TEDGlobal 2013: Think Again is right around the corner -- and the program is packed with illustrious speakers addressing some of the most challenging and fascinating questions we face today. So how should you prepare for this influx of ideas from politics, science, the arts and beyond? To familiarize you with our speakers’ past work and poin...

Architect Shigeru Ban uses paper tubes to build temporary, ecologically sustainable structures. These geometrically complex structures can be big and impressive -- like a concave complex built for Expo 2000 in Germany -- or small and functional, like the half-pipe office Ban built for himself atop the Pompadou Center in Paris. No matter thei...

X certainly marks the spot. The TEDx program was launched in 2009 to bring the mission of spreading ideas to the local level, with independent organizers curating their own events for their own communities. This week, the program is celebrating many milestones. Not only did yesterday mark the 5,000th TEDx event -- this week also brings th...

Browse the Time 100 list -- and let it point you to great TEDTalks! Hillary Clinton: "Tough. Indefatigable. Patient. Smart. Knowledgeable. Superior political instincts. Funny. Loyal team player. Finds opportunities in crises and challenges. Skilled global advocate for American interests and American values. That is my job description for ...

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic's unprecedented impact on education systems worldwide, TED's award-winning youth and education initiative TED-Ed is focused on providing free, high-quality educational resources to millions of families around the globe. TED-Ed's existing library of free, video-based lessons has been built by a network of ...

By Janet Lee In Geoffrey Canada’s impassioned TED Talk last year, he urged the American education system to update its business model to integrate more science and technology into the curriculum, particularly for lower-income communities. One study that especially troubled Canada showed that lower income students are more prone to losing ...

When Cecilia Matei’s science teacher showed a TED Talk about the promise of stem cell research to her class at the American School of Milan, Italy, she was immediately intrigued. “For me it was a completely new subject that I had never heard of before,” the 13-year-old says. The talk inspired her to create this drawing (click on it to ...

Art so often seeks to capture the beauty of the natural world -- from cave drawings of animals, to paintings of landscapes, to sculptures of the human form in marble, bronze or wood. But in this playlist, find artists and designers who take this to the next level, making art based on the laws of nature and the invisible workings of biology i...

We're more connected than ever before but, in some parts of the world, life has never been more difficult. From refugee camps full of people displaced by war to urban blight in the developed world, our problems are growing more complex. But in that strife lies opportunity. In the seventh session of TED2017, hosted by TED's Curation Director K...

Advertising doesn’t have to be about convincing you to buy things. Great ads, just like great movies, can inspire thought. That’s why TED created Ads Worth Spreading, an initiative dedicated to advertisements that push the boundaries, from Chipotle’s stunning “Back to the Start” commercial to L’Oreal Paris’ spot starring model and athlete Aimee ...

Vive les nerds! While the term used to be something of a put-down, meant to mock an excessive interest in math or science, it's now often used in an almost prideful way to signify a passion for pretty much anything. And that applies to pretty much all of those who end up on the TED stage. Here, just some of the talks in which TED speakers refer ...

TED Talks have now been viewed more than a billion times around the world. To celebrate this occasion, we reached out to 24 incredible talents in the areas of technology, entertainment and design, asking them create playlists of the talks that resonated most with them. Over the past three days, we’ve revealed about half of those lists, from ...

  Shai Reshef's nonprofit University of the People -- which offers nearly tuition-free, accredited degrees online -- today launches its first graduate degree, an MBA program in 12 courses. Although there are no tuition or textbook fees, there is a $200 testing fee per course, which means students can expect to pay $2,400 for their MBA (co...

I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. [As a kid] I was into computers, I was into math, I was into physics. I don't think I was particularly exceptional. My sister said my biggest exceptional quality was that I would not let go. Q. During the development of Linux itself, that stubbornness brought you in conflict in other people. Is [s...

All photos: Ryan Lash Starting at 3:30 Eastern: Session 2! Watch the TEDYouth livestream in English >> Ver TEDYouth en español en linea >> Where do we start? With a question: What can you share with the world? Rives and Kelly and the entire audience share answers on the mic: "We can share style and music and fashion." ...

