiration: the wisdom of favelas and slums. Rather than building a large building with small units, he built flexible half-homes that each family could expand on. It was a complex problem, but with a simple solution - one that he arrived at by working with the families themselves. With a chalkboard and beautiful images of his designs, Aravena walks us through three projects where clever rethinking led to beautiful design with great benefit.
TED
Why privacy matters
- Alessandro Acquisti
- 4min27seg
The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research -- including a project that shows how easy it is to match a photograph of a stranger with their sensitive personal information.
TED
The discovery that could rewrite physics
- Allan Adams
- 4min27seg
On March 17, 2014, a group of physicists announced a thrilling discovery: the "smoking gun" data for the idea of an inflationary universe, a clue to the Big Bang. For non-physicists, what does it mean? TED asked Allan Adams to briefly explain the results, in this improvised talk illustrated by Randall Munroe of xkcd.
TED
Global priorities bigger than climate change
- Bjorn Lomborg
- 4min27seg
Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming? Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg comes up with surprising answers.
TED
We can be Buddhas
- Bob Thurman
- 4min27seg
In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward Buddha nature.
TED
The secret, social lives of bacteria
- Bonnie Bassler
- 4min27seg
Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.
TED
To create for the ages, let's combine art and engineering
- Bran Ferren
- 4min27seg
When Bran Ferren was just 9, his parents took him to see the Pantheon in Rome - and it changed everything. In that moment, he began to understand how the tools of science and engineering become more powerful when combined with art, with design and beauty. Ever since, he's been searching for a convincing modern-day equivalent to Rome's masterpiece. Stay tuned to the end of the talk for his unexpected suggestion.
TED
Why we need the explorers
- Brian Cox
- 4min27seg
In tough economic times, our exploratory science programs -- from space probes to the LHC -- are first to suffer budget cuts. Brian Cox explains how curiosity-driven science pays for itself, powering innovation and a profound appreciation of our existence.
TED
CERN's supercollider
- Brian Cox
- 4min27seg
"Rock star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive complex and describes his part in it -- and the vital role it's going to play in understanding our universe.
TED
What went wrong at the Large Hadron Collider
- Brian Cox
- 4min27seg
In this short talk from TED U 2009, Brian Cox shares what's new with the CERN supercollider. He covers the repairs now underway and what the future holds for the largest science experiment ever attempted.
TED
An independent diplomat
- Carne Ross
- 4min27seg
After 15 years in the British diplomatic corps, Carne Ross became a "freelance diplomat," running a bold nonprofit that gives small, developing and yet-unrecognized nations a voice in international relations. At the BIF-5 conference, he calls for a new kind of diplomacy that gives voice to small countries, that works with changing boundaries and that welcomes innovation.
TED
Africa's next boom
- Charles Robertson
- 4min27seg
The past decade has seen slow and steady economic growth across the continent of Africa. But economist Charles Robertson has a bold thesis: Africa's about to boom. He talks through a few of the indicators -- from rising education levels to expanded global investment (and not just from China) -- that lead him to predict rapid growth for a billion people, sooner than you may think.
TED
The art of first impressions - in design and life
- Chip Kidd
- 4min27seg
Book designer Chip Kidd knows all too well how often we judge things by first appearances. In this hilarious, fast-paced talk, he explains the two techniques designers use to communicate instantly - clarity and mystery - and when, why and how they work. He celebrates beautiful, useful pieces of design, skewers less successful work, and shares the thinking behind some of his own iconic book covers.
TED
The Hilarious Art of Book Design
- Chip Kidd
- 4min27seg
Chip Kidd doesn't judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book -- and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)
TED
Design with the blind in mind
- Chris Downey
- 4min27seg
What would a city designed for the blind be like? Chris Downey is an architect who went suddenly blind in 2008; he contrasts life in his beloved San Francisco before and after -- and shows how the thoughtful designs that enhance his life now might actually make everyone's life better, sighted or not.
TED
Creativity Is a Remix
- Kirby Ferguson
- 4min27seg
Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators both borrow, steal and transform.
TED
The kill decision shouldn't belong to a robot
- Daniel Suarez
- 4min27seg
As a novelist, Daniel Suarez spins dystopian tales of the future. But on the TEDGlobal stage, he talks us through a real-life scenario we all need to know more about: the rise of autonomous robotic weapons of war. Advanced drones, automated weapons and AI-powered intelligence-gathering tools, he suggests, could take the decision to make war out of the hands of humans.
TED
What we're learning from online education
- Daphne Koller
- 4min27seg
Daphne Koller is enticing top universities to put their most intriguing courses online for free -- not just as a service, but as a way to research how people learn. With Coursera (cofounded by Andrew Ng), each keystroke, quiz, peer-to-peer discussion and self-graded assignment builds an unprecedented pool of data on how knowledge is processed.
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Are mushrooms the new plastic?
- Eben Bayer
- 4min27seg
Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.
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How We Take Back the Internet
- Edward Snowden
- 4min27seg
Appearing by telepresence robot, Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives - and the laws that protect it. "Your rights matter," he say, "because you never know when you're going to need them." Chris Anderson interviews, with special guest Tim Berners-Lee.
TED
Embrace the Shake
- Phil Hansen
- 4min27seg
In art school, Phil Hansen developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. Hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. Until a neurologist made a simple suggestion: embrace this limitation ... and transcend it.
TED
New traffic sign
- Gary Lauder
- 4min27seg
Fifty percent of traffic accidents happen at intersections. Gary Lauder shares a brilliant and cheap idea for helping drivers move along smoothly: a new traffic sign that combines the properties of "Stop" and "Yield" -- and asks drivers to be polite.
TED
Our failing schools. Enough is enough!
- Geoffrey Canada
- 4min27seg
Why, why, why does our education system look so similar to the way it did 50 years ago? Millions of students were failing then, as they are now -- and it's because we're clinging to a business model that clearly doesn't work. Education advocate Geoffrey Canada dares the system to look at the data, think about the customers and make systematic shifts in order to help greater numbers of kids excel.
TED
How to Build Your Creative Confidence
- David Kelley
- 4min27seg
Is your school or workplace divided into "creatives" versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create... (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)
TED
How We Found the Giant Squid
- Edith Widder
- 4min27seg
Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film. Oceanographer and inventor Edith Widder shares the key insight -- and the teamwork -- that helped to capture the squid on camera for the first time.
TED
Can design save the newspaper?
- Jacek Utko
- 4min27seg
Jacek Utko is a little-known newspaper designer whose redesigns not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.
TED
Who controls the world?
- James B. Glattfelder
- 4min27seg
James Glattfelder studies complexity: how an interconnected system -- say, a swarm of birds -- is more than the sum of its parts. And complexity theory, it turns out, can reveal a lot about how the economy works. Glattfelder shares a groundbreaking study of how control flows through the global economy, and how concentration of power in the hands of a shockingly small number leaves us all vulnerable. (Filmed at TEDxZurich.)
TED
Why I must speak out about climate change
- James Hansen
- 4min27seg
Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
TED
Can technology solve our big problems?
- Jason Pontin
- 4min27seg
In 1969, Buzz Aldrin's historical step onto the moon leapt mankind into an era of technological possibility. The awesome power of technology was to be used to solve all of our big problems. Fast forward to present day, and what's happened? Are mobile apps all we have to show for ourselves? Journalist Jason Pontin looks closely at the challenges we face to using technology effectively ... for problems that really matter.
TED
Hack a banana, make a keyboard!
- Jay Silver
- 4min27seg
Why can't two slices of pizza be used as a slide clicker? Why shouldn't you make music with ketchup? In this charming talk, inventor Jay Silver talks about the urge to play with the world around you. He shares some of his messiest inventions, and demos MaKey MaKey, a kit for hacking everyday objects.
TED
Why does the universe exist?
- Jim Holt
- 4min27seg
Why is there something instead of nothing? In other words: Why does the universe exist (and why are we in it)? Philosopher and writer Jim Holt follows this question toward three possible answers. Or four. Or none.
TED
Let the environment guide our development
- Johan Rockstrom
- 4min27seg
Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems.
TED
Design, explained
- John Hodgman
- 4min27seg
John Hodgman, comedian and resident expert, "explains" the design of three iconic modern objects. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)
TED
Will our kids be a different species?
- Juan Enriquez
- 4min27seg
Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? At TEDxSummit, Juan Enriquez sweeps across time and space to bring us to the present moment -- and shows how technology is revealing evidence that suggests rapid evolution may be under way.
TED
The next species of human
- Juan Enriquez
- 4min27seg
Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.
TED
Meet BRCK, Internet access built for Africa
- Juliana Rotich
- 4min27seg
Tech communities are booming all over Africa, says Nairobi-based Juliana Rotich, cofounder of the open-source software Ushahidi. But it remains challenging to get and stay connected in a region with frequent blackouts and spotty internet hookups. So Rotich and friends developed BRCK, offering resilient connectivity for the developing world.
TED
Eco-friendly drywall
- Kevin Surace
- 4min27seg
Kevin Surace suggests we rethink basic construction materials -- such as the familiar wallboard -- to reduce the huge carbon footprint generated by the manufacturing and construction of our buildings. He introduces EcoRock, a clean, recyclable and energy-efficient drywall created by his team at Serious Materials.
TED
The doubt essential to faith
- Lesley Hazleton
- 4min27seg
When Lesley Hazleton was writing a biography of Muhammad, she was struck by something: The night he received the revelation of the Koran, according to early accounts, his first reaction was doubt, awe, even fear. And yet this experience became the bedrock of his belief. Hazleton calls for a new appreciation of doubt and questioning as the foundation of faith -- and an end to fundamentalism of all kinds.
TED
A "tourist" reads the Koran
- Lesley Hazleton
- 4min27seg
Lesley Hazleton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found -- as a non-Muslim, a self-identified "tourist" in the Islamic holy book -- wasn't what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazleton shares the grace, flexibility and mystery she found, in this myth-debunking talk from TEDxRainier.
TED
A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami
- Manu Prakash
- 4min27seg
Perhaps you've punched out a paper doll or folded an origami swan? TED Fellow Manu Prakash and his team have created a microscope made of paper that's just as easy to fold and use. A sparkling demo that shows how this invention could revolutionize healthcare in developing countries ... and turn almost anything into a fun, hands-on science experiment.
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Government -- investor, risk-taker, innovator
- Mariana Mazzucato
- 4min27seg
Why doesn't the government just get out of the way and let the private sector -- the "real revolutionaries" -- innovate? It's rhetoric you hear everywhere, and Mariana Mazzucato wants to dispel it. In an energetic talk, she shows how the state -- which many see as a slow, hunkering behemoth -- is really one of our most exciting risk-takers and market-shapers.
TED
Demo: A needle-free vaccine patch that's safer and way cheaper
- Mark Kendall
- 4min27seg
One hundred sixty years after the invention of the needle and syringe, we're still using them to deliver vaccines; it's time to evolve. Biomedical engineer Mark Kendall demos the Nanopatch, a one-centimeter-by-one-centimeter square vaccine that can be applied painlessly to the skin. He shows how this tiny piece of silicon can overcome four major shortcomings of the modern needle and syringe, at a fraction of the cost.
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Why business can be good at solving social problems
- Michael Porter
- 4min27seg
Why do we turn to nonprofits, NGOs and governments to solve society's biggest problems? Michael Porter admits he's biased, as a business school professor, but he wants you to hear his case for letting business try to solve massive problems like climate change and access to water. Why? Because when business solves a problem, it makes a profit -- which lets that solution grow.
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Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life
- Michael Sandel
- 4min27seg
In the past three decades, says Michael Sandel, the US has drifted from a market economy to a market society; it's fair to say that an American's experience of shared civic life depends on how much money they have. (Three key examples: access to education, access to justice, political influence.) In a talk and audience discussion, Sandel asks us to think honestly on this question: In our current democracy, is too much for sale?
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Global crime networks
- Misha Glenny
- 4min27seg
Journalist Misha Glenny spent several years in a courageous investigation of organized crime networks worldwide, which have grown to an estimated 15% of the global economy. From the Russian mafia, to giant drug cartels, his sources include not just intelligence and law enforcement officials but criminal insiders.
TED
Rethinking the way we sit down
- Niels Diffrient
- 4min27seg
Design legend Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the human body.
TED
What we don't understand about trust
- Onora O'Neill
- 4min27seg
Trust is on the decline, and we need to rebuild it. That's a commonly heard suggestion for making a better world ... but, says philosopher Onora O'Neill, we don't really understand what we're suggesting. She flips the question, showing us that our three most common ideas about trust are actually misdirected.
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The global power shift
- Paddy Ashdown
- 4min27seg
Paddy Ashdown claims that we are living in a moment in history where power is changing in ways it never has before. In a spellbinding talk at TEDxBrussels he outlines the three major global shifts that he sees coming.
