How often does technology interrupt us from what we really mean to be doing? At work and at play, we spend a startling amount of time distracted by pings and pop-ups -- instead of helping us spend our time well, it often feels like our...

Astronauts ate some space-grown lettuce, and astronomers discovered a ring of galaxies that's so big it defies the laws of physics.

Hank talks about how warp drives could potentially work.

This week in space. Scientists have discovered a black hole that could possibly everything we know about black holes, and also, evidence that planets, yes planets, could form around super massive black holes.

Two scientists have proposed that Planet Nine could actually be a black hole, and a handful of telescopes observed a distant black hole absolutely destroying a star!

Hank's friend from grad school, Bryan von Lossberg recounts his time working on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission, and Jessi from Animal Wonders surprises us with Goma the red eyed tree frog!

If you've ever tried to make out something that was really far away, odds are you squinted while doing it. It's basically involuntary! But does narrowing your field of vision really help you see things better?

Jack Horner and Hank talk about the evolution of dinosaurs, what it took to become a world-famous paleontologist, genetics, and meet a live dinosaur courtesy of Jessi Knudsen Castañeda.

You think your tummy rumbles? Meet the ghost crab — it growls using teeth inside its stomach, and not because it’s feeling peckish!

What is the dot product? What does it represent? Why does it have the formula that it does? All this is explained visually.

The world is changing much more rapidly than most people realize, says business educator Eddie Obeng -- and creative output cannot keep up. In this spirited talk, he highlights three important changes we should understand for better...

If you're lucky enough to live without want, it's a natural impulse to be altruistic to others. But, asks philosopher Peter Singer, what's the most effective way to give? He talks through some surprising thought experiments to help you...

How likely is it that a massive asteroid will do major damage to Earth and its inhabitants? What about the sun -- is it dying out anytime soon? And the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way -- should we be worried about...

You work at the college library. You're in the middle of a quiet afternoon when suddenly, a shipment of 1,280 books arrives. The books are in a straight line, but they're all out of order, and the automatic sorting system is broken. How...

On August 21, 2017, the moon's shadow raced from Oregon to South Carolina in what some consider to be the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature: a total solar eclipse. umbraphile David Baron chases these rare events across the...

Humans are great at understanding medium-sized things, like how far the supermarket is from your house, or how to find the bathroom in the dark. But imagining distances in light-years is a lot harder -- so you'll have to use a trick or two.

Got an idea to make your workplace better? Labor organizer and TED Fellow Jess Kutch can show you how to put it into action. In this quick talk, she explains how "productive conflict" -- when people organize to challenge and change...

There’s probably life somewhere besides Earth, but all the exoplanets are so far away we may never see their surfaces in detail or intercept a clear radio signal from them. How do we determine if a distant planet has life?

When we last left Jessi and Squeaks, Jessi had a big problem: her back was really itchy! Today we'll share our designs for back scratchers and build something to help her out!

What would it take to settle Mars? In a talk about the future of space exploration, Lynn Rothschild reviews the immense challenges to living elsewhere in the universe and proposes some bold, creative solutions to making a home off planet...

The founding mother of the blog revolution, Movable Type's Mena Trott, talks about the early days of blogging, when she realized that giving regular people the power to share our lives online is the key to building a friendlier, more...

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

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.

Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture -- raw, risky, emotional, radical -- and that offer inspiration for any bold creative pursuit.