LEGOs are for building spaceships, crafting castles and getting lost in your couch. But what if they could be used not just to dream of lands long ago and times far away, but to inspire future scientists? That’s what writer Maia Weinstock had in mind when she made these STEM scientist action figures. Weinstock has turned TED Fellows Jedid...

One afternoon, many years ago, our physics teacher interrupted the class to make us all stand on chairs. Kid One got to put his finger in the middle of this weird-looking, whirring, machine-type thing. Then Kid Two had to grab his arm, as did Kid Three, and so on. I was a timid little thing back in those days, and found this whole exercise weird...

Justice should be blind, right? Unfortunately, the predictive policing software used in much of the US has bias and misunderstanding programmed right into it, says data scientist Cathy O’Neil. The small city of Reading, Pennsylvania, has had a tough go of it in the postindustrial era. Nestled in the green hills 50 miles west of Philadelphia, Re...

On a gorgeous San Francisco night, the TEDWomen community gathered to kick off our 2016 conference, “It’s About Time,” with an evening of global food, music and connection around ideas. On the terrace of the City View at Metreon, overlooking Yerba Buena Gardens, a dozen artisan groups have gathered from around the world to show off gorgeous wa...

In his classic Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain wrote one of his most famous lines: "Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." TED is anchored by the belief that brilliance is a public good -- that inspiration, intellectualism, passion and the wond...

Grab your new backpack and sharpen your pencils. It's back to school time, and here is my playlist of six talks about the essentials. Work your way through the classic school day, as told in TEDTalks. No finals required. 1st period: Math Marcus du Sautoy: Symmetry, reality's riddle Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy takes you inside the uni...

Can capital be just? As a firm believer in capitalism and the free market, Paul Tudor Jones II believes that it can be. Jones is the founder of the Tudor Investment Corporation and the Tudor Group, which trade in the fixed-income, equity, currency and commodity markets. He thinks it is time to expand the “narrow definitions of capitalism” th...

In the 1820s, books were a rare and precious luxury for most Americans. The radical idea of free knowledge access for all ages --  aka the public library system -- had yet to flower in the United States. Still, there were voracious readers on the frontier -- including an impoverished young Abraham Lincoln, notes Doris Kearns Goodwin (TED Talk:...

Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of TED-related news items in the ether. Here, some highlights: Chip Kidd (watch his TED Talk) has just released a new book: a how-to guide to graphic design for kids. Read The New York Times’ Q&A with him in which he says, “I was utterly floored [when an editor wrote me about the book idea]. I sai...

Elementary school teacher Kayla Delzer’s students tweet, post on Instagram and watch YouTube in class. Here’s why she thinks all kids should do the same. Many schools and teachers have an uneasy relationship with technology: they decry its power to distract young people but see it as a necessary evil to be tolerated, or at least strictly limite...

This spring, TED headed on the road, visiting 14 cities across six continents on the hunt for untapped talent. The idea behind the sweeping search: to let you, the TED community, weigh in and vote on which speakers you’d like to see ascend the stage at TED2013. After holding one-night salons in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Doha, Johannesburg, Londo...

Photos: James Duncan Davidson Ainissa Ramirez comes on stage armed with a blowtorch. Well, that sure got everyone's attention. She promptly uses said blowtorch to straighten a piece of bent piece of wire. Her point: atoms often rearrange usefully to create entirely different types of structures. The Yale associate professor goes on to exp...

Every week at TED’s New York office, one media team staffer shares a handful of things on the web that intrigued, shocked or amused them. We call this session: Previously on the Internet. Here are this week’s finds, from me, Thu-Huong Ha, TED's editorial projects specialist. A tale of two very different empires The Ottoman Empire was kno...

What if one person could change the world? What if we could harness our collective talent, insight and wisdom? And what if, together, we could spark a movement with positive impact far into the future? For a third year, UPS has partnered with TED to bring experts in business, logistics, design and technology to the stage to share ideas fr...

Several members of the TED community are popping in the news this week. Below, some highlights: Dan Berkenstock’s Skybox Imaging, which uses small satellites to create close to real-time imagery of the planet, has been bought by Google. The internet giant’s website explains, "Skybox’s satellites will help keep our maps accurate with up-to-d...