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Treating design as art
- Paola Antonelli
- 4min27seg
Paola Antonelli, design curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, wants to spread her appreciation of design -- in all shapes and forms -- around the world.
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Psychedelic Science
- Fabian Oefner
- 4min27seg
Swiss artist and photographer Fabian Oefner is on a mission to make eye-catching art from everyday science. In this charming talk, he shows off some recent psychedelic images, including photographs of crystals as they interact with soundwaves. And, in a live demo, he shows what really happens when you mix paint with magnetic liquid--or when you set fire to whiskey.
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Why democracy matters
- Rory Stewart
- 4min27seg
The public is losing faith in democracy, says British MP Rory Stewart. Iraq and Afghanistan's new democracies are deeply corrupt; meanwhile, 84 percent of people in Britain say politics is broken. In this important talk, Stewart sounds a call to action to rebuild democracy, starting with recognizing why democracy is important -- not as a tool, but as an ideal.
TED
Sweat the small stuff
- Rory Sutherland
- 4min27seg
It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. To illustrate, he uses behavioral economics and hilarious examples.
TED
Life lessons from an ad man
- Rory Sutherland
- 4min27seg
Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider real value -- and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.
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How to make hard choices
- Ruth Chang
- 4min27seg
Here's a talk that could literally change your life. Which career should I pursue? Should I break up - or get married?! Where should I live? Big decisions like these can be agonizingly difficult. But that's because we think about them the wrong way, says philosopher Ruth Chang. She offers a powerful new framework for shaping who we truly are.
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Science Can Answer Moral Questions
- Sam Harris
- 4min27seg
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.
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Why Google Glass?
- Sergey Brin
- 4min27seg
It's not a demo, more of a philosophical argument: Why did Sergey Brin and his team at Google want to build an eye-mounted camera/computer, codenamed Glass? Onstage at TED2013, Brin calls for a new way of seeing our relationship with our mobile computers -- not hunched over a screen but meeting the world heads-up.
TED
Emergency shelters made from paper
- Shigeru Ban
- 4min27seg
Long before sustainability became a buzzword, architect Shigeru Ban had begun his experiments with ecologically-sound building materials such as cardboard tubes and paper. His remarkable structures are often intended as temporary housing, designed to help the dispossessed in disaster-struck nations such as Haiti, Rwanda or Japan. Yet equally often the buildings remain a beloved part of the landscape long after they have served their intended purpose.
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The long reach of reason
- Steven Pinker and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
- 4min27seg
Here's a TED first: an animated Socratic dialog! In a time when irrationality seems to rule both politics and culture, has reasoned thinking finally lost its power? Watch as psychologist Steven Pinker is gradually, brilliantly persuaded by philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein that reason is actually the key driver of human moral progress, even if its effect sometimes takes generations to unfold. The dialog was recorded live at TED, and animated, in incredible, often hilarious, detail by Cognitive.
TED
Building a home for the Clock of the Long Now
- Stewart Brand
- 4min27seg
Stewart Brand works on the Clock of the Long Now, a timepiece that counts down the next 10,000 years. It's a beautiful project that asks us to think about the far, far future. Here, he discusses a tricky side problem with the Clock: Where can we put it?
TED
Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating
- Elizabeth Gilbert
- 4min27seg
Elizabeth Gilbert was once an "unpublished diner waitress," devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple -- though hard -- way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.
TED
What is so special about the human brain?
- Suzana Herculano-Houzel
- 4min27seg
The human brain is puzzling -- it is curiously large given the size of our bodies, uses a tremendous amount of energy for its weight and has a bizarrely dense cerebral cortex. But: why? Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel puts on her detective's cap and leads us through this mystery. By making "brain soup," she arrives at a startling conclusion.
TED
The best kindergarten you've ever seen
- Takaharu Tezuka
- 4min27seg
At this school in Tokyo, five-year-olds cause traffic jams and windows are for Santa to climb into. Meet: the world's cutest kindergarten, designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka. In this charming talk, he walks us through a design process that really lets kids be kids.
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The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death
- Stephen Cave
- 4min27seg
Philosopher Stephen Cave begins with a dark but compelling question: When did you first realize you were going to die? And even more interestingly: Why do we humans so often resist the inevitability of death? In a fascinating talk Cave explores four narratives -- common across civilizations -- that we tell ourselves "in order to help us manage the terror of death."
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The Rise of Personal Robots
- Cynthia Breazeal
- 4min27seg
As a grad student, Cynthia Breazeal wondered why we were using robots on Mars, but not in our living rooms. The key, she realized: training robots to interact with people. Now she dreams up and builds robots that teach, learn -- and play. Watch for amazing demo footage of a new kids' game.
TED
It's time to redesign medical data
- Thomas Goetz
- 4min27seg
Your medical chart: it's hard to access, impossible to read -- and full of information that could make you healthier if you just knew how to use it. At TEDMED, Thomas Goetz looks at medical data, making a bold call to redesign it and get more insight from it.
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Use Art to Turn the World Inside Out
- JR
- 4min27seg
JR, a French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face. He makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. A funny, moving talk about art and who we are.
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One year of turning the world inside out
- JR
- 4min27seg
Street artist JR made a wish in 2011: Join me in a worldwide photo project to show the world its true face. Now, a year after his TED Prize wish, he shows how giant posters of human faces, pasted in public, are connecting communities, making change, and turning the world inside out. You can join in at insideoutproject.net
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Where Does Creativity Hide?
- Amy Tan
- 4min27seg
Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It's a wild ride with a surprise ending.
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Where Good Ideas Come From
- Steven Johnson
- 4min27seg
People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.
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Architecture at home in its community
- Xavier Vilalta
- 4min27seg
When TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta was commissioned to create a multistory shopping mall in Addis Ababa, he panicked. Other centers represented everything he hated about contemporary architecture: wasteful, glass towers requiring tons of energy whose design had absolutely nothing to do with Africa. In this charming talk, Vilalta shows how he champions an alternative approach: to harness nature, reference design tradition and create beautiful, modern, iconic buildings fit for a community.
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Designing objects that tell stories
- Yves Behar
- 4min27seg
Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he's created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he's working on now -- including the "$100 laptop."
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Are you human?
- Ze Frank
- 4min27seg
Have you ever wondered: Am I a human being? Ze Frank suggests a series of simple questions that will determine this. Please relax and follow the prompts. Let's begin ...
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Ze Frank's web playroom
- Ze Frank
- 4min27seg
On the web, a new "Friend" may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation -- and reward it with something more nourishing. You're invited, if you promise you'll share.
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A Warrior's Cry Against Child Marriage
- Memory Banda
- 4min27seg
Memory Banda's life took a divergent path from her sister's. When her sister reached puberty, she was sent to a traditional "initiation camp" that teaches girls "how to sexually please a man." She got pregnant there - at age 11. Banda, however, refused to go. Instead, she organized others and asked her community's leader to issue a bylaw that no girl should be forced to marry before turning 18. She pushed on to the national level . with incredible results for girls across Malawi.
TED
How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are
- Andrew Solomon
- 4min27seg
Writer Andrew Solomon has spent his career telling stories of the hardships of others. Now he turns inward, bringing us into a childhood of struggle, while also spinning tales of the courageous people he's met in the years since. In a moving, heartfelt and at times downright funny talk, Solomon gives a powerful call to action to forge meaning from our biggest struggles.
TED
Dare to Educate Afghan Girls
- Shabana Basij-Rasikh
- 4min27seg
Imagine a country where girls must sneak out to go to school, with deadly consequences if they get caught learning. This was Afghanistan under the Taliban, and traces of that danger remain today. 22-year-old Shabana Basij-Rasikh runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. She celebrates the power of a family's decision to believe in their daughters -- and tells the story of one brave father who stood up to local threats.
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The strange politics of disgust
- David Pizarro
- 4min27seg
What does a disgusting image have to do with how you vote? Equipped with surveys and experiments, psychologist David Pizarro demonstrates a correlation between sensitivity to disgusting cues -- a photo of feces, an unpleasant odor -- and moral and political conservatism.
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The fiction of memory
- Elizabeth Loftus
- 4min27seg
Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. More precisely, she studies false memories, when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were. It's more common than you might think, and Loftus shares some startling stories and statistics, and raises some important ethical questions we should all remember to consider.
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Forget what you know
- Jacob Barnett
- 4min27seg
Jacob Barnett is an American mathematician and child prodigy. At 8 years old, Jacob began sneaking into the back of college lectures at IUPUI. After being diagnosed with autism since the age of two and placed in his school's special ed. program, Jacob's teachers and doctors were astonished to learn he was able to teach calculus to college students.
At age nine, while playing with shapes, Jacob built a series of mathematical models that expanded Einstein's field of relativity. A professor at Princeton reviewed his work and confirmed that it was groundbreaking and could someday result in a Nobel Prize. At age 10, Jacob was formally accepted to the University as a full-time college student and went straight into a paid research position in the field of condensed matter physics. For his original work in this field, Jacob set a record, becoming the world's youngest astrophysics researcher. His paper was subsequently accepted for publication by Physical Review A, a scientific journal shared on sites such as NASA, the Smithsonian, and Harvard's webpage. Jacob's work aims to help improve the way light travels in technology....
TED
Hidden Cameras Film Injustice in Dangerous Places
- Oren Yakobovich
- 4min27seg
To see is to believe, says Oren Yakobovich - which is why he helps everyday people use hidden cameras to film dangerous situations of violence, political fraud and abuse. His organization, Videre, uncovers, verifies and publicizes human-rights abuses that the world needs to witness.
TED
How I Named, Shamed and Jailed
- Anas Aremeyaw Anas
- 4min27seg
Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has broken dozens of stories of corruption and organized crime all over Ghana -- without ever revealing his identity. In this talk (in which his face remains hidden) Anas shows grisly footage from some of his investigations and demonstrates the importance of facing injustice.
TED
How You Know You're in Love: Epigenetics, Stress & Gender Identity
- Karissa Sanbonmatsu
- 4min27seg
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Social interactions alter DNA ('epigenetics'). Revealing how her own gender transition led her down the path of epigenetics, Scientist Karissa Sanbonmatsu takes us on a journey to DNA rave parties and the science of love. Following Laverne Cox, Geena Rocero and Janet Mock, Dr. Sanbonmatsu comes out as a transgendered woman in her talk. She argues that long RNA molecules (DNA's molecular cousins) may unlock the secrets of epigenetics and someday help with autism, addiction and Alzheimers'.
Dr. Sanbonmatsu is a principal investigator at Los Alamos National Laboratory (www.t6.lanl.gov/kys). After studying electromagnetic turbulence above the aurora borealis, Dr. Sanbonmatsu shifted to bioscience, investigating the molecular machine that implements the genetic code. Two years ago, her team mapped a long gender-related RNA molecule that might be involved in reprogramming DNA. With increasing evidence that DNA can be permanently altered by the environment of the womb and by social interactions after birth, Dr. Sanbonmatsu is unlocking secrets of RNA molecules that may control these processes.
TED
Don't eat the marshmallow!
- Joachim de Posada
- 4min27seg
In this short talk from TED U, Joachim de Posada shares a landmark experiment on delayed gratification -- and how it can predict future success. With priceless video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow.
TED
My Daughter, Malala
- Ziauddin Yousafzai
- 4min27seg
Pakistani educator Ziauddin Yousafzai reminds the world of a simple truth that many don't want to hear: Women and men deserve equal opportunities for education, autonomy, an independent identity. He tells stories from his own life and the life of his daughter, Malala, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 simply for daring to go to school. "Why is my daughter so strong?" Yousafzai asks. "Because I didn't clip her wings."
TED
Does money make you mean?
- Paul Piff
- 4min27seg
It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, social psychologist Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy. (Hint: badly.) But while the problem of inequality is a complex and daunting challenge, there's good news too.
TED
The art of choosing
- Sheena Iyengar
- 4min27seg
Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions.
TED
How to make choosing easier
- Sheena Iyengar
- 4min27seg
We all want customized experiences and products -- but when faced with 700 options, consumers freeze up. With fascinating new research, Sheena Iyengar demonstrates how businesses (and others) can improve the experience of choosing.
TED
The optimism bias
- Tali Sharot
- 4min27seg
Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side -- and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial.
TED
The Deadly Genius of Drug Cartels
- Rodrigo Canales
- 4min27seg
Up to 100,000 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico in the last 6 years. We might think this has nothing to do with us, but in fact we are all complicit, says Yale professor Rodrigo Canales in this unflinching talk that turns conventional wisdom about drug cartels on its head. The carnage is not about faceless, ignorant goons mindlessly killing each other but is rather the result of some seriously sophisticated brand management.
TED
This Is What It's Like to Go Undercover in North Korea
- Suki Kim
- 4min27seg
For six months, Suki Kim worked as an English teacher at an elite school for North Korea's future leaders - while writing a book on one of the world's most repressive regimes. As she helped her students grapple with concepts like "truth" and "critical thinking," she came to wonder: Was teaching these students to seek the truth putting them in peril?
