Most cultures who developed metalworking technology never let the skill go to waste. But in what's now Michigan, Native Americans started making metal tools well before anyone else did, and then stopped. And the reason why this happened...

There's one human innovation that's so critical to our lives that every modern human group seems to have it. And you probably have some in your craft drawer - it's glue! Turns out there's a long history of glue-making that cements it as...

According to the CDC, 1 in 5 American adults is living with obesity. In recent years, many have turned to weight loss drugs containing GLP-1, a hormone that slows digestion and helps with sustained weight loss. In a new book, former FDA...

Your immune system keeps a record of everything it’s ever fought, from the common cold to chronic disease. Neuroscientist and TED Fellow Beck Brachman explains how, by decoding this archive, scientists may be able to identify the root...

Who do you turn to when panic strikes in the middle of the night — and can AI help? Psychologist Alison Darcy shares the vision behind Woebot, a mental health chatbot designed to support people in tough moments, especially when no one...

Tired of “privilege walks” and black squares on social media that feel hollow? Workplace inclusion expert Y-Vonne Hutchinson peels back the superficial layer of performative DEI to reveal a fresh approach that meets people’s real-life...

Globally, we produce more than a trillion computer chips every year. Which means about 20 trillion transistors are built every second— and this process is done in fewer than 500 fabrication plants. How do we build so many tiny,...

Many crustaceans from all sorts of starting points evolve to end up looking similar, likely due to outside pressures. That’s sort of like what happens with YouTube videos.

Currently, governments individually regulate platforms like Telegram within their jurisdictions, leading to fragmented oversight despite the global nature of these platforms. This raises questions about how to create a balanced...

How will AI improve our lives in the years to come? From its inception six decades ago to its recent exponential growth, futurist Ray Kurzweil highlights AI's transformative impact on various fields and explains his prediction for the...

When it comes to artificial intelligence, what are we actually creating? Even those closest to its development are struggling to describe exactly where things are headed, says Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, one of the primary...

How can we rethink hybrid work so it brings out the best in both in-person and distributed employees? Leadership expert Tsedal Neeley shares the changes that we need to make in order to create workplaces that actually work -- no matter...

Democracy is more fun and inviting when you take it into your own hands, says creator and activist Sofia Ongele. Sharing how she's using coding and social media to defend democracy, Ongele invites us to identify our own creative...

We're fast approaching a world where widespread, hyper-realistic deepfakes lead us to dismiss reality, says technologist and human rights advocate Sam Gregory. What happens to democracy when we can't trust what we see? Learn three key...

The Acheulean handaxe was the most common tool of early humans, but we still don’t know what the heck they used it for.

AI won't kill us all — but that doesn't make it trustworthy. Instead of getting distracted by future existential risks, AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni thinks we need to focus on the technology's current negative impacts, like...

Figuring out the age of a blinking speck in the sky is a difficult feat, especially if considering how many types of stars there are. This is where a Hertzsprung-Russell meets a gyrochronologist.

The ability to make and use fire has fundamentally changed the arc of our evolution. The bodies we have today were, in many ways, shaped by that time when we first tamed fire.

The tools made by our human ancestors may not seem like much when you compare them to the screen you’re looking at right now but their creation represents a pivotal moment in the origin of technology and in the evolution of our lineage.

As more and more fossil ancestors have been found, our genus has become more and more inclusive, incorporating more members that look less like us, Homo sapiens. By getting to know these other hominins--the ones who came before us--we...

No other placental mammal that we know of prefers one side of the body so consistently, not even our closest primate relatives. But being right-handed may have deep evolutionary roots in our lineage. And yet, being a leftie does seem to...

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are nasty enemies. Invisible, mysterious, and deadly, they have spread around the world and caused much of humanity to hide away. Germs like these only succeed and spread because of our social evolution, and our...

How is AI changing the nature of human imagination and creativity? Through a mind-bending tour of new techniques he's been tinkering with, creative technologist Bilawal Sidhu shows how anyone can use AI-powered tools -- like 3D scans...

Lethal drones with facial recognition, armed robots, autonomous fighter jets: we're at the dawn of a new age of AI-powered warfare, says technologist Alexandr Wang. He explores why data will be the secret weapon in this uncharted...