Hank gets to the bottom of an exciting, and kinda weird, announcement from Russian scientists at the Vostok Research Station in Antarctica. Have they reached a 20-million-year old underground lake? Maybe! Is there a hoard of Nazi secrets...

Hank explains the enormity of the Giant Magellan Telescope, possibly the biggest telescope ever built, as well as updates about NASA's new mission to the moon, and an unusual discovery about the habits of deep-sea squid.

At the turn of the 20th century, scientists thought that insects were nothing more than tiny reflex machines. But Charles Henry Turner, who was possibly America’s first Black entomologist, ran some groundbreaking animal behavior studies...

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...

Modern American health care is defined by its high costs, high overhead and inaccessibility -- especially for low-income patients. What if we could redesign the system to serve the poor and still have doctors make money? In an...

Do periodical cicadas "know" how to calculate prime numbers? One of the strangest life cycles in all of biology, explained!

In this moving yet pragmatic talk, Kevin Bales explains the business of modern slavery, a multibillion-dollar economy that underpins some of the worst industries on earth. He shares stats and personal stories from his on-the-ground...

For most of the year, the Gulf of Mexico is teeming with marine life, from tiny crustaceans to massive whales. But every summer, disaster strikes. Around May, animals begin to flee the area. And soon, creatures that can't swim or can't...

Coming to us from 50 years in the future, legendary sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson tells the "history" of how humanity ended the climate crisis and restored the damage done to Earth's biosphere. A rousing vision of how we might unite...

Although it may sound crazy, many doctors use maggots today to clean wounds of dead and infected tissue. This process, called debridement, is important for preventing the spread of infection in a world of increasing antibiotic...

It's time for planetary-scale interventions to combat climate change -- and environmentalist Tim Flannery thinks seaweed can help. In a bold talk, he shares the epic carbon-capturing potential of seaweed, explaining how oceangoing...

From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe flooding, says landscape architect and TED Fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom. But what if we...

Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris...

The first pairs of jeans were designed for durability; denim was constructed as a sturdy weave worn by sailors and miners. But over the course of the 20th century, as the demand for jeans has gone up, their durability has gone down....

In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.

A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try, says Nobel laureate Al Gore. In this inspiring and essential talk, Gore shares examples of...

Could it be wrong to help children in need by starting an orphanage? In this eye-opening talk about the bad consequences of good intentions, Tara Winkler speaks out against the spread of orphanages in developing countries, caused in part...

To futureproof your job against robots and AI, you should learn how to code, brush up on your math skills and crack open an engineering textbook, right? Wrong. In this surprisingly comforting talk, tech journalist Kevin Roose makes the...

Everyone is obsessed with the Olympics right now, watching these geniuses push the boundaries of their field. Wait, did we say GENIUSES? Yes! We normally associate the word "genius" with intellectual accomplishments, but athletes are...

The malaria vaccine was invented more than a century ago -- yet each year, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease. How can we improve this vital vaccine? In this informative talk, immunologist and TED Fellow Faith...

Some people can identify a pitch without even looking at sheet music. Is it something they're born with or can it be learned?

Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier spent five months living in Flint, Michigan, documenting the lives of those affected by the city's water crisis for her photo essay "Flint is Family." As the crisis dragged on, she realized it was going to take...

Find out how baby sea turtles find their way home after hatching!

China is the world's biggest polluter -- and now one of its largest producers of clean energy. Which way will China go in the future, and how will it affect the global environment? Data scientist Angel Hsu describes how the most populous...