TED
How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change
- Allan Savory
- 4min27seg
"Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes -- and his work so far shows -- that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.
TED
Energy: Innovating to zero!
- Bill Gates
- 4min27seg
At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.
TED
Teachers need real feedback
- Bill Gates
- 4min27seg
Until recently, many teachers only got one word of feedback a year: "satisfactory." And with no feedback, no coaching, there's just no way to improve. Bill Gates suggests that even great teachers can get better with smart feedback -- and lays out a program from his foundation to bring it to every classroom.
TED
Mosquitos, malaria and education
- Bill Gates
- 4min27seg
Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.
TED
Manufactured landscapes
- Edward Burtynsky
- 4min27seg
Accepting his 2005 TED Prize, photographer Edward Burtynsky makes a wish: that his images -- stunning landscapes that document humanity's impact on the world -- help persuade millions to join a global conversation on sustainability. Burtynsky presents a riveting slideshow of his photographs, which show vividly how industrial development is altering the Earth's natural landscape. From mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine, his images are simultaneously beautiful and horrifying.
TED
The landscape of oil
- Edward Burtynsky
- 4min27seg
In stunning large-format photographs, Edward Burtynsky follows the path of oil through modern society, from wellhead to pipeline to car engine -- and then beyond to the projected peak-oil endgame.
TED
The emergent patterns of climate change
- Gavin Schmidt
- 4min27seg
You can't understand climate change in pieces, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt. It's the whole, or it's nothing. In this illuminating talk, he explains how he studies the big picture of climate change with mesmerizing models that illustrate the endlessly complex interactions of small-scale environmental events.
TED
Everyday cybercrime -- and what you can do about it
- James Lyne
- 4min27seg
How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and trusting human nature.
TED
Exploring the mind of a killer
- Jim Fallon
- 4min27seg
Psychopathic killers are the basis for some must-watch TV, but what really makes them tick? Neuroscientist Jim Fallon talks about brain scans and genetic analysis that may uncover the rotten wiring in the nature (and nurture) of murderers. In a too-strange-for-fiction twist, he shares a fascinating family history that makes his work chillingly personal.
TED
A vision of crimes in the future
- Marc Goodman
- 4min27seg
The world is becoming increasingly open, and that has implications both bright and dangerous. Marc Goodman paints a portrait of a grave future, in which technology's rapid development could allow crime to take a turn for the worse.
TED
The problem with eyewitness testimony
- Scott Fraser
- 4min27seg
Scott Fraser studies how humans remember crimes -- and bear witness to them. In this powerful talk, which focuses on a deadly shooting at sunset, he suggests that even close-up eyewitnesses to a crime can create "memories" they could not have seen. Why? Because the brain abhors a vacuum.
TED
Let's prepare for our new climate
- Vicki Arroyo
- 4min27seg
Set aside the politics: Data shows that climate change is happening, measurably, now. And as Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for the new climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the world -- local examples of thinking ahead.
TED
We Need to Talk About an Injustice
- Bryan Stevenson
- 4min27seg
In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
TED
Leather and meat without killing animals
- Andras Forgacs
- 4min27seg
By 2050, it will take 100 billion land animals to provide the world's population with meat, dairy, eggs and leather goods. Maintaining this herd will take a huge, potentially unsustainable toll on the planet. What if there were a different way? In this eye-opening talk, tissue engineering advocate Andras Forgacs argues that biofabricating meat and leather is a civilized way to move past killing animals for hamburgers and handbags.
TED
The voice of the natural world
- Bernie Krause
- 4min27seg
Bernie Krause has been recording wild soundscapes -- the wind in the trees, the chirping of birds, the subtle sounds of insect larvae -- for 45 years. In that time, he has seen many environments radically altered by humans, sometimes even by practices thought to be environmentally safe. A surprising look at what we can learn through nature's symphonies, from the grunting of a sea anemone to the sad calls of a beaver in mourning.
TED
The birds and the bees are just the beginning
- Carin Bondar
- 4min27seg
Think you know a thing or two about sex? Think again. In this fascinating talk, biologist Carin Bondar lays out the surprising science behind how animals get it on.
TED
Could we speak the language of dolphins?
- Denise Herzing
- 4min27seg
For 28 years, Denise Herzing has spent five months each summer living with a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins, following three generations of family relationships and behaviors. It's clear they are communicating with one another -- but is it language? Could humans use it too? She shares a fascinating new experiment to test this idea.
TED
Photos that give voice to the animal kingdom
- Frans Lanting
- 4min27seg
Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each other.
TED
Unseen footage, untamed nature
- Karen Bass
- 4min27seg
At TED2012, filmmaker Karen Bass shares some of the astonishing nature footage she's shot for the BBC and National Geographic -- including brand-new, previously unseen footage of the tube-lipped nectar bat, who feeds in a rather unusual way ...
TED
What your doctor won't disclose
- Leana Wen
- 4min27seg
Wouldn't you want to know if your doctor was a paid spokesman for a drug company? Or held personal beliefs incompatible with the treatment you want? Right now, in the US at least, your doctor simply doesn't have to tell you about that. And when physician Leana Wen asked her fellow doctors to open up, the reaction she got was . unsettling.
TED
The hidden beauty of pollination
- Louie Schwartzberg
- 4min27seg
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.
TED
The myth of the gay agenda
- LZ Granderson
- 4min27seg
In a humorous talk with an urgent message, LZ Granderson points out the absurdity in the idea that there's a "gay lifestyle," much less a "gay agenda."
TED
What do we do when antibiotics don't work any more?
- Maryn McKenna
- 4min27seg
Penicillin changed everything. Infections that had previously killed were suddenly quickly curable. Yet as Maryn McKenna shares in this sobering talk, we've squandered the advantages afforded us by that and later antibiotics. Drug-resistant bacteria mean we're entering a post-antibiotic world - and it won't be pretty. There are, however, things we can do ... if we start right now.
TED
Using nature's genius in architecture
- Michael Pawlyn
- 4min27seg
How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.
TED
6 ways mushrooms can save the world
- Paul Stamets
- 4min27seg
Mycologist Paul Stamets studies the mycelium -- and lists 6 ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world.
TED
His and hers ... healthcare
- Paula Johnson
- 4min27seg
Every cell in the human body has a sex, which means that men and women are different right down to the cellular level. Yet too often, research and medicine ignore this insight -- and the often startlingly different ways in which the two sexes respond to disease or treatment. As pioneering doctor Paula Johnson describes in this thought-provoking talk, lumping everyone in together means we essentially leave women's health to chance. It's time to rethink.
TED
What if our healthcare system kept us healthy?
- Rebecca Onie
- 4min27seg
Rebecca Onie asks audacious questions: What if waiting rooms were a place to improve daily health care? What if doctors could prescribe food, housing and heat in the winter? At TEDMED she describes Health Leads, an organization that does just that -- and does it by building a volunteer base as elite and dedicated as a college sports team.
TED
A robot that flies like a bird
- Markus Fischer
- 4min27seg
Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.
TED
My journey to yo-yo mastery
- BLACK
- 4min27seg
Remember the days you struggled just to make a yo-yo spin, and if you were really fancy, to "walk the dog"? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Japanese yo-yo world champion BLACK tells the inspiring story of finding his life's passion, and gives an awesome performance that will make you want to pull your yo-yo back out of the closet.
TED
Making sense of string theory
- Brian Greene
- 4min27seg
In clear, nontechnical language, string theorist Brian Greene explains how our understanding of the universe has evolved from Einstein's notions of gravity and space-time to superstring theory, where minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe. (This mind-bending theory may soon be put to the test at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva).
TED
Why is our universe fine-tuned for life?
- Brian Greene
- 4min27seg
At the heart of modern cosmology is a mystery: Why does our universe appear so exquisitely tuned to create the conditions necessary for life? In this tour de force tour of some of science's biggest new discoveries, Brian Greene shows how the mind-boggling idea of a multiverse may hold the answer to the riddle.
TED
The call to learn
- Clifford Stoll
- 4min27seg
Clifford Stoll could talk about the atmosphere of Jupiter. Or hunting KGB hackers. Or Klein bottles, computers in classrooms, the future. But he's not going to. Which is fine, because it would be criminal to confine a man with interests as multifarious as Stoll's to give a talk on any one topic. Instead, he simply captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides -- and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he's a scientist: "Once I do something, I want to do something else."
TED
How movies teach manhood
- Colin Stokes
- 4min27seg
When Colin Stokes' 3-year-old son caught a glimpse of Star Wars, he was instantly obsessed. But what messages did he absorb from the sci-fi classic? Stokes asks for more movies that send positive messages to boys: that cooperation is heroic, and respecting women is as manly as defeating the villain
TED
The neuroscience of restorative justice
- Daniel Reisel
- 4min27seg
Daniel Reisel studies the brains of criminal psychopaths (and mice). And he asks a big question: Instead of warehousing these criminals, shouldn't we be using what we know about the brain to help them rehabilitate? Put another way: If the brain can grow new neural pathways after an injury ... could we help the brain re-grow morality?
TED
Talking and squawking
- Einstein the Parrot:
- 4min27seg
This whimsical wrap-up of TED2006 -- presented by Einstein, the African grey parrot, and her trainer, Stephanie White -- simply tickles. Watch for Einstein's moment with Al Gore.
TED
Impossible photography
- Erik Johansson
- 4min27seg
Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes -- capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.
TED
Evelyn Glennie
- How to truly listen
- 4min27seg
In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums.
TED
Incredible high school musicians from Venezuela
- Gustavo Dudamel
- 4min27seg
The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra contains the best high school musicians from Venezuela's life-changing music program, El Sistema. Led here by Gustavo Dudamel, they play Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez' Danzón No. 2.
TED
Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents'
- James Flynn
- 4min27seg
In 1900, only 3% of Americans practiced professions that were deemed "cognitively demanding." Today, 35% of us do, and we have all learned to be flexible in the way that we think about problems. In this fascinating and fast-paced spin through the cognitive history of the 20th century, moral philosopher James Flynn makes the case that changes in the way we think have had surprising (and not always positive) consequences.
TED
First why and then trust
- Simon Sinek
- 4min27seg
Simon Sinek (@simonsinek) created a simple model, The Golden Circle, that codifies what makes the most inspiring people and organizations so successful and influential. Beginning as a student in anthropology, Simon Sinek turned his fascination with people into a career of convincing people to do what inspires them. Through his struggle to rediscover his excitement about life and work, he made some profound realizations and began helping his friends and their friends to find their "why" - at first charging just $100, person by person. Never planning to write a book, he penned Start With Why simply as a way to distribute his message. With a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people go home everyday feeling fulfilled by their work, Sinek is leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.
Now Simon takes the next step. After why comes : trust.
TED
Start with why -- how great leaders inspire action
- Simon Sinek
- 4min27seg
TEDx Puget Sound speaker - Simon Sinek - Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
TED
The shocking truth about your health
- Lissa Rankin
- 4min27seg
Lissa Rankin, MD is an OB/GYN physician, author, keynote speaker, consultant to health care visionaries, professional artist, and founder of the women's health and wellness community OwningPink.com. Discouraged by the broken, patriarchal health care system, she left her medical practice in 2007 only to realize that you can quit your job, but you can't quit your calling. This epiphany launched her on a journey of discovery that led her to become a leader in the field of mind/body medicine, which she blogs about at OwningPink.com and is writing about in her third book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself (Hay House, 2013).
She teaches both patients and health care professionals how to make the body ripe for miracles by healing the mind and being healthy in all aspects of life, not just by promoting healthy behaviors like good nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep, but by encouraging health and authenticity in relationships, work, creative expression, spirituality, sexuality, finances, and living environment. She is leading a revolution to feminize how health care is received and delivered by encouraging collaboration, fostering self-healing, reconnecting health care and spirituality, empowering patients to tap into the mind's power to heal the body, and encouraging women not to settle for being merely well, but to strive for living vital, joyful, authentic lives full of "mojo."...
TED
What's wrong with our food system
- Birke Baehr
- 4min27seg
Birke Baehr -"what's Wrong With Our Food System? And How Can We Make A Difference?"
TED
What you don't know about marriage
- Jenna McCarthy
- 4min27seg
In this funny, casual talk from TEDx, writer Jenna McCarthy shares surprising research on how marriages (especially happy marriages) really work. One tip: Do not try to win an Oscar for best actress.
TED
Close-up card magic with a twist
- Lennart Green
- 4min27seg
Like your uncle at a family party, the rumpled Swedish doctor Lennart Green says, "Pick a card, any card." But what he does with those cards is pure magic -- flabbergasting, lightning-fast, how-does-he-do-it? magic.
TED
Why domestic violence victims don't leave
- Leslie Morgan Steiner
- 4min27seg
Leslie Morgan Steiner was in "crazy love" -- that is, madly in love with a man who routinely abused her and threatened her life. Steiner tells the dark story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence.
