When you learned about the Earth’s interior in school, you were probably shown a diagram that looked like a perfect layer cake. But we've known for a long time that that diagram is... inaccurate at best, and leaves out information that...

What weird worlds are these video games creating?

Chris Anderson gave this talk in 2002, prior to taking over leadership of TED. Co-founder Richard Saul Wurman was leaving, and TED's future was in the balance. He seeks to persuade TEDsters that what was then a for-profit conference had...

While the Earth's oceans are known as five separate entities, there is really only one ocean. So, how big is it? As of 2013, it takes up 71% of the Earth, houses 99% of the biosphere, and contains some of Earth's grandest geological...

While comets were historically thought to be ill omens of war and famine, recent science has revealed that these celestial wonders actually contain amino acids, the building blocks of life on Earth. Justin Dowd explores the implications...

The way we cool things down is heating the planet even more, says sustainable development expert Rachel Kyte -- and the solutions go well beyond just fixing air-conditioning. She identifies four major areas with transformative solutions...

Solar Storms! Moaning Myrtle! Wondering what the frick is behind the solar flares that slammed Earth earlier this week? Hank lays out how that juicy ball of plasma we call the sun causes us trouble from time to time.

Life on Earth has always been shaped by other bodies in space, and life in our oceans is especially susceptible to interactions that have huge effects on life as we know it!

Sending rockets into space requires sacrificing expensive equipment, burning massive amounts of fuel, and risking potential catastrophe. So in the space race of the 21st century, some engineers are abandoning rockets for something more...

Food already in cupboards, supermarkets, & warehouses could feed humanity for 4 months, but potential food - berries, termites & krill - could extend that by another...

Explaining strange Earth geology is often straightforward — combine a volcanic eruption a dash of erosion, and boom, you’ve got a striking cliff! But not all the features on this planet are so easy to figure out. From the ground randomly...

Astronomers took advantage of a lunar eclipse to study Earth as if it were an exoplanet, and Mars's Insight lander used seismic data to reveal for the first time boundaries between different layers of Mars.

Sight, sound, and yes, taste, have all helped humanity better understand space, but what about smells? Scientists think we have a pretty good idea of what some places smell like, and decoding astronomical aromas can be a good way of...

We’ve probed some 250 kilometers into Jupiter’s atmosphere, and that’s raised some new questions about the mysterious planet. And we’ve taken another important step in looking for life on Mars by using a common chemistry process for the...

Trilobites are famous not just because they were so beautifully functional, or because they happened to preserve so well. They're known the world over because they were everywhere!

You might think of plate tectonics as destructive since it's the ultimate force behind earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. But the slow movement of our planet's surface does a lot more than shake things up now and then. Some...

The doctrine of "first, do no harm" is the basis of the Hippocratic Oath, one of the world's oldest codes of ethics. It governs the work of physicians -- but climate and health campaigner Shweta Narayan says it should go further. In this...

Picture your favorite place in nature. How would you feel if it disappeared tomorrow? In this love letter to the planet, social worker and environmental activist Knut Ivar Bjørlykhaug invites us to confront the deep, difficult emotions...

Astronomers have found a Hot Jupiter - WASP-121b - that is leaking metal, and put together a new 3D map of the Milky Way showing that our galaxy is actually a bit twisted!

Biodesigner Natsai Audrey Chieza prototypes the future, imagining a world where people and nature can thrive together. In this wildly imaginative talk, she shares the vision behind her innovation lab, which works at the intersection of...

So the Mars Rovers didn't scoop up any alien lifeforms. Scientist Penelope Boston thinks there's a good chance -- a 25 to 50 percent chance, in fact -- that life might exist on Mars, deep inside the planet's caves. She details how we...

Sustainability is pretty clearly one of the world's most important goals; but what groups can really make environmental progress in leaps and bounds? Chris McKnett makes the case that it's large institutional investors. He shows how...

Trinidad's Pitch Lake is a huge, oily, and filled with millions of tons of asphalt. It may not sound like a great place to live, but the lake is teeming with microscopic life! And learning more about these organisms could give us insight...

Now that we’re done with the planets, asteroid belt, and comets, we’re heading to the outskirts of the solar system. Out past Neptune are vast reservoirs of icy bodies that can become comets if they get poked into the inner solar system....