Corruption is often defined as misuse of a position of power for personal gain. And while corruption in politics is nothing new, it isn't limited to the political sphere; it can happen in schools, sports, businesses, or religious...

After a surprise appearance by Edward Snowden at TED2014, Chris Anderson said: "If the NSA wants to respond, please do." And yes, they did. Appearing by video, NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett answers Anderson's questions about the...

Wouldn't it be nice if our transportation was as sleek as in The Jetsons or Futurama? Flying cars are cool, but what about a giant network of human-sized tubes that run through buildings and across entire cities? Well guess what? The...

For the last eight years, pop singer Annie Lennox has devoted the majority of her time to her SING campaign, raising awareness and money to combat HIV/AIDS. She shares the experiences that have inspired her, from working with Nelson...

Today, Craig is going to finish up our discussion of the First Amendment with freedom of the press. Like an individual's right to free speech, the press has a right, and arguably responsibility, to tell the public what the government is...

What makes a book a book? Is it just anything that stores and communicates information? Or does it have to do with paper, binding, font, ink, its weight in your hands, the smell of the pages? To answer these questions, Julie Dreyfuss...

In the uS, the press has a right to publish secret information the public needs to know, protected by the First Amendment. Government surveillance has made it increasingly more dangerous for whistleblowers, the source of virtually every...

When we type, our brain is doing most of the work without our conscious input. So you can blame your brain for al teh typsos.

Can we fight terror without destroying democracy? Internet freedom activist Rebecca MacKinnon thinks that we'll lose the battle against extremism and demagoguery if we censor the internet and press. In this critical talk, she calls for a...

Squeaks got hurt playing outside and had to get stitches! Jessi explains what happens at the doctor's office and how stitches help us heal!

What if you could control digital devices using just the power of thought? That's the incredible promise behind the Stentrode -- an implantable brain-computer interface that collects and wirelessly transmits information directly from the...

"I love paper, and I love technology," says physicist and former sheep herder Kate Stone, who's spent the past decade working to unite the two. Her experiments combine regular paper with conductive inks and tiny circuit boards to offer a...

Today we wrap up our discussion of the media by talking about how the government interacts with and influences the content we see. Now it may be easy to assume that because we live in a free-market capitalist society, the only real...

In 1972, psychologists at the University of Colorado surveyed 140 couples to determine whether a relationship facing parental disapproval was more likely to strengthen or crumble under the pressure. Can long-term success of a romantic...

Hank describes some of the best explanations that neurologists have come up with to account for the strange sensation we know as déjà vu.

In 2013, a group of researchers wanted to create an AI system that could beat every Atari game. They developed a system called Deep Q Networks (DQN) and less than two years later, it was superhuman. But there was one notable exception....

After a horrific accident put her in the tabloid headlines, Kate Stone found a way to take control of her narrative -- and help prevent others from losing their privacy, too. Learn how she reclaimed her story in this personal talk...

With endearing honesty and vulnerability, Raghava KK tells the colorful tale of how art has taken his life to new places, and how life experiences in turn have driven his multiple reincarnations as an artist -- from cartoonist to...

Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes -- capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping...

When you're feeling burned out as an activist, what's the best way to bounce back? TED Senior Fellow Yana Buhrer Tavanier explores the power of "playtivism" -- the incorporation of play and creativity into movements for social change....

When we say a planet is habitable, we aren't REALLY saying what we think we are saying. 'Habitable' means something else. Is Kepler 186f habitable, in the true sense of the word? And if not, what other planets should we be looking at?...

Consider the claw. Frequently found on animals around the world, it's one of nature's most versatile tools. Bears use claws for digging as well as defense. An eagle's needle-like talons can pierce the skulls of their prey. Even the...

Sometimes sneezing can be really inconvenient, but why does a technique made popular by cartoon shows seem to be effective at stopping them?

In this video Paul Andersen explains how thermal conductivity measures the ability of material to transfer heat from a hot to a cold object. The thermal conductivity of conductors is high because the heat travels through the delocalized...