TED
The mad scientist of music
- Mark Applebaum
- 4min27seg
Mark Applebaum writes music that breaks the rules in fantastic ways, composing a concerto for a florist and crafting a musical instrument from junk and found objects. This quirky talk might just inspire you to shake up the "rules" of your own creative work.
TED
Did you hear the one about the Iranian-American?
- Maz Jobrani
- 4min27seg
A founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, standup comic Maz Jobrani riffs on the challenges and conflicts of being Iranian-American -- "like, part of me thinks I should have a nuclear program; the other part thinks I can't be trusted ..."
TED
Learning from dirty jobs
- Mike Rowe
- 4min27seg
Mike Rowe the host of "Dirty Jobs," tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how its been unjustifiably degraded in society today.
TED
Why sex really matters
- David Page
- 4min27seg
David Page, Director of the Whitehead Institute and professor of biology at MIT, has shaped modern genomics and mapped the Y chromosome. And he's here to say, "Human genome, we have a problem." Page contends that medical research is overlooking a fundamental fact with the assumption that male and female cells are equal and interchangeable in the lab, most notably because conventional wisdom holds that the X and Y chromosomes are relevant only within the reproductive tract. But if the sexes are equal, why are women more likely than men to develop certain diseases, and vice versa? This compelling talk from TEDxBeaconStreet foretells how changing the way we understand the sexes could transform health care.
The Director of Whitehead Institute and MacArthur genius grant winner David Page is a pioneer in genetics, and his renowned studies of the sex chromosomes have shaped modern understandings of reproductive health, fertility and sex disorders.
TED
The $8 billion iPod
- Rob Reid
- 4min27seg
Comic author Rob Reid unveils Copyright Math (TM), a remarkable new field of study based on actual numbers from entertainment industry lawyers and lobbyists.
TED
How the oceans can clean themselves
- Boyan Slat
- 4min27seg
18-year-old Boyan Slat combines environmentalism, entrepreneurism and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. After diving in Greece, and coming across more plastic bags than fish, he wondered; "why can't we clean this up?"
While still being on secondary school, he then decided to dedicate half a year of research to understand plastic pollution and the problems associated with cleaning it up....
TED
An ultra-low-cost college degree
- Shai Reshef
- 4min27seg
At the online University of the People, anyone with a high school diploma can take classes toward a degree in business administration or computer science - without standard tuition fees (though exams cost money). Founder Shai Reshef hopes that higher education is changing "from being a privilege for the few to a basic right, affordable and accessible for all."
TED
Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?
- Sleepy Man Banjo Boys
- 4min27seg
All under the age of 16, brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are from New Jersey, a US state that's better known for the rock of Bruce Springsteen than the bluegrass of Earl Scruggs. Nonetheless, the siblings began performing bluegrass covers, as well as their own compositions, at a young age. Here, they play three dazzling songs in three different keys, passing the lead back and forth from fiddle to banjo to guitar.
TED
I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much
- Stella Young
- 4min27seg
Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair - a fact that doesn't, she'd like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled people into "inspiration porn."
TED
The world needs all kinds of minds
- Temple Grandin
- 4min27seg
Autism activist Temple Grandin talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.
TED
In the Internet age, dance evolves ...
- The LXD
- 4min27seg
The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) electrify the TED2010 stage with an emerging global street-dance culture, revved up by the Internet. In a preview of Jon Chus upcoming Web series, this astonishing troupe show off their superpowers.
TED
A 12-year-old app developer
- Thomas Suarez
- 4min27seg
Most 12-year-olds love playing videogames -- Thomas Suarez taught himself how to create them. After developing iPhone apps like "Bustin Jeiber," a whack-a-mole game, he is now using his skills to help other kids become developers.
TED
Why we procrastinate
- Vik Nithy
- 4min27seg
Vik Nithy is the founder of 3 companies at the age of 20 including how own marketing consulting firm. His left after school Vik has been extremely successful despite being diagnosed with ADHD after finishing his school exams. Developing his passion for cognitive neuroscience, educational reform and the potential of young people.
TED
What We Didn't Know About Male Anatomy
- Diane Kelly
- 4min27seg
We're not done with anatomy. We know a tremendous amount about genomics, proteomics and cell biology, but as Diane Kelly makes clear at TEDMED, there are basic facts about the human body we're still learning. Case in point: How does the mammalian erection work?
TED
5 techniques to speak any language
- Sid Efromovich
- 4min27seg
Sid is our resident hyperpolyglot. He grew up in Brazil and after some journeying around the world, he now lives an exciting life in New York where he works as a Sugar Trader.
Teaching has always been one of his passions and he has led groups of young leaders since 2006. He has given workshops, talks and classes in 3 different continents and is currently a Master Teacher in Skillshare where he teaches classes on nurturing happiness and learning foreign languages. ...
TED
The emergence of "4D printing"
- Skylar Tibbits
- 4min27seg
3D printing has grown in sophistication since the late 1970s; TED Fellow Skylar Tibbits is shaping the next development, which he calls 4D printing, where the fourth dimension is time. This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then reshape themselves or self-assemble over time. Think: a printed cube that folds before your eyes, or a printed pipe able to sense the need to expand or contract.
TED
A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong
- Eric Whitacre
- 4min27seg
In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, "Sleep," with a video choir of 2,052. The full piece premieres April 7 (yes, on YouTube!).
TED
Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live
- Eric Whitacre
- 4min27seg
Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre has inspired millions by bringing together "virtual choirs," singers from many countries spliced together on video. Now, for the first time ever, he creates the experience in real time, as 32 singers from around the world Skype in to join an onstage choir (assembled from three local colleges) for an epic performance of Whitacre's "Cloudburst," based on a poem by Octavio Paz.
TED
The greatest TED Talk ever sold
- Morgan Spurlock
- 4min27seg
Much of the TV, video, film and sport we watch is sponsored by a brand, a product, a corporation. But ... why? With humor and persistence, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dives into the hidden but influential world of brand marketing, on his quest to make a completely sponsored film about sponsorship. And yes, this talk was sponsored too. By whom and for how much? He'll tell you.
TED
A thrilling look at the first 21 days of a bee's life
- Anand Varma
- 4min27seg
We've heard that bees are disappearing. But what is making bee colonies so vulnerable? Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his backyard - in front of a camera - to get an up close view. This project, for National Geographic, gives a lyrical glimpse into a bee hive - and reveals one of the biggest threats to its health, a mite that preys on baby bees in the first 21 days of life. With his incredible footage, set to music from Magik*Magik Orchestra, Varma shows the problem ... and what's being done to solve it.
TED
The lethality of loneliness
- John Cacioppo
- 4min27seg
The lethality of loneliness by John Cacioppo at TEDxDesMoines.
TED
How Coffee Transformed My Life
- Brad Butler
- 4min27seg
In June 2009, Brad Butler traveled with his 3 cousins through the jungles of Panama with the goal of building that sustainable living community in the form of an Eco-Village. Through his journey, Brad discovered cooperative coffee farming and focused on bringing those practices back to the United States. Once there, he and his family began roasting cooperatively grown coffee on stove-top popcorn poppers. Today, Bicycle Coffee delivers their fresh roasted beans to more than 250 businesses in the Bay Area.
TED
Kill Them With Love
- Boonaa Mohammed
- 4min27seg
Kill Them With Love by Boonaa Mohammed at TEDxToronto.
TED
How to control the brain
- Michael Okun and Kelly Foote
- 4min27seg
The human brain is a supercomputer with networks that control the various functions that make us who we are, and allow us to do what we do. When brain circuits malfunction, debilitating motor and behavioral symptoms may emerge. Direct electrical modulation of malfunctioning brain circuits has tremendous potential to alleviate human suffering in dramatic and sometimes surprising ways.
TED
Mark Bittman
- What's wrong with what we eat
- 4min27seg
In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.
TED
A roadmap to end aging
- Aubrey de Grey
- 4min27seg
Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that aging is merely a disease -- and a curable one at that. Humans age in seven basic ways, he says, all of which can be averted.
TED
Your Sexuality: Ask & Tell
- Alyssa Royse
- 4min27seg
Ask & Tell about your sexuality with Alyssa Royse.
TED
Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor
- Taylor Wilson
- 4min27seg
Taylor Wilson believes nuclear fusion is a solution to our future energy needs, and that kids can change the world. And he knows something about both of those: When he was 14, he built a working fusion reactor in his parents' garage. Now 17, he takes the TED stage to tell (the short version of) his story.
TED
The new era of positive psychology
- Martin Seligman
- 4min27seg
Martin Seligman talks about psychology -- as a field of study and as it works one-on-one with each patient and each practitioner. As it moves beyond a focus on disease, what can modern psychology help us to become?
TED
Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)
- Clay Shirky
- 4min27seg
What does a bill like PIPA/SOPA mean to our shareable world? At the TED offices, Clay Shirky delivers a proper manifesto -- a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.
TED
Visualizing Eleven Dimensions
- Thad Roberts
- 4min27seg
In this talk Thad Roberts reveals a theory that could prove to be the key in simplification of the various complexities of quantum mechanics, space, and time.
TED
Beware online "filter bubbles"
- Eli Pariser
- 4min27seg
As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.
Read our community Q&A with Eli (featuring 10 ways to turn off the filter bubble): http://on.ted.com/PariserQA
TED
Performance
- Alice Phoebe Lou
- 4min27seg
Alice Phoebe Lou is a passionate street musician originally from South Africa. She shares some of her own story and music at TEDxBerlin The Next Step (http://www.tedxberlin.de).
Alice Phoebe Lou is a force to be reckoned with. Growing up in Kommitje, South Africa, Alice knew that as soon as she finished school she would pack up her things and see the world. And that's what she did: She packed a bag at the age of 19, went off to Europe in search of adventure, and found her path playing music in the streets of Amsterdam and Berlin. After settling in the German capital in 2013, she began performing in U-Bahn stations and street corners, and started drawing increasing numbers of listeners every time she played. After less than a year in the city, she has become a fixture of Berlin's vibrant street sounds, whether on the famous bridge to Friedrichshain or at the Mauerpark on Sundays. The few shows Alice has played in a clubs have sold out, the latest being at Berlin's Lido for the release of her first EP, Momentum.
TED
Teenaged boy wonders play bluegrass
- Robbie and Tommy Mizzone
- 4min27seg
Brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, a trio of virtuoso bluegrass musicians who play with dazzling vivacity. Did we mention they're all under 16?
TED
Google's driverless car
- Sebastian Thrun
- 4min27seg
Sebastian Thrun helped build Google's amazing driverless car, powered by a very personal quest to save lives and reduce traffic accidents. Jawdropping video shows the DARPA Challenge-winning car motoring through busy city traffic with no one behind the wheel, and dramatic test drive footage from TED2011 demonstrates how fast the thing can really go.
TED
Half a million secrets
- Frank Warren
- 4min27seg
"Secrets can take many forms -- they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful." Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret.com, shares some of the half-million secrets that strangers have mailed him on postcards.
TED
Homeopathy, quackery and fraud
- James Randi
- 4min27seg
Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a fatal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18-minute indictment of irrational beliefs. He throws out a challenge to the world's psychics: Prove what you do is real, and I'll give you a million dollars. (No takers yet.)
TED
Why we make bad decisions
- Dan Gilbert
- 4min27seg
Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.
TED
The psychology of your future self
- Dan Gilbert
- 4min27seg
"Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished." Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time. Hint: that's not the case.
TED
The polyphonic me
- Beardyman
- 4min27seg
Frustrated by not being able to sing two notes at the same time, musical inventor Beardyman built a machine to allow him to create loops and layers from just the sounds he makes with his voice. Given that he can effortlessly conjure the sound of everything from crying babies to buzzing flies, not to mention mimic pretty much any musical instrument imaginable, that's a lot of different sounds. Sit back and let the wall of sound of this dazzling performance wash over you.
TED
New experiments in self-teaching
- Sugata Mitra
- 4min27seg
Indian education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
TED
Religions and babies
- Hans Rosling
- 4min27seg
Hans Rosling had a question: Do some religions have a higher birth rate than others -- and how does this affect global population growth? Speaking at the TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar, he graphs data over time and across religions. With his trademark humor and sharp insight, Hans reaches a surprising conclusion on world fertility rates.
TED
Global population growth, box by box
- Hans Rosling
- 4min27seg
The world's population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years -- and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology (you'll see).
TED
The magic washing machine
- Hans Rosling
- 4min27seg
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading. TODAY: From 11:30am-1:30pm EDT, Hans Rosling will be answering questions in TED Conversations. Pop over!
TED
Asia's rise -- how and when
- Hans Rosling
- 4min27seg
Hans Rosling was a young guest student in India when he first realized that Asia had all the capacities to reclaim its place as the world's dominant economic force. At TEDIndia, he graphs global economic growth since 1858 and predicts the exact date that India and China will outstrip the US.
