TED Talks
Robert Lang: The math and magic of origami
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-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we build a wooden skyscraper? | Stefan Al
Towering 85 meters above the Norwegian countryside, Mjøstårnet is the world's tallest wooden building, made almost entirely from the trees of neighboring forests. But as recently as the end of the 20th century, engineers thought it was...
TED Talks
Alan Russell: The potential of regenerative medicine
Alan Russell studies regenerative medicine -- a breakthrough way of thinking about disease and injury, using a process that can signal the body to rebuild itself.
TED Talks
David Merrill: Toy tiles that talk to each other
MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on...
TED Talks
Rachel Armstrong: Architecture that repairs itself?
Venice is sinking. To save it, Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials and, well, make architecture that grows itself. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters...
TED Talks
TED: Pirates, nurses and other rebel designers | Alice Rawsthorn
In this ode to design renegades, Alice Rawsthorn highlights the work of unlikely heroes, from Blackbeard to Florence Nightingale. Drawing a line from these bold thinkers to some early modern visionaries like Buckminster Fuller, Rawsthorn...
TED Talks
Brandon Clifford: Architectural secrets of the world's ancient wonders
How did ancient civilizations move massive stones to build Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Easter Island statues? In this quick, delightful talk, TED Fellow Brandon Clifford reveals some architectural secrets of the past and shows how...
TED Talks
Nick Sears: Demo: The Orb
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 Talks
Scott Kim: The art of puzzles
At the 2008 EG conference, famed puzzle designer Scott Kim takes us inside the puzzle-maker's frame of mind. Sampling his career's work, he introduces a few of the most popular types, and shares the fascinations that inspired some of his...
TED Talks
Natalie Jeremijenko: The art of the eco-mindshift
Natalie Jeremijenko's unusual lab puts art to work, and addresses environmental woes by combining engineering know-how with public art and a team of volunteers. These real-life experiments include: Walking tadpoles, texting "fish,"...
TED Talks
Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing"
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...
TED Talks
Jessica Green: We're covered in germs. Let's design for that.
Our bodies and homes are covered in microbes -- some good for us, some bad for us. As we learn more about the germs and microbes who share our living spaces, TED Fellow Jessica Green asks: Can we design buildings that encourage happy,...
TED Talks
Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing
2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things -- including intricate objects...
TED Talks
Jake Barton: The museum of you
A third of the world watched live as the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001; a third more heard about it within 24 hours. (Do you remember where you were?) So exhibits at the soon-to-open 9/11 Memorial Museum will reflect...
TED Talks
TED: A delightful way to teach kids about computers | Linda Liukas
Computer code is the next universal language, and its syntax will be limited only by the imaginations of the next generation of programmers. Linda Liukas is helping to educate problem-solving kids, encouraging them to see computers not...
SciShow
The Next Step to a Holodeck
The next step toward a holodeck might be the ability to actually touch a simulation, and we’re getting closer—using sound.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Making a TED-Ed Lesson: Visualizing complex ideas
How can animation convey complex, intangible concepts? A visual metaphor, or an idea represented through imagery, can take an idea as massive as Big Data and tie it to the familiar depiction of a growing tree. TED-Ed animators explain...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Will we ever be able to teleport? - Sajan Saini
Is teleportation possible? Could a baseball transform into something like a radio wave, travel through buildings, bounce around corners, and change back into a baseball? Oddly enough, thanks to quantum mechanics, the answer might...
TED Talks
TED: Forget shopping. Soon you'll download your new clothes | Danit Peleg
Downloadable, printable clothing may be coming to a closet near you. What started as designer Danit Peleg's fashion school project turned into a collection of 3D-printed designs that have the strength and flexibility for everyday wear....
SciShow
The Terrifying Promise of Robot Bugs
Imitating nature to build a better (or possibly more terrifying) future. We've been trying to build flapping-wing robots for hundreds of years, and now, ornithopters are finally being developed, and may be used mostly for military...
SciShow
What the Wright Brothers Should Actually Be Famous For
For the pioneers of human aviation, one of the trickiest problems was figuring out how to steer the early craft. Then, the Wright Brothers changed everything by using bike parts and watching birds.
TED Talks
Zach Kaplan + Keith Schacht: Toys and materials from the future
The Inventables guys, Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, demo some amazing new materials and how we might use them. Look for squishy magnets, odor-detecting ink, "dry" liquid and a very surprising 10-foot pole.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What was so special about Viking ships? - Jan Bill
As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by the 11th century, they had spread far from Scandinavia, gaining control of trade routes throughout Europe, conquering kingdoms as far...
TED Talks
David Griffin: How photography connects us
The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.