The average person takes about 150 million steps in a lifetime. What if we could turn all that movement into energy? Two innovators are working on it -- including a TED@London speaker. While one has built a system to capture the energy of foot traffic, the other is harnessing the power of smooth dance moves. Mashable directs our attention to En...

Have you checked your email today? Your finances? What about your energy use? Alex Laskey thinks that with just a shift in attitude toward our energy use, we can all save a lot. Laskey introduces an experiment he ran with his team at Opower. People received one of three different messages on their doors about why they should try to save e...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Opening Session 6 of TED2012: Cameron Carpenter, one of the world's top organists -- he's brought the "king of instruments" out of the church and into concert halls. He starts with "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," by Richard Rodgers. The organ sounds are first out of place, then mesmerizing. He then moves into C...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson "We've run into a giant fracking problem," says TED curator Chris Anderson by way of introducing the next speaker, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who comes to the stage to talk about methods to solve the energy crisis facing the United States. Or as he puts it, his "alternative to alternative energy" and what...

“This is a little different than the mainstage at TED, in a sense that this is a little more relaxed,” says our host, the poet and TED speaker Clint Smith. “These are speakers who have not been selected specifically for the mainstage, but they’re just as talented, just as brilliant, and just as important.” A spectrum of ideas, stories, pe...

Taylor Wilson has been called “The Boy Who Played With Fusion” by Popular Science magazine. At age 9, Wilson stunned tour guides at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with his complex understanding of rocket science. At 12, he set out to make a “star in a jar.” By 14, Wilson had become the youngest person to achieve nuc...

TED Fellow David Moinina Sengeh explains why he's bullish about the "microgrid." Nearly 70% of the sub-Saharan African population doesn’t have electricity. That’s about 600 million people who are completely off-grid, often paying high prices in cash and health to use diesel generators, kerosene lamps and charcoal fires. Recently, we’ve seen ...

(TED is on its annual two-week vacation. During the break, we’re posting playlists from the TEDTalks archive. We’ll be back with new talks on August 29th.) To propel us into the week: four speakers whose infectious high energy animates what they have to say. 1) Clifford Stoll captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of an...

As unusual seasonal effects raze our global ideas on sustainable practices, TED set out on a tour of 14 cities on six continents to find fresh perspectives for the TED2013 conference. While the 293 speakers who participated in this global Talent Search came from wildly different backgrounds, we couldn’t help but notice sweeping themes emerge...

Someday, solar panels may be light and cheap enough that they could be hung on a clothesline, thanks to a synthetic mineral called perovskite. Physicist Sam Stranks explains the solar-powered science and the challenges that stand in its way. Solar power is key to our energy future. But the solar industry is butting up against one hard problem: ...

Taylor Wilson graduated from high school in May. And Popular Science has already dubbed him "The Boy who Played with Fusion" and Forbes has suggested that he may just be "The Bill Gates of Energy." Wilson first received attention at the age of 14, after building a nuclear fusion reactor he'd dreamed up in his parents’ garage. He spoke at ...

Kicking off the TED conference would be a daunting prospect for most, but Jennifer Granholm has tackled both nastier challenges and less friendly audiences in her time. After all, she is the former governor of Michigan, a state that, as the blurb to her book A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future puts it, was "s...

Monica Araya made a big prediction on the TED stage in 2016: Costa Rica, her home country, would be the first nation in the world to pursue 100% renewable energy. Fast forward to 2018, and they’re on their way. Costa Rica already generates over 99% of their electricity through renewable energy, and went 300 days on clean energy in 2017. An...

“Lobbying” doesn’t have to be a dirty word; instead, it means using your talents and abilities to improve the world, says civic advocate Alberto Alemanno. Every weekday for the month of January, TED Ideas is publishing a new post in a series called “How to Be a Better Human,” containing a helpful piece of advice from a speaker in the TED commun...

Fuel without fossils Jonathan Trent set out to understand if there was a way to develop biofuels that would compete with fossil fuels, but not compete with agriculture. His proposed solution is extraordinary: Make an enclosure with plastic and let algae grow in sunlight in the ocean, taking in wastewater from cities. Generated heat wil...