TED
New insights on poverty
- Hans Rosling
- 4min27seg
Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.
TED
A guerilla gardener in South Central LA
- Ron Finley
- 4min27seg
Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."
TED
What Islam Really Says About Women
- Alaa Murabit
- 4min27seg
Alaa Murabit's family moved from Canada to Libya when she was 15. Before, she'd felt equal to her brothers, but in this new environment she sensed big prohibitions on what she could accomplish. As a proud Muslim woman, she wondered: was this really religious doctrine? With humor, passion and a refreshingly rebellious spirt, she shares how she discovered examples of female leaders from across the history of her faith - and how she launched a campaign to fight for women's rights using verses directly from the Koran.
TED
Your brain on video games
- Daphne Bavelier
- 4min27seg
How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Step into the lab with cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier to hear surprising news about how video games, even action-packed shooter games, can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask.
TED
Flow, the secret to happiness
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- 4min27seg
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."
TED
Build a tower, build a team
- Tom Wujec
- 4min27seg
Tom Wujec from Autodesk presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?
TED
The genius puppetry behind War Horse
- Handspring Puppet Company
- 4min27seg
"Puppets always have to try to be alive," says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors. Beginning with the tale of a hyena's subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones build to the story of their latest astonishment: the wonderfully life-like Joey, the War Horse, who trots (and gallops) convincingly onto the TED stage.
TED
The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity...
- Elon Musk
- 4min27seg
Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket.
TED
A young guitarist meets his hero
- Usman Riaz and Preston Reed
- 4min27seg
Usman Riaz is a 21-year-old whiz at the percussive guitar, a style he learned to play by watching his heroes on YouTube. The TED Fellow plays onstage at TEDGlobal 2012 -- followed by a jawdropping solo from the master of percussive guitar, Preston Reed. And watch these two guitarists take on a very spur-of-the-moment improv.
TED
What you didn't know about coffee
- Asher Yaron
- 4min27seg
After several trips to Bali, Asher Yaron finally decided to move there and follow his desire to create a local, organic, sustainable business.
With Balinese coffee farmer friend I Nyoman Wirata, Asher created F.R.E.A.K., that is, "Fresh Roasted Enak (delicious in Indonesian) Arabica from Kintamani," which is involved in all aspects of the coffee business "from the cherry to the cup." Asher also has plans to use pure spring water from Kintamani to further improve the flavor of their coffee and return a percentage of the profits to community projects in the Kintamani region. Asher's upcoming venture: Coffee University....
TED
Beatboxes
- Naturally 7 beatbox a whole band
- 4min27seg
One-of-a-kind R&B group Naturally 7 beatboxes an orchestra's worth of instruments to groove through their smooth single, "Fly Baby."
TED
It's not fair having 12 pairs of legs
- Aimee Mullins
- 4min27seg
Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs -- she's got a dozen amazing pairs -- and the super-powers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height ... Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be.
TED
The opportunity of adversity
- Aimee Mullins
- 4min27seg
The thesaurus might equate "disabled" with synonyms like "useless" and "mutilated," but ground-breaking runner Aimee Mullins is out to redefine the word. Defying these associations, she hows how adversity -- in her case, being born without shinbones -- actually opens the door for human potential.
TED
3 ways to speak English
- Jamila Lyiscott
- 4min27seg
Jamila Lyiscott is a "tri-tongued orator," and this powerful spoken-word essay celebrates - and challenges - the three distinct flavors of English she speaks with her friends, in the classroom and with her parents. As she explores the complicated history and present-day identity that each language represents, she unpacks what it means to be "articulate."
TED
Recipe to losing weight
- Anna Verhulst
- 4min27seg
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Anna Verhulst (23) is a fifth year medical student at Maastricht University, doing her internship in Eindhoven. She has a particular interest in the fields of oncology and sports medicine, but isn't quite sure yet what kind of doctor she wants to become when she graduates in 2016.
Anna is a keen writer, sharing her experiences as a junior intern through columns, essays and opinion pieces. A selection of her publications can be found at annaverhulst.blogspot.nl. In between her internships, she is also involved in a research project that explores the possibilities of exercise rehabilitation in cancer survivors....
TED
The Communication Cure
- Neha Sangwan
- 4min27seg
Dr. Sangwan, as being a physician, was asking a little bit strange questions from her patients: she asked them if they knew what their illness came to tell them about.
Then soon time came when she had to face the same situation herself. She had found that instead of numbing out the symptoms any further, she has the choice to go for her real aims in life, even if they are huge and scary.
In her warm, emotional and authentic talk she reports about her first adventourous steps on that scary, but authentic path - in Saudi Arabia,- and encourages us as well that we can most probably avoid getting into hospital if we take our tears, deep emotions, and inner- and outer communication as dear, and with their help we stay on the path of our real integrated self.
TED
How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains
- Sara Lazar
- 4min27seg
Neuroscientist Sara Lazar's amazing brain scans show meditation can actually change the size of key regions of our brain, improving our memory and making us more empathetic, compassionate, and resilient under stress.
TED
Why I must come out
- Geena Rocero
- 4min27seg
When fashion model Geena Rocero first saw a professionally shot photo of herself clad in a bikini, she was beside herself. "I thought...you have arrived!" she says proudly. This might not be the typical experience, but, as Rocero reveals, that's because she was born with the gender assignment "boy." In a moving and personal talk, Rocero finds that transgender activism is giving her a whole new sense of pride and purpose.
TED
Wireless data from every light bulb
- Harald Haas
- 4min27seg
What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data? At TEDGlobal, Harald Haas demonstrates, for the first time, a device that could do exactly that. By flickering the light from a single LED, a change too quick for the human eye to detect, he can transmit far more data than a cellular tower -- and do it in a way that's more efficient, secure and widespread.
TED
The danger of silence
- Clint Smith
- 4min27seg
"We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don't," says slam poet and teacher Clint Smith. A short, powerful piece from the heart, about finding the courage to speak up against ignorance and injustice.
TED
How to raise a black son in America
- Clint Smith
- 4min27seg
As kids, we all get advice from parents and teachers that seems strange, even confusing. This was crystallized one night for a young Clint Smith, who was playing with water guns in a dark parking lot with his white friends. In a heartfelt piece, the poet paints the scene of his father's furious and fearful response.
TED
A TED speaker's worst nightmare
- ImprovEverywhere and Colin Robertson
- 4min27seg
Colin Robertson had 3 minutes on the TED stage to tell the world about his solar-powered crowdsourced health care solution. And then... the whole talk turned out to be a wonderful and hilarious prank by ImprovEverywhere.
TED
5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do
- Gever Tulley
- 4min27seg
In his humorous and uplifting style, Gever Tulley debunks classic myths of childhood safety. With rampant fear mongering, is it any wonder that children are actually over-protected? Instead, Tulley believes the most effective way to keep children safe is to give them a little taste of danger.
TED
Steal Like An Artist
- Austin Kleon
- 4min27seg
Austin Kleon's talk "Steal Like An Artist" is a creative manifesto based on 10 things he wish he'd heard when he was starting out. Austin is a writer and artist. He's the author of Newspaper Blackout, a best-selling book of poetry made by redacting newspaper articles with a permanent marker. Austin's talk was delivered as part of the TEDxKC presentation of TEDxChange.
Austin's work (including his new book) "Steal Like An Artist" has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The Wall Street Journal. He speaks about creativity, visual thinking, and being an artist online for organizations such as SXSW and The Economist.
TED
The brain in love
- Helen Fisher
- 4min27seg
Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love -- and people who had just been dumped.
TED
For A World Without Cancer
- Jack Andraka
- 4min27seg
Solutions to complex problems can be simple says Jack Andraka
Jack Andraka is a 15-year-old Maryland high school student who has invented an inexpensive and sensitive dipstick-like sensor for the rapid and early detection of pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers. He recently won the Gordon E. Moore top prize at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair as well as the Google Thinking Big Award for the project, addressing a large and seemingly impossible problem and finding an elegant solution with broad impact....
TED
3 clues to understanding your brain
- VS Ramachandran
- 4min27seg
Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples.
TED
The neurons that shaped civilization
- VS Ramachandran
- 4min27seg
Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.
TED
How to make filthy water drinkable
- Michael Pritchard
- 4min27seg
Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.
TED
Playing the Cape Breton fiddle
- Natalie MacMaster
- 4min27seg
Natalie MacMaster and her musical partner Donnell Leahy play several tunes from the Cape Breton tradition -- a sprightly, soulful style of folk fiddling. It's an inspired collaboration that will have you clapping (and maybe dancing) along.
TED
The magic of Fibonacci numbers
- Arthur Benjamin
- 4min27seg
Math is logical, functional and just ... awesome. Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin explores hidden properties of that weird and wonderful set of numbers, the Fibonacci series. (And reminds you that mathematics can be inspiring, too!)
TED
One woman, eight hilarious characters
- Sarah Jones
- 4min27seg
In this hilariously lively performance, actress Sarah Jones channels an opinionated elderly Jewish woman, a fast-talking Dominican college student and more, giving TED2009 just a sample of her spectacular character range.
TED
Learn to read Chinese ... with ease!
- ShaoLan
- 4min27seg
For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning -- building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it Chineasy.
TED
How to be a miracle worker
- Gabrielle Bernstein
- 4min27seg
"So long, Carrie Bradshaw-there's a new role model for go-getting thirty-somethings. Gabrielle Bernstein is doling out inner peace and self-love for the post-modern spiritual set."
-Elle magazine
...
TED
Dance your PhD
- John Bohannon & Black Label Movement
- 4min27seg
Music by: Greg Brosofske Minneapolis, USA based composer.
Dancers: Jessica Elhert, Bryan Godbout, Stephanie Laager, Edward Bruno Oroyan...
TED
The mystery box
- JJ Abrams
- 4min27seg
J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery - a passion thats evident in his films and TV shows, including Cloverfield, Lost and Alias -- back to its magical beginnings.
TED
The art of bow-making
- Dong Woo Jang
- 4min27seg
Dong Woo Jang has an unusual after school hobby. Jang, who was 15 when he gave the talk, tells the story of how living in the concrete jungle of Seoul inspired him to build the perfect bow. Watch him demo one of his beautiful hand-crafted archer's bows.
TED
Never Give up on Your Dreams
- Imran Khan
- 4min27seg
About the Speaker: Imran Khan graduated from Oxford in 1972 with a degree in Politics and Economics. He was later inducted into the university's Hall of Fame. As a cricketer, he achieved incredible success as the world's premier all-rounder and lead Pakistan to its World Cup victory in 1992. After retiring from cricket, he went on to become a champion of social causes in Pakistan, going on to found the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, the country's first cancer hospital that provides free treatment to thousands of patients annually. He has raised millions of dollars worth of funding through national and international campaigns.Khan has also been active in politics and is the founder of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. His most significant political work has been the restoration of those judges who were deposed under the Musharraf regime. As University Chancellor of the Namal College in Mianwali, he set up links with the University of Bradford creating further academic opportunities for the youth of Pakistan.
Imran Khan received many prestigious awards for his outstanding work for public welfare and personal achievements amongst which are the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest civil honorary award, the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him at the Asian Jewel Awards, and induction into both the Oxford University and the ICC Hall of Fame ....
TED
Sport psychology - inside the mind of champion athletes
- Martin Hagger
- 4min27seg
Martin Hagger is Professor of Psychology at Curtin University. His areas of expertise are social, health, sport and exercise psychology. He is involved in numerous research projects nationally and internationally with a focus on motivation and behaviour change. He is currently leading projects in drugs in sport, promoting physical activity and healthy diet, understanding the mechanisms of willpower and self-control, and reducing binge drinking and the prevalence of smoking.
At the highest level, athletes are well-matched in terms of their physical abilities, conditioning, and skill level. But often that is not enough to win and perform on the biggest of stages like the Olympic games. Developing strategies and techniques to get athletes minds in the best possible condition for optimal performance is increasingly important for sports teams and coaches....
TED
The unheard story of David and Goliath
- Malcolm Gladwell
- 4min27seg
It's a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Malcolm Gladwell, is that really what the David and Goliath story is about?
TED
The violin, and my dark night of the soul
- Ji-Hae Park
- 4min27seg
In her quest to become a world-famous violinist, Ji-Hae Park fell into a severe depression. Only music was able to lift her out again -- showing her that her goal needn't be to play lofty concert halls, but instead to bring the wonder of the instrument to as many people as possible.
TED
World champion whistler
- Geert Chatrou
- 4min27seg
At TEDxRotterdam, world champion whistler Geert Chatrou performs the whimsical "Eleonora" by A. Honhoff, and his own "Fête de la Belle." In a fascinating interlude, he talks about what brought him to the craft.
