When Allison Hunt found out that she needed a new hip -- and that Canada’s national health care system would require her to spend nearly 2 years on a waiting list (and in pain) -- she took matters into her own hands.

Your friend just tagged you in 17 photos on Facebook but you swear those photos lie about your weight. Is the camera playing tricks with your eyes?

Journalist Carl Honore believes the Western world's emphasis on speed erodes health, productivity and quality of life. But there's a backlash brewing, as everyday people start putting the brakes on their all-too-modern lives.

Snakes aren’t just muscle-y danger noodles. They're extremely diverse, and some have really weird, unique adaptations that we could all probably appreciate a little more.

Despite computers barely being a thing when she was born, Valerie Thomas knew that she was cut out for the tech world, pushed until she got there, and contributed to some hugely important technologies that many of us could not live without.

For the past 200 years, the gallery has been the home of new and cutting-edge art, a place where the art community can come together and share new ideas. In the era of the internet, however, you can view remarkable art from the comfort...

Storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy spins a funny, wise and luminous tale of parents and kids, starring her Cuban mother. Settle in and enjoy the ride -- Mama's driving!

Exorings are pretty elusive, but we’ve already found what might be the first set of exorings, and if we find more, we’ll have a treasure trove of new information.

A full third of the world's population -- 2.6 billion people -- play video games, plugging into massive networks of interaction that have opened up opportunities well beyond entertainment. In a talk about the future of the medium,...

When TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada heard about the devastating effects of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he quit his dream job and moved to New Orleans to develop a more efficient way to soak up the oil. He designed a...

Hank tells us about the Kepler Space Telescope and its new data!

Public speaking isn't easy for everyone. It can be nerve racking and even scary. But, in this episode of Crash Course Business Soft Skills, Evelyn talks to us about S.U.C.C.E.S and how we can use it to help us be prepared to speak to a...

Ethan Lindenberger never got vaccinated as a kid. So one day, he went on Reddit and asked a simple question: "Where do I go to get vaccinated?" The post went viral, landing Lindenberger in the middle of a heated debate about vaccination...

Scientists have discovered a shard of a planet that survived the death of its star and TESS has found the first direct evidence of an exocomet.

You may know about The Marshmallow Test, a popular psychological exam to see if people have willpower, but psychologists found that it might not be measuring willpower after all.

Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.

How is it that you can be looking at a distinct object in front of you, yet picture something entirely different in your mind? The inner workings of what’s happening in our brains to allow this is a puzzle that scientists are now...

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...

Happy pi day! Did you know that in some of his notes, Euler used the symbol pi to represent 6.28..., before the more familiar 3.14... took off as a standard?

Eyeballs are unique organs, providing many animals with the ability to interpret the light waves in the world around them, but what are these squishy parts made of?

You and nine other individuals have been captured by super-intelligent alien overlords. The aliens think humans look quite tasty, but their civilization forbids eating highly logical and cooperative beings. Unfortunately, they're not...

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...

From launching a new satellite, to finding diamonds from a lost world, researchers have been hard at work transforming how we think about our planet, the solar system, and the rest of the universe.

With surprising accuracy, Nicholas Negroponte predicts what will happen with CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone and his own One Laptop per Child project.