Steven Rogelberg, who studies meetings, shares 6 simple ways they can be improved. The next time you're in a useless one, print this out afterwards and leave it on the chair of the person who led it. This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; ...

"For the past five years we’ve been running the largest behavioral science experiment in the world," says Alex Laskey in today's TED Talk, given at this year's 2013 conference in Long Beach. "And, it's working." Laskey's company Opower partners with utility companies to deliver personalized home energy reports, all based off the insight t...

From geese flying through the sky in formation to schools of fish swimming in the ocean, the world's creatures show an efficiency that is the envy of physicists, architects and designers. Writer Gary Ferguson explains the inspiration that we humans can draw from how energy flows in the natural world. More energy falls from the sun in just an ho...

Many of us track our time or money, but here’s something else you may consider measuring: Your decisions. Bulletproof founder Dave Asprey explains why. For more than five years, tech entrepreneur Dave Asprey has interviewed the world’s leading thinkers and influencers on his Bulletproof Radio podcast. Here is some advice that he’s gathered abou...

At Opower, Alex Laskey and colleagues are running what they describe as "the largest behavioral science experiment in the world.” Laskey explains some of the thinking behind it in his TED Talk, "How behavioral science can lower your energy bill," and he shared further insights into the importance of the field in this discussion with Harvard ...

With her boundless energy and playful spirit, Jen Indovina is making that most boring of environmental imperatives –- energy efficiency –- sexy and fun. Her invention, the PICOwatt, enables smartphone users to control the energy use in their home or office from anywhere in the world. Interactive Fellows Friday Feature! Join the convers...

What are the tools we're using to build the future? Session 3 speakers go deep on what's next in finance, energy, business and the structures we live in. The next generation of trust on the Internet. For many online transactions, we rely on middlemen like banks and government to establish trust -- but these systems face growing issues lik...

The glowing, neon green lamp you see above is the invention of French biochemist Pierre Calleja, who had the crazy idea of using algae to power otherworldly, tube-shaped streetlamps that double as homes for this growing gloop. In a talk at TEDxLausanneChange, he explains the process behind the invention. You may remember photosynthesis from b...

Countdown is a global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. Watch the talks, interviews and performances from the Countdown Global Launch at ted.com/countdown. Transforming big systems is a huge task. Energy, transportation, industry and infrastructure all pose their own challenges. And yet that transformation is alrea...

TED Conversations is a unique space where any member of this community can get feedback on an idea, pose an interesting question, or start a fascinating debate with fellow TEDizens from around the globe. This week, dozens of new conversations were started — on topics ranging from the importance of letter-writing to the existence of infinity.  He...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Superstring theorist and physicist and the co-founder of the World Science Festival, Brian Greene splits his visually rich, action-packed talk into three distinct sections, all in the name of convincing us of the existence of the multiverse, the possibility that way beyond the earth, the milky way, we'll find ...

The neutrino has been called "the ghost particle," due to its otherworldly ability to pass through solid objects, including you and me. Researchers in Antarctica are trying to catch them, hoping they might reveal the most energetic areas of the universe. Neutrinos: you can’t feel them, you can’t see them, but they’re everywhere. They’re constan...

What's a powerful way to change behavior? Get instant feedback that's easy to read and act on. It's a theme that runs through many TEDTalks, from Gary Wolf's talk on tweaking your personal metrics to Christopher deCharms' demo of a cutting-edge use for fMRI to manage pain. So we're intrigued by a new device to measure, display and give feedback ...

To keep pace with our ever-changing world, we need out-of-the-box ideas that are bigger and more imaginative than ever. The speakers and performers from this session explore these possibilities, challenging us to think harder about the notions we've come to accept. The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 4: Business Unusual, hosted by Whitney ...

Amsterdam, Bangalore, Doha, Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Tunis and Vancouver. TED headed to 14 cities on six continents for the 2013 Talent Search, looking to bring you fresh perspectives for TED2013. Despite the fact that the 293 speakers who participated in the search came from wildly ...