TED
Never, ever give up
- Diana Nyad
- 4min27seg
In the pitch-black night, stung by jellyfish, choking on salt water, singing to herself, hallucinating ... Diana Nyad just kept on swimming. And that's how she finally achieved her lifetime goal as an athlete: an extreme 100-mile swim from Cuba to Florida -- at age 64. Hear her story.
TED
My mushroom burial suit
- Jae Rhim Lee
- 4min27seg
Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...
TED
Building a dinosaur from a chicken
- Jack Horner
- 4min27seg
Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits - including teeth, tails, and even hands - to make a "Chickenosaurus".
TED
Shape-shifting dinosaurs
- Jack Horner
- 4min27seg
Where are the baby dinosaurs? In a spellbinding talk from TEDxVancouver paleontologist Jack Horner describes how slicing open fossil skulls revealed a shocking secret about some of our most beloved dinosaurs.
TED
Weird, or just different?
- Derek Sivers
- 4min27seg
"There's a flip side to everything," the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.
TED
Atheism 2.0
- Alain de Botton
- 4min27seg
What aspects of religion should atheists (respectfully) adopt? Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists" -- call it Atheism 2.0 -- that incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence.
TED
Falling in Love Is the Easy Part
- Mandy Len Catron
- 4min27seg
Did you know you can fall in love with anyone just by asking them 36 questions? Mandy Len Catron tried this experiment, it worked, and she wrote a viral article about it (that your mom probably sent you). But . is that real love? Did it last? And what's the difference between falling in love and staying in love?
TED
Where is home?
- Pico Iyer
- 4min27seg
More and more people worldwide are living in countries not considered their own. Writer Pico Iyer -- who himself has three or four "origins" -- meditates on the meaning of home, the joy of traveling and the serenity of standing still.
TED
Can we create new senses for humans?
- David Eagleman
- 4min27seg
As humans, we can perceive less than a ten-trillionth of all light waves. "Our experience of reality," says neuroscientist David Eagleman, "is constrained by our biology." He wants to change that. His research into our brain processes has led him to create new interfaces to take in previously unseen information about the world around us.
TED
How I fell in love with a fish
- Dan Barber
- 4min27seg
Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie's honeymoon he's enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain.
TED
Why bother leaving the house?
- Ben Saunders
- 4min27seg
Explorer Ben Saunders wants you to go outside! Not because it's always pleasant and happy, but because that's where the meat of life is, "the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days." Saunders' next outdoor excursion? To try to be the first in the world to walk from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again.
TED
Is China the new idol for emerging economies?
- Dambisa Moyo
- 4min27seg
The developed world holds up the ideals of capitalism, democracy and political rights for all. Those in emerging markets often don't have that luxury. In this powerful talk, economist Dambisa Moyo makes the case that the west can't afford to rest on its laurels and imagine others will blindly follow. Instead, a different model, embodied by China, is increasingly appealing. A call for open-minded political and economic cooperation in the name of transforming the world.
TED
A 30-year history of the future
- Nicholas Negroponte
- 4min27seg
MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte takes you on a journey through the last 30 years of tech. The consummate predictor highlights interfaces and innovations he foresaw in the 1970s and 1980s that were scoffed at then but are ubiquitous today. And he leaves you with one last (absurd? brilliant?) prediction for the coming 30 years.
TED
What we learned from 5 million books
- Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel
- 4min27seg
Have you played with Google Labs' NGram Viewer? It's an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel show us how it works, and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words.
TED
My underwater robot
- David Lang
- 4min27seg
David Lang is a maker who taught himself to become an amateur oceanographer -- or, he taught a robot to be one for him. In a charming talk Lang, a TED Fellow, shows how he and a network of ocean lovers teamed up to build open-sourced, low-cost underwater explorers.
TED
Open-sourced blueprints for civilization
- Marcin Jakubowski
- 4min27seg
Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that's only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).
TED
How books can open your mind
- Lisa Bu
- 4min27seg
What happens when a dream you've held since childhood ... doesn't come true? As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to expand her mind and create a new path for herself. She shares her unique approach to reading in this lovely, personal talk about the magic of books.
TED
Hey science teachers -- make it fun
- Tyler DeWitt
- 4min27seg
High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about a lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing call for science teachers to ditch the jargon and extreme precision, and instead make science sing through stories and demonstrations.
TED
The bridge between suicide and life
- Kevin Briggs
- 4min27seg
For many years Sergeant Kevin Briggs had a dark, unusual, at times strangely rewarding job: He patrolled the southern end of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a popular site for suicide attempts. In a sobering, deeply personal talk Briggs shares stories from those he's spoken - and listened - to standing on the edge of life. He gives a powerful piece of advice to those with loved ones who might be contemplating suicide.
TED
The danger of science denial
- Michael Specter
- 4min27seg
Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.
TED
Laws that choke creativity
- Larry Lessig
- 4min27seg
Larry Lessig, the Nets most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the "ASCAP cartel" in his argument for reviving our creative culture.
TED
The real reason for brains
- Daniel Wolpert
- 4min27seg
Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert starts from a surprising premise: the brain evolved, not to think or feel, but to control movement. In this entertaining, data-rich talk he gives us a glimpse into how the brain creates the grace and agility of human motion.
TED
How the NSA betrayed the world's trust -- time to act
- Mikko Hypponen
- 4min27seg
Recent events have highlighted, underlined and bolded the fact that the United States is performing blanket surveillance on any foreigner whose data passes through an American entity -- whether they are suspected of wrongdoing or not. This means that, essentially, every international user of the internet is being watched, says Mikko Hypponen. An important rant, wrapped with a plea: to find alternative solutions to using American companies for the world's information needs.
TED
Printing a human kidney
- Anthony Atala
- 4min27seg
Surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala's young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage.
TED
What does my headscarf mean to you?
- Yassmin Abdel-Magied
- 4min27seg
Unconscious bias is a prevalent factor driving culture, causing us all to make assumptions based on our own upbringings and influences. Such implicit prejudice affects everything, and it's time for us to be more thoughtful, smarter, better. In this funny, honest talk, Yassmin Abdel-Magied uses a surprising way to challenge us all to look beyond our initial perceptions.
TED
How to protect the oceans (TED Prize winner!)
- Sylvia Earle
- 4min27seg
Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean -- and shocking stats about its rapid decline -- as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet.
TED
Tidying up art
- Ursus Wehrli
- 4min27seg
Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art -- by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size.
TED
Computing a theory of everything
- Stephen Wolfram
- 4min27seg
Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational -- able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has no lesser goal than to model and explain the physics underlying the universe.
TED
The case for anonymity online
- Christopher "moot" Poole
- 4min27seg
The founder of 4chan, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, describes its subculture, some of the Internet "memes" it has launched, and the incident in which its users managed a very public, precision hack of a mainstream media website. The talk raises questions about the power -- and price -- of anonymity.
TED
Inside a school for suicide bombers
- Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
- 4min27seg
Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy takes on a terrifying question: How does the Taliban convince children to become suicide bombers? Propaganda footage from a training camp is intercut with interviews of young camp graduates. A shocking vision.
TED
The case for collaborative consumption
- Rachel Botsman
- 4min27seg
At TEDxSydney, Rachel Botsman says we're "wired to share" -- and shows how websites like Zipcar and Swaptree are changing the rules of human behavior.
TED
What it takes to be a great leader
- Roselinde Torres
- 4min27seg
There are many leadership programs available today, from 1-day workshops to corporate training programs. But chances are, these won't really help. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.
TED
The design genius of Charles + Ray Eames
- Charles and Ray Eames
- 4min27seg
The legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames made films, houses, books and classic midcentury modern furniture. Eames Demetrios, their grandson, shows rarely seen films and archival footage in a lively, loving tribute to their creative process.
TED
Why I fell in love with monster prime numbers
- Adam Spencer
- 4min27seg
They're millions of digits long, and it takes an army of mathematicians and machines to hunt them down -- what's not to love about monster primes? Adam Spencer, comedian and lifelong math geek, shares his passion for these odd numbers, and for the mysterious magic of math.
TED
Pointing to the future of UI
- John Underkoffler
- 4min27seg
Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak -- the real-life version of the film's eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface. Is this how tomorrow's computers will be controlled?
TED
Why our universe might exist on a knife-edge
- Gian Giudice
- 4min27seg
The biggest surprise of discovering the Higgs boson? That there were no surprises. Gian Giudice talks us through a problem in theoretical physics: what if the Higgs field exists in an ultra-dense state that could mean the collapse of all atomic matter? With wit and charm, Giudice outlines a grim fate -- and why we shouldn't start worrying just yet.
TED
Are we born to run?
- Christopher McDougall
- 4min27seg
Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive -- and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.
TED
Abundance is our future
- Peter Diamandis
- 4min27seg
Onstage at TED2012, Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism -- that we'll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. "I'm not saying we don't have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down."
TED
Why videos go viral
- Kevin Allocca
- 4min27seg
Kevin Allocca is YouTube's trends manager, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the 4 reasons a video goes viral. (This is the first talk posted from an amazing TEDYouth event. Many others will come on line next month as part of our TED-Ed launch. We can't wait ...)
TED
The intelligence of crows
- Joshua Klein
- 4min27seg
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he's come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human.
TED
A magical tale (with augmented reality)
- Marco Tempest
- 4min27seg
Marco Tempest spins a beautiful story of what magic is, how it entertains us and how it highlights our humanity -- all while working extraordinary illusions with his hands and an augmented reality machine.
TED
A cyber-magic card trick like no other
- Marco Tempest
- 4min27seg
The suits, numbers and colors in a deck of cards correspond to the seasons, moon cycles and calendar. Marco Tempest straps on augmented reality goggles and does a card trick like you've never seen before, weaving a lyrical tale as he deals. (This version fixes a glitch in the original performance, but is otherwise exactly as seen live by the TEDGlobal audience, including the dazzling augmented reality effects.)
TED
The design of the universe
- George Smoot
- 4min27seg
At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way.
TED
Healing through diet
- Dean Ornish
- 4min27seg
Dean Ornish talks about simple, low-tech and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body's natural desire to heal itself.
TED
10 myths about psychology: Debunked
- Ben Ambridge
- 4min27seg
How much of what you think about your brain is actually wrong? In this whistlestop tour of dis-proved science, Ben Ambridge walks through 10 popular ideas about psychology that have been proven wrong - and uncovers a few surprising truths about how our brains really work.
TED
Suicidal wasps, zombie roaches and other parasite tales
- Ed Yong
- 4min27seg
We humans set a premium on our own free will and independence ... and yet there's a shadowy influence we might not be considering. As science writer Ed Yong explains in this fascinating, hilarious and disturbing talk, parasites have perfected the art of manipulation to an incredible degree. So are they influencing us? It's more than likely.
TED
"Success is a continuous journey"
- Richard St. John
- 4min27seg
In his typically candid style, Richard St. John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business' rise and fall to illustrate a valuable lesson -- when we stop trying, we fail.
TED
Body parts on a chip
- Geraldine Hamilton
- 4min27seg
It's relatively easy to imagine a new medicine, a better cure for some disease. The hard part, though, is testing it, and that can delay promising new cures for years. In this well-explained talk, Geraldine Hamilton shows how her lab creates organs and body parts on a chip, simple structures with all the pieces essential to testing new medications -- even custom cures for one specific person.
TED
A monkey that controls a robot with its thoughts. No, really.
- Miguel Nicolelis
- 4min27seg
Can we use our brains to directly control machines -- without requiring a body as the middleman? Miguel Nicolelis talks through an astonishing experiment, in which a clever monkey in the US learns to control a monkey avatar, and then a robot arm in Japan, purely with its thoughts. The research has big implications for quadraplegic people -- and maybe for all of us.
TED
Making sound visible through cymatics
- Evan Grant
- 4min27seg
Evan Grant demonstrates the science and art of cymatics, a process for making soundwaves visible. Useful for analyzing complex sounds (like dolphin calls), it also makes complex and beautiful designs.
TED
The generation that's remaking China
- Yang Lan
- 4min27seg
Yang Lan, a journalist and entrepreneur who's been called "the Oprah of China," offers insight into the next generation of young Chinese citizens -- urban, connected (via microblogs) and alert to injustice.
TED
What will future jobs look like?
- Andrew McAfee
- 4min27seg
Economist Andrew McAfee suggests that, yes, probably, droids will take our jobs -- or at least the kinds of jobs we know now. In this far-seeing talk, he thinks through what future jobs might look like, and how to educate coming generations to hold them.
TED
How economic inequality harms societies
- Richard Wilkinson
- 4min27seg
We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.
TED
The rise of the new global super-rich
- Chrystia Freeland
- 4min27seg
Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds - and so is economic inequality, says writer Chrystia Freeland. In an impassioned talk, she charts the rise of a new class of plutocrats (those who are extremely powerful because they are extremely wealthy), and suggests that globalization and new technology are actually fueling, rather than closing, the global income gap. Freeland lays out three problems with plutocracy ... and one glimmer of hope.
