(NOTE: Statements in this talk have been challenged by scientists working in this field. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details.) Elaine Morgan was a tenacious proponent of a theory that is not widely accepted. The aquatic...

Organizations are often run according to "the superchicken model," where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn't what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on describing scale.


TERMS
Scale - the relative size or extent of
something
Objects - a material thing that can be s
een and touched
Phenomena...

Musician and activist Bono accepts the 2005 TED Prize with a riveting talk, arguing that aid to Africa isn't just another celebrity cause; it's a global emergency.

Most animals with a backbone possess a tail, and they use them for all sorts of purposes. There isn’t just one reason for having a tail, it all depends on what the animal is adapted for.

What would you do if you found out that cancer could be lurking in your genes? More people are getting news like that these days as more kinds of cancer are being linked to specific genes and genetic tests let doctors screen your...

Get an engineeer's-eye-view of the tallest buildings in the world, to learn what challenges they face as they reach for the sky and wonder, how tall can we build?

Botanist Corneille Ewango talks about his work at the Okapi Faunal Reserve in the Congo Basin -- and his heroic work protecting it from poachers, miners and raging civil wars.

In today’s episode, Hank asks you to consider all the ways people talk about justice and what we really mean when we use that word. We’ll explain various theories of justice, just distribution, and different approaches to punishment.

Robert Gupta, violinist with the LA Philharmonic, talks about a violin lesson he once gave to a brilliant, schizophrenic musician -- and what he learned. Called back onstage later, Gupta plays his own transcription of the prelude from...

It seems silly to ask if plants can count, but even the New York Times has called Venus flytraps 'Plants That Can Count.' Is counting a thing plants can do?

AI algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for car insurance or whether or not you get that job interview. But what happens when these machines are built with human bias coded into their...

Here it is, folks: the end. In our final episode of Crash Course Astronomy, Phil gives the course a send off with a look at some of his favorite topics and the big questions that Astronomy allows us to ask.

Known worldwide for her courage and clarity, Christiane Amanpour has spent the past three decades interviewing business, cultural and political leaders who have shaped history. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Amanpour...

“If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms," says Shereen El Feki, who traveled through the Middle East for five years, talking to people about sex. While those conversations reflected rigid norms and...

Under the leadership of Lisa Jackson, Apple's environment and social VP and former head of the EPA, the company is already carbon neutral within their own corporate and retail boundaries. By 2030, Apple hopes to extend carbon neutrality...

What does your chair say about what you value? Designer Sebastian Deterding shows how our visions of morality and "the good life" are reflected in the design of objects around us.

Due to an odd quirk of genetics and some unique evolutionary circumstances, two humans who lived at different times in the distant past managed to pass on a very small fraction of their genomes to you. And to me. To all of us.

Bruce Feiler has a radical idea: To deal with the stress of modern family life, go agile. Inspired by agile software programming, Feiler introduces family practices which encourage flexibility, bottom-up idea flow, constant feedback and...

Last time, we learned that there is in fact weather on other planets. But those were the rocky planets, like Earth. What about the big Gas Giants? What's the weather like there? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina takes us on a...

Scientists may have found a recombinant variant of COVID-19 in the wild, and its mixed DNA could be essential to the coronavirus life cycle.

Scottish funnyman Rory Bremner convenes a historic council on the TEDGlobal stage -- as he lampoons Gordon Brown, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and a cast of other world leaders with his hilarious impressions and biting commentary. See if...

Today, we're going to talk about how the Earth moves, but to do that, we're going to have to go way back to the early days of the galaxy! Processes that happened before the Earth even formed have led us to the geographic patterns and...

Artist Titus Kaphar makes paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the struggles of the past while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to a...