TED Talks
How synthetic biology can improve our health, food and materials | Emily Leproust
What if we could use biology to restore our balance with nature without giving up modern creature comforts? Advocating for a new kind of environmentalism, scientist and entrepreneur Emily Leproust rethinks modern sustainability at the...
TED Talks
Siddhartha Mukherjee: Soon we'll cure diseases with a cell, not a pill
Current medical treatment boils down to six words: Have disease, take pill, kill something. But physician Siddhartha Mukherjee points to a future of medicine that will transform the way we heal.
TED Talks
TED: How farming could employ Africa's young workforce -- and help build peace | Kola Masha
Africa's youth is coming of age rapidly, but job growth on the continent isn't keeping up. The result: financial insecurity and, in some cases, a turn towards insurgent groups. In a passionate talk, agricultural entrepreneur Kola Masha...
TED Talks
Robert Gordon: The death of innovation, the end of growth
The US economy has been expanding wildly for two centuries. Are we witnessing the end of growth? Economist Robert Gordon lays out 4 reasons US growth may be slowing, detailing factors like epidemic debt and growing inequality, which...
TED-Ed
Why good ideas get trapped in the valley of death -- and how to rescue them | TED-Ed
All new products must pass through the "valley of death" before they reach the market. Many never make it out, and sometimes that's OK -- if they don't work, don't fill a need or for any number of reasons. One of the fields where this...
TED Talks
Andrew Forrest: A radical plan to end plastic waste
Plastic is an incredible substance for the economy -- and the worst substance possible for the environment, says entrepreneur Andrew Forrest. In a conversation meant to spark debate, Forrest and head of TED Chris Anderson discuss an...
TED Talks
TED: The rapid growth of the Chinese internet -- and where it's headed | Gary Liu
The Chinese internet has grown at a staggering pace -- it now has more users than the combined populations of the US, UK, Russia, Germany, France and Canada. Even with its imperfections, the lives of once-forgotten populations have been...
TED Talks
TED: Meet the microscopic life in your home -- and on your face | Anne Madden
Behold the microscopic jungle in and around you: tiny organisms living on your cheeks, under your sofa and in the soil in your backyard. We have an adversarial relationship with these microbes -- we sanitize, exterminate and disinfect...
TED Talks
TED: What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation | DK Osseo-Asare
In Agbogbloshie, a community in Accra, Ghana, people descend on a scrapyard to mine electronic waste for recyclable materials. Without formal training, these urban miners often teach themselves the workings of electronics by taking them...
TED Talks
TED: The playful wonderland behind great inventions | Steven Johnson
Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, not always. Steven Johnson shows us how some of the most transformative ideas and technologies, like the computer, didn't emerge out of necessity at all but instead from the strange...
TED Talks
Shohini Ghose: Quantum computing explained in 10 minutes
A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely, based on emerging scientific understanding -- and more than a bit of uncertainty. Enter the quantum wonderland with TED...
TED Talks
Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, investing in a better world
As we reboot the world's economy, Geoff Mulgan poses a question: Instead of sending bailout money to doomed old industries, why not use stimulus funds to bootstrap some new, socially responsible companies -- and make the world a little...
TED Talks
TED: How we could better predict and stop floods | Virginia Smith
From village to metropolis, global flooding is on the rise, and traditional approaches to managing the swells won't cut it, says water resource engineer Virginia Smith. Giving an overview of the dynamic shift needed to stymie the flow of...
TED Talks
TED: A vision of crimes in the future | Marc Goodman
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. The world is becoming increasingly open, and that has implications both bright and dangerous. Marc Goodman paints a...
TED Talks
TED: Better cybersecurity starts with honesty and accountability | Nadya Bartol
In this practical talk, cybersecurity expert Nadya Bartol brings this crucial topic out into the open, lifting the shame around tech mistakes and offering creative ways to celebrate and reward good cybersecurity habits at work and...
TED Talks
Mark Kendall: Demo: A needle-free vaccine patch that's safer and way cheaper
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...
TED Talks
TED: How to build a company where the best ideas win | Ray Dalio
What if you knew what your coworkers really thought about you and what they were really like? Ray Dalio makes the business case for using radical transparency and algorithmic decision-making to create an idea meritocracy where people can...
TED Talks
TED: How going to Mars improves life on Earth | Eric Hinterman
Memory foam, air purifiers, scratch-resistant lenses: these are just a few of the everyday items originally developed for space missions. Aerospace engineer Eric Hinterman invites us to dream big and imagine what technological...
TED Talks
TED: The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant
How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of...
TED Talks
TED: The next step in nanotechnology | George Tulevski
Nearly every other year the transistors that power silicon computer chip shrink in size by half and double in performance, enabling our devices to become more mobile and accessible. But what happens when these components can't get any...
TED Talks
TED: How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment | Michael Shellenberger
We're not in a clean energy revolution; we're in a clean energy crisis, says climate policy expert Michael Shellenberger. His surprising solution: nuclear. In this passionate talk, he explains why it's time to overcome longstanding fears...
TED Talks
TED: This decade calls for Earthshots to repair our planet | Prince William
We start this new decade knowing that it is the most consequential period in history, says Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot," he calls on us all to rise to our greatest challenge...
TED-Ed
How does artificial intelligence learn? | Briana Brownell
Today, artificial intelligence helps doctors diagnose patients, pilots fly commercial aircraft, and city planners predict traffic. These AIs are often self-taught, working off a simple set of instructions to create a unique array of...
TED Talks
Adam Garske: How designing brand-new enzymes could change the world
"If DNA is the blueprint of life, enzymes are the laborers that carry out its instructions," says chemical biologist Adam Garske. In this fun talk and demo, he shows how scientists can now edit and design enzymes for specific functions...