TED
Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss
- James Balog
- 4min27seg
Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey, a network of time-lapse cameras recording glaciers receding at an alarming rate, some of the most vivid evidence yet of climate change.
TED
Life at 30,000 feet
- Richard Branson
- 4min27seg
Richard Branson talks to TED's Chris Anderson about the ups and the downs of his career, from his multibillionaire success to his multiple near-death experiences -- and reveals some of his (very surprising) motivations.
TED
How a fly flies
- Michael Dickinson
- 4min27seg
An insect's ability to fly is perhaps one of the greatest feats of evolution. Michael Dickinson looks at how a common housefly takes flight with such delicate wings, thanks to a clever flapping motion and flight muscles that are both powerful and nimble. But the secret ingredient: the incredible fly brain.
TED
Tales of passion
- Isabel Allende
- 4min27seg
Author and activist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, the definition of feminism -- and, of course, passion -- in this talk.
TED
Why nations should pursue "soft" power
- Shashi Tharoor
- 4min27seg
India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it's not the size of the army that matters as much as a country's ability to influence the world's hearts and minds.
TED
What I discovered in New York City trash
- Robin Nagle
- 4min27seg
New York City residents produce 11,000 tons of garbage every day. Every day! This astonishing statistic is just one of the reasons Robin Nagle started a research project with the city's Department of Sanitation. She walked the routes, operated mechanical brooms, even drove a garbage truck herself--all so she could answer a simple-sounding but complicated question: who cleans up after us?
TED
Flying on solar wings
- Paul MacCready
- 4min27seg
Paul MacCready -- aircraft designer, environmentalist, and lifelong lover of flight -- talks about his long career.
TED
Extreme wingsuit flying
- Ueli Gegenschatz
- 4min27seg
Incredible footage! Ueli Gegenschatz -- the guy inside the "squirrel suit" -- explains the hows and whys of wingsuit flying at 100+ MPH (Yes, it feels just like those flying dreams ...)
TED
The demise of guys?
- Philip Zimbardo
- 4min27seg
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, "Why are boys struggling?" He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons -- and he asks for your help! Watch his talk, then take his short 10-question survey: http://on.ted.com/PZSurvey
TED
Image recognition that triggers augmented reality
- Matt Mills
- 4min27seg
Matt Mills and Tamara Roukaerts demonstrate Aurasma, a new augmented reality tool that can seamlessly animate the world as seen through a smartphone. Going beyond previous augmented reality, their "auras" can do everything from making a painting talk to overlaying live news onto a printed newspaper.
TED
A headset that reads your brainwaves
- Tan Le
- 4min27seg
Tan Le's astonishing new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications.
TED
Understanding comics
- Scott McCloud
- 4min27seg
In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch.
TED
How brain science will change computing
- Jeff Hawkins
- 4min27seg
Treo creator Jeff Hawkins urges us to take a new look at the brain -- to see it not as a fast processor, but as a memory system that stores and plays back experiences to help us predict, intelligently, what will happen next.
TED
How I built a windmill
- William Kamkwamba
- 4min27seg
When he was just 14 years old, Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book.
TED
How we read each other's minds
- Rebecca Saxe
- 4min27seg
Sensing the motives and feelings of others is a natural talent for humans. But how do we do it? Here, Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples' thoughts -- and judges their actions.
TED
If I controlled the Internet
- Rives
- 4min27seg
How many poets could cram eBay, Friendster and Monster.com into 3-minute poem worthy of a standing ovation? Enjoy Rives' unique talent.
TED
The 4 a.m. mystery
- Rives
- 4min27seg
Poet Rives does 8 minutes of lyrical origami, folding history into a series of coincidences surrounding that most surreal of hours, 4 o'clock in the morning.
TED
Play is more than fun
- Stuart Brown
- 4min27seg
A pioneer in research on play, Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
TED
Massive-scale online collaboration
- Luis von Ahn
- 4min27seg
After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. At TEDxCMU, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately -- all for free.
TED
East vs west -- the myths that mystify
- Devdutt Pattanaik
- 4min27seg
Devdutt Pattanaik takes an eye-opening look at the myths of India and of the West -- and shows how these two fundamentally different sets of beliefs about God, death and heaven help us consistently misunderstand one another.
TED
Why societies collapse
- Jared Diamond
- 4min27seg
Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it.
TED
The accelerating power of technology
- Ray Kurzweil
- 4min27seg
Inventor, entrepreneur and visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why, by the 2020s, we will have reverse-engineered the human brain and nanobots will be operating your consciousness.
TED
Understanding the rise of China
- Martin Jacques
- 4min27seg
Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of "When China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become.
TED
Cradle to cradle design
- William McDonough
- 4min27seg
Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time."
TED
How to feel like the Incredible Hulk
- Tim Ferriss
- 4min27seg
Productivity guru Tim Ferriss' fun, encouraging anecdotes show how one simple question -- "What's the worst that could happen?" -- is all you need to learn to do anything.
TED
The fight against sex slavery
- Sunitha Krishnan
- 4min27seg
Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.
TED
How healthy living nearly killed me
- AJ Jacobs
- 4min27seg
For a full year, AJ Jacobs followed every piece of health advice he could -- from applying sunscreen by the shotglass to wearing a bicycle helmet while shopping. Onstage at TEDMED, he shares the surprising things he learned.
TED
Why dieting doesn't usually work
- Sandra Aamodt
- 4min27seg
In the US, 80% of girls have been on a diet by the time they're 10 years old. In this honest, raw talk, neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt uses her personal story to frame an important lesson about how our brains manage our bodies, as she explores the science behind why dieting not only doesn't work, but is likely to do more harm than good. She suggests ideas for how to live a less diet-obsessed life, intuitively.
TED
The cheap all-terrain wheelchair
- Amos Winter
- 4min27seg
How do you build a wheelchair ready to blaze through mud and sand, all for under $200? MIT engineer Amos Winter guides us through the mechanics of an all-terrain wheelchair that's cheap and easy to build -- for true accessibility -- and gives us some lessons he learned along the road.
TED
Don't like clickbait? Don't click
- Sally Kohn
- 4min27seg
Doesn't it seem like a lot of online news sites have moved beyond reporting the news to openly inciting your outrage (and your page views)? News analyst Sally Kohn suggests - don't engage with news that looks like it just wants to make you mad. Instead, give your precious clicks to the news sites you truly trust.
TED
Legos for grownups
- Hillel Cooperman
- 4min27seg
Lego blocks: playtime mainstay for industrious kids, obsession for many (ahem!) mature adults. Hillel Cooperman takes us on a trip through the beloved bricks' colorful, sometimes oddball grownup subculture, featuring CAD, open-source robotics and a little adult behavior.
TED
How stats fool juries
- Peter Donnelly
- 4min27seg
Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics -- and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials.
TED
Turning trash into toys for learning
- Arvind Gupta
- 4min27seg
At the INK Conference, Arvind Gupta shares simple yet stunning plans for turning trash into seriously entertaining, well-designed toys that kids can build themselves -- while learning basic principles of science and design.
TED
Remaking my voice
- Roger Ebert
- 4min27seg
When film critic Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw to cancer, he lost the ability to eat and speak. But he did not lose his voice. In a moving talk from TED2011, Ebert and his wife, Chaz, with friends Dean Ornish and John Hunter, come together to tell his remarkable story.
TED
Dangerous memes
- Dan Dennett
- 4min27seg
Starting with the simple tale of an ant, philosopher Dan Dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of memes -- concepts that are literally alive.
TED
Less stuff, more happiness
- Graham Hill
- 4min27seg
Writer and designer Graham Hill asks: Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness? He makes the case for taking up less space, and lays out three rules for editing your life.
TED
The quest to understand consciousness
- Antonio Damasio
- 4min27seg
Every morning we wake up and regain consciousness -- that is a marvelous fact -- but what exactly is it that we regain? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio uses this simple question to give us a glimpse into how our brains create our sense of self.
TED
How I beat stage fright
- Joe Kowan
- 4min27seg
Humanity's fine-tuned sense of fear served us well as a young species, giving us laser focus to avoid being eaten by competing beasts. But it's less wonderful when that same visceral, body-hijacking sense of fear kicks in in front of 20 folk-music fans at a Tuesday night open-mic. Palms sweat, hands shake, vision blurs, and the brain says RUN: it's stage fright. In this charming, tuneful little talk, Joe Kowan talks about how he conquered it.
TED
A brain in a supercomputer
- Henry Markram
- 4min27seg
Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved -- soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they're made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain's 100,000,000,000,000 synapses.
TED
The art of creating awe
- Rob Legato
- 4min27seg
Rob Legato creates movie effects so good they (sometimes) trump the real thing. In this warm and funny talk, he shares his vision for enhancing reality on-screen in movies like Apollo 13, Titanic and Hugo.
TED
Military robots and the future of war
- P.W. Singer
- 4min27seg
In this powerful talk, P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction -- that now may not be so fictitious.
TED
The seas of plastic
- Captain Charles Moore
- 4min27seg
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.
TED
What's So Funny About Mental Illness?
- Ruby Wax
- 4min27seg
Diseases of the body garner sympathy, says comedian Ruby Wax -- except those of the brain. Why is that? With dazzling energy and humor, Wax, diagnosed a decade ago with clinical depression, urges us to put an end to the stigma of mental illness.
TED
Photos from a storm chaser
- Camille Seaman
- 4min27seg
Photographer Camille Seaman has been chasing storms for 5 years. In this talk she shows stunning, surreal photos of the heavens in tumult.
TED
Fighting with non-violence
- Scilla Elworthy
- 4min27seg
How do you deal with a bully without becoming a thug? In this wise and soulful talk, peace activist Scilla Elworthy maps out the skills we need -- as nations and individuals -- to fight extreme force without using force in return. To answer the question of why and how non-violence works, she evokes historical heroes -- Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- and the personal philosophies that powered their peaceful protests.
TED
Why we have virus outbreaks & how we can prevent them
- Nathan Wolfe
- 4min27seg
SARS, avian flu, swine flu ... each virus outbreak raises the question: What can be done? A compelling answer from virus hunter Nathan Wolfe, who's outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- and stopping them before they claim millions of lives.
TED
We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
- Lawrence Lessig
- 4min27seg
There is a corruption at the heart of American politics, caused by the dependence of Congressional candidates on funding from the tiniest percentage of citizens. That's the argument at the core of this blistering talk by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig. With rapid-fire visuals, he shows how the funding process weakens the Republic in the most fundamental way, and issues a rallying bipartisan cry that will resonate with many in the U.S. and beyond.
TED
12 sustainable design ideas from nature
- Janine Benyus
- 4min27seg
In this inspiring talk about recent developments in biomimicry, Janine Benyus provides heartening examples of ways in which nature is already influencing the products and systems we build.
TED
On the verge of creating synthetic life
- Craig Venter
- 4min27seg
"Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into "fourth-generation fuels" -- biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock. His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital technology, the reasons why we would want to do this, and the bioethics of synthetic life. A fascinating Q&A with TED's Chris Anderson follows (two words: suicide genes).
TED
Craig Venter unveils "synthetic life"
- Craig Venter
- 4min27seg
Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science.
TED
The family I lost in North Korea. And the family I gained.
- Joseph Kim
- 4min27seg
A refugee now living in the US, Joseph Kim tells the story of his life in North Korea during the famine years. He's begun to create a new life -- but he still searches for the family he lost.
TED
How to succeed? Get more sleep
- Arianna Huffington
- 4min27seg
In this short talk, Arianna Huffington shares a small idea that can awaken much bigger ones: the power of a good night's sleep. Instead of bragging about our sleep deficits, she urges us to shut our eyes and see the big picture: We can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness -- and smarter decision-making.
TED
Math class needs a makeover
- Dan Meyer
- 4min27seg
Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.
TED
The math and magic of origami
- Robert Lang
- 4min27seg
Robert Lang is a pioneer of the newest kind of origami -- using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
TED
Matt Ridley
- When ideas have sex
- 4min27seg
At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.
TED
What fear can teach us
- Karen Thompson Walker
- 4min27seg
Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.
TED
Building the Seed Cathedral
- Thomas Heatherwick
- 4min27seg
A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station ... And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.
TED
Deep sea diving ... in a wheelchair
- Sue Austin
- 4min27seg
When Sue Austin got a power chair 16 years ago, she felt a tremendous sense of freedom -- yet others looked at her as though she had lost something. In her art, she aims to convey the spirit of wonder she feels wheeling through the world. Includes thrilling footage of an underwater wheelchair that lets her explore ocean beds, drifting through schools of fish, floating free in 360 degrees.
TED
A Darwinian theory of beauty
- Denis Dutton
- 4min27seg
TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.
TED
The beauty of data visualization
- David McCandless
- 4min27seg
David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.
TED
How to buy happiness
- Michael Norton
- 4min27seg
At TEDxCambridge, Michael Norton shares fascinating research on how money can, indeed buy happiness -- when you don't spend it on yourself. Listen for surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course) other people.
