The founder of Sirius XM satellite radio, Martine Rothblatt now heads up a drug company that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases (including one drug that saved her own daughter's life). Meanwhile she is working to preserve the...

In the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the best parts of ourselves reflected back to us. Boyd Varty, a wildlife activist, shares stories of animals, humans and their interrelatedness, or "ubuntu" -- defined as, "I am, because of...

Before she left for Chicago, Emily Graslie of The Brain Scoop sat down with Hank to discuss one of her favorite skulls from the from the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum. Then Jessi Knudsen Castañeda from Animal Wonders joined in with...

You may wish that you could pack on a few pounds and sleep the next few months away, and scientists are one step closer to understanding how some animals are capable of doing this.

In a breathtaking, jazz-inflected spoken-word performance, TED Fellow Marc Bamuthi Joseph shares a Black father's tender and wrenching internal reflection on the pride and terror of seeing his son enter adulthood.

Today we're going to talk about game shows! Game shows have a long history going all the way back to the 1920s on the radio and then proliferating across media to the massive pop culture icons they are today. And they're different from...

Sloths spend most of their time eating, resting, or sleeping; in fact, they descend from their treetops canopies just once a week, for a bathroom break. How are these creatures so low energy? Kenny Coogan describes the physical and...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. How can disadvantaged students succeed in school? For sociologist Anindya Kundu, grit and stick-to-itiveness aren't...

Are These Butterflies The Same?

Can we make tattoos both beautiful and functional? Nanotechnologist Carson Bruns shares his work creating high-tech tattoos that react to their environment -- like color-changing ink that can tell you when you're getting a sunburn -- and...

Libraries have the power to create a better world; they connect communities, promote literacy and spark lifelong learners. But there's one thing that keeps people away: the fear of overdue book fines. In this thought-provoking talk,...

Diébédo Francis Kéré knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got his degree in architecture... He wanted to go home to Gando in Burkina Faso, to help his neighbors reap the benefit of his education. In this charming talk, Kéré shows...

It's called the "Flynn effect" -- the fact that each generation scores higher on an IQ test than the generation before it. Are we actually getting smarter, or just thinking differently? In this fast-paced spin through the cognitive...

In this hilariously lively performance, actress Sarah Jones channels an opinionated elderly Jewish woman, a fast-talking Dominican college student and more, giving TED2009 just a sample of her spectacular character range.

Haley Van Dyck is transforming the way America delivers critical services to everyday people. At the United States Digital Service, Van Dyck and her team are using lessons learned by Silicon Valley and the private sector to improve...

We’re in the middle of a rapid, unprecedented, and world-changing increase in the intensity and scale of human activity on this planet.

In this episode of SciShow Quiz Show, host Michael Aranda test the wits of contestants Dr. Lindsey Doe and Hank Green.

The past decade has seen slow and steady economic growth across the continent of Africa. But economist Charles Robertson has a bold thesis: Africa's about to boom. He talks through a few of the indicators -- from rising education levels...

Watch the miraculous journey of infant sea turtles as these tiny animals run the gauntlet of predators and harsh conditions. Then, in numbers, see how human behavior has made their tough lives even more challenging.

Global problems such as terrorism, inequality and political dysfunction aren't easy to solve, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying. In fact, suggests journalist Jonathan Tepperman, we might even want to think riskier. He traveled...

Climate doom-ism, or a pessimistic outlook on the future of the planet, rivals climate denialism in holding up the fight against climate change, says activist Zahra Biabani. Illuminating how hope combats inaction, she takes us inside the...

There's a lot of talk these days about when and how we might all move to Mars. But what would it actually be like to live there? Mari Foroutan details the features of Mars that are remarkably similar to those of Earth — and those that...

Robin Chase founded Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing business. That was one of her smaller ideas. Here she travels much farther, contemplating road-pricing schemes that will shake up our driving habits and a mesh network vast as...

"Secrets can take many forms -- they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful." Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret.com, shares some of the half-million secrets that strangers have mailed him on postcards.