TED
Before Avatar ... a curious boy
- James Cameron
- 4min27seg
James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create an unreal world all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar."
TED
Boaz Almog "levitates" a superconductor
- Boaz Almog
- 4min27seg
How can a super-thin, three-inch disk levitate something 70,000 times its own weight? In a riveting, futuristic demonstration, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail -- completely frictionlessly and with zero energy loss.
TED
Dare to disagree
- Margaret Heffernan
- 4min27seg
Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren't echo chambers -- and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree.
TED
Different ways of knowing
- Daniel Tammet
- 4min27seg
Daniel Tammet has linguistic, numerical and visual synesthesia -- meaning that his perception of words, numbers and colors are woven together into a new way of perceiving and understanding the world. The author of "Born on a Blue Day," Tammet shares his art and his passion for languages in this glimpse into his beautiful mind.
TED
The silent drama of photography
- Sebastião Salgado
- 4min27seg
Economics PhD Sebastião Salgado only took up photography in his 30s, but the discipline became an obsession. His years-long projects beautifully capture the human side of a global story that all too often involves death, destruction or decay. Here, he tells a deeply personal story of the craft that nearly killed him, and shows breathtaking images from his latest work, Genesis, which documents the world's forgotten people and places.
TED
On being wrong
- Kathryn Schulz
- 4min27seg
Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we're wrong about that? "Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility.
TED
Nina Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color
- Nina Jablonski
- 4min27seg
Nina Jablonski says that differing skin colors are simply our bodies' adaptation to varied climates and levels of UV exposure. Charles Darwin disagreed with this theory, but she explains, that's because he did not have access to NASA.
TED
Want to be happier? Stay in the moment
- Matt Killingsworth
- 4min27seg
When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be.
TED
Why arent we all Good Samaritans?
- Daniel Goleman
- 4min27seg
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time.
TED
Lead like the great conductors
- Itay Talgam
- 4min27seg
An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.
TED
Tales of ice-bound wonderlands
- Paul Nicklen
- 4min27seg
Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.
TED
The surprising decline in violence
- Steven Pinker
- 4min27seg
Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.
TED
My invention that made peace with lions
- Richard Turere
- 4min27seg
In the Masai community where 13-year-old Richard Turere lives, cattle are all-important. But lion attacks were growing more frequent. In this short, inspiring talk, the young inventor shares the solar-powered solution he designed to safely scare the lions away.
TED
The birth of a word
- Deb Roy
- 4min27seg
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.
TED
Trust, morality - and oxytocin
- Paul Zak
- 4min27seg
Where does morality come from -- physically, in the brain? In this talk neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it "the moral molecule") is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society.
TED
What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe
- Ben Goldacre
- 4min27seg
When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous.
TED
The three ways that good design makes you happy
- Don Norman
- 4min27seg
In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.
TED
The 4 ways sound affects us
- Julian Treasure
- 4min27seg
Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.
TED
Freeing energy from the grid
- Justin Hall-Tipping
- 4min27seg
What would happen if we could generate power from our windowpanes? In this moving talk, entrepreneur Justin Hall-Tipping shows the materials that could make that possible, and how questioning our notion of 'normal' can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.
TED
Making art of New York's urban ruins
- Miru Kim
- 4min27seg
At the 2008 EG Conference, artist Miru Kim talks about her work. Kim explores industrial ruins underneath New York and then photographs herself in them, nude -- to bring these massive, dangerous, hidden spaces into sharp focus.
TED
How architecture helped music evolve
- David Byrne
- 4min27seg
As his career grew, David Byrne went from playing CBGB to Carnegie Hall. He asks: Does the venue make the music? From outdoor drumming to Wagnerian operas to arena rock, he explores how context has pushed musical innovation.
TED
What hallucination reveals about our minds
- Oliver Sacks
- 4min27seg
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon.
TED
The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers that can learn
- Jeremy Howard
- 4min27seg
What happens when we teach a computer how to learn? Technologist Jeremy Howard shares some surprising new developments in the fast-moving field of deep learning, a technique that can give computers the ability to learn Chinese, or to recognize objects in photos, or to help think through a medical diagnosis. (One deep learning tool, after watching hours of YouTube, taught itself the concept of "cats.") Get caught up on a field that will change the way the computers around you behave . sooner than you probably think.
TED
Connected, but alone?
- Sherry Turkle
- 4min27seg
As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication -- and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have.
TED
A call to men
- Tony Porter
- 4min27seg
At TEDWomen, Tony Porter makes a call to men everywhere: Don't "act like a man." Telling powerful stories from his own life, he shows how this mentality, drummed into so many men and boys, can lead men to disrespect, mistreat and abuse women and each other. His solution: Break free of the "man box."
TED
Who was General Tso?
- Jennifer 8. Lee
- 4min27seg
Reporter Jennifer 8. Lee talks about her hunt for the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes -- exploring the hidden spots where these two cultures have (so tastily) combined to form a new cuisine.
TED
Before I die I want to...
- Candy Chang
- 4min27seg
In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: "Before I die I want to ___." Her neighbors' answers -- surprising, poignant, funny -- became an unexpected mirror for the community. (What's your answer?)
TED
Debate: Does the world need nuclear energy?
- Stewart Brand and Mark Z. Jacobson
- 4min27seg
Nuclear power: the energy crisis has even die-hard environmentalists reconsidering it. In this first-ever TED debate, Stewart Brand and Mark Z. Jacobson square off over the pros and cons. A discussion that'll make you think -- and might even change your mind.
TED
Your body is my canvas
- Alexa Meade
- 4min27seg
Alexa Meade takes an innovative approach to art. Not for her a life of sketching and stretching canvases. Instead, she selects a topic and then paints it--literally. She covers everything in a scene--people, chairs, food, you name it--in a mask of paint that mimics what's below it. In this eye-opening talk Meade shows off photographs of some of the more outlandish results, and shares a new project involving people, paint and milk.
TED
Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
- John McWhorter
- 4min27seg
Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there's much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it's all good news.
TED
How to learn? From mistakes
- Diana Laufenberg
- 4min27seg
Diana Laufenberg shares 3 surprising things she has learned about teaching -- including a key insight about learning from mistakes.
TED
We're all hiding something. Let's find the courage to open up
- Ash Beckham
- 4min27seg
In this touching talk, Ash Beckham offers a fresh approach to empathy and openness. It starts with understanding that everyone, at some point in their life, has experienced hardship. The only way out, says Beckham, is to open the door and step out of your closet.
TED
The tribes we lead
- Seth Godin
- 4min27seg
Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.
TED
Beauty and truth in physics
- Murray Gell-Mann
- 4min27seg
Armed with a sense of humor and laypeople's terms, Nobel winner Murray Gell-Mann drops some knowledge on TEDsters about particle physics, asking questions like, Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones?
TED
How your "working memory" makes sense of the world
- Peter Doolittle
- 4min27seg
"Life comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is take that amorphous flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it." In this funny, enlightening talk, educational psychologist Peter Doolittle details the importance -- and limitations -- of your "working memory," that part of the brain that allows us to make sense of what's happening right now.
TED
Embracing otherness, embracing myself
- Thandie Newton
- 4min27seg
Actor Thandie Newton tells the story of finding her "otherness" -- first, as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and then as an actor playing with many different selves. A warm, wise talk, fresh from stage at TEDGlobal 2011.
TED
Cut your food in half
- Nathan Myhrvold
- 4min27seg
Cookbook author (and geek) Nathan Myhrvold talks about his magisterial work, "Modernist Cuisine" -- and shares the secret of its cool photographic illustrations, which show cross-sections of food in the very act of being cooked.
TED
Robots that "show emotion"
- David Hanson
- 4min27seg
David Hanson's robot faces look and act like yours: They recognize and respond to emotion, and make expressions of their own. Here, an "emotional" live demo of the Einstein robot offers a peek at a future where robots truly mimic humans.
TED
Autism - what we know (and what we don't know yet)
- Wendy Chung
- 4min27seg
In this calm and factual talk, geneticist Wendy Chung shares what we know about autism spectrum disorder - for example, that autism has multiple, perhaps interlocking, causes. Looking beyond the worry and concern that can surround a diagnosis, Chung and her team look at what we've learned through studies, treatments and careful listening.
TED
How a penny made me feel like a millionaire
- Tania Luna
- 4min27seg
As a young child, Tania Luna left her home in post-Chernobyl Ukraine to take asylum in the US. And one day, on the floor of the New York homeless shelter where she and her family lived, she found a penny. She has never again felt so rich. A meditation on the bittersweet joys of childhood -- and how to hold them in mind.
TED
What is the Internet, really?
- Andrew Blum
- 4min27seg
When a squirrel chewed through a cable and knocked him offline, journalist Andrew Blum started wondering what the Internet was really made of. So he set out to go see it -- the underwater cables, secret switches and other physical bits that make up the net.
TED
The Secret US Prisons You've Never Heard of Before
- Will Potter
- 4min27seg
Investigative journalist Will Potter is the only reporter who has been inside a Communications Management Unit, or CMU, within a US prison. These units were opened secretly, and radically alter how prisoners are treated - even preventing them from hugging their children. Potter, a TED Fellow, shows us who is imprisoned here, and how the government is trying to keep them hidden. "The message was clear," he says. "Don't talk about this place." Find sources for this talk at willpotter.com/cmu
TED
Theremin, the untouchable music
- Pamelia Kurstin
- 4min27seg
Virtuoso Pamelia Kurstin plays and discusses her theremin, the not-just-for-sci-fi electronic instrument that is played without being touched. Songs include the classic "Autumn Leaves," Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and a composition by David Mash, "Listen: the Words Are Gone." Piano: Makoto Ozone.
TED
Talk nerdy to me
- Melissa Marshall
- 4min27seg
Melissa Marshall brings a message to all scientists (from non-scientists): We're fascinated by what you're doing. So tell us about it -- in a way we can understand. In just 4 minutes, she shares powerful tips on presenting complex scientific ideas to a general audience.
TED
A theory of everything
- Garrett Lisi
- 4min27seg
Physicist and surfer Garrett Lisi presents a controversial new model of the universe that -- just maybe -- answers all the big questions. If nothing else, it's the most beautiful 8-dimensional model of elementary particles and forces you've ever seen.
TED
A garden in my apartment
- Britta Riley
- 4min27seg
Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles -- researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious.
TED
Julia Sweeney has "The Talk"
- Julia Sweeney
- 4min27seg
Despite her best efforts, comedian Julia Sweeney is forced to tell a little white lie when her 8-year-old begins learning about frog reproduction -- and starts to ask some very smart questions.
TED
Why is 'x' the unknown?
- Terry Moore
- 4min27seg
Why is 'x' the symbol for an unknown? In this short and funny talk, Terry Moore gives the surprising answer.
TED
Presenting the Orb
- Nick Sears
- 4min27seg
Inventor Nick Sears demos the first generation of the Orb, a rotating persistence-of-vision display that creates glowing 3D images. A short, cool tale of invention.
TED
One very dry demo
- Mark Shaw
- 4min27seg
Mark Shaw demos Ultra-Ever Dry, a liquid-repellent coating that acts as an astonishingly powerful shield against water and water-based materials. At the nano level, the spray covers a surface with an umbrella of air so that water bounces right off. Watch for an exciting two-minute kicker.
TED
Lessons from fashion's free culture
- Johanna Blakely
- 4min27seg
Copyright law's grip on film, music and software barely touches the fashion industry ... and fashion benefits in both innovation and sales, says Johanna Blakley. At TEDxUSC 2010, she talks about what all creative industries can learn from fashion's free culture.
TED
Our natural sleep cycle
- Jessa Gamble
- 4min27seg
In today's world, balancing school, work, kids and more, most of us can only hope for the recommended eight hours of sleep. Examining the science behind our body's internal clock, Jessa Gamble reveals the surprising and substantial program of rest we should be observing.
TED
The world's English mania
- Jay Walker
- 4min27seg
Por que dois bilhões de pessoas ao redor do mundo estão tentando aprender inglês?
Por que os chineses levam tão a sério o estudo do inglês?...
TED
How to tutor a billion students
- Zach Wissner-Gross
- 4min27seg
Which teacher would you rather have: a lecturer who doesn't take any questions, or a tutor who works with you 1-on-1? Everyone prefers the tutor, but the millions of online learners around the world are stuck with the lecturer. After all, if you want to teach a million students at once, it's a lot easier to make a one-size-fits-all video than it is to design a personalized experience that's tailored to each student. Wissner-Gross is changing all that. After reviewing state-of-the-art scalable learning, he shows how a single tutor can give personalized instruction to a billion students at once.
A Hertz Fellow, Dr. Zachary Wissner-Gross is the cofounder and CEO of School Yourself, a startup company pioneering the development of scalable personalized learning.