When TED asked Hannah Fry to write a book on the mathematics of finding true love, Fry happened to be — of all places — on her honeymoon. “[My husband and I] have been together for a really long time, so the whole newlywed thing didn't quite apply,” she says. “But I did feel like I was in a fortunate position in that I have experienced al...

Pixar films are known for their thoughtful storytelling and groundbreaking animation. One of the coolest things about these movies: the math that Pixar’s team is actually inventing to improve the audience experience and the look of the characters. We caught up with Pixar’s Research Lead, Tony DeRose—who gave the TED-Ed Lesson, "The math behi...

Mathematics gets down to work in these talks, breathing life and logic into everyday problems. Prepare for math puzzlers both solved and unsolvable, and even some still waiting for solutions. Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs When Ron Eglash first saw an aerial photo of an African village, he couldn’t rest until he...

Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin says that there are three reasons we learn math: calculation, application and inspiration. Yes, inspiration. Math is the science of patterns, and learning it teaches us not just logic but creative thinking, says Benjamin. So why, when math is beautiful and exciting, is so much of what we learn in school about...

Are we becoming blank-eyed cyberzombies, thanks to the internet and all the tech tools we obsess about every day? Instead of asking whether the Web is making us stupid, Howard Rheingold turns that lens around and asks how digital media could actually improve our intelligence. In his new TED Book, Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us...

Sean Gourley analyzed real-time data from the Iraq war and discovered a precise mathematical model underlying it. Now he’s expanding on that research at Quid, his startup that maps trends in technology. Having unearthed such powerful information, Sean takes time to help kids understand the importance of math, even while he grapples with the et...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson The last time we heard from Terry Moore, executive director at the Radius Foundation, he challenged us to reexamine a process that most of us have known how to do nearly as long as we could read: tie our shoes. He returns to the TED stage today to share another valuable tidbit on a character we really have kno...

Ready to level up your working knowledge of math? Here's what to read now -- and next.   Math 101, with Jennifer Ouellette First, start with these 5 books... 1. Number: The Language of Science Tobias Dantzig Plume, 2007 "First published in 1930, this classic text traces the evolution of the concept of a number in clear, access...

Benoit Mandelbrot has died, at 85. We're honored to have had him speak at the first TED, in 1984, and at the most recent TED in Long Beach, where he talked about his life's work: studying fractals and roughness, and helping the world understand how fractal math underpins both nature and art. Mandelbrot was, as TED's curator, Chris Anderson, wrot...

Adam Spencer is a radio host in in Sydney during the morning commute. But he says he's here not as a radio host or as a comedian, "But as someone who is was and always will be a mathematician." He got bit in second grade when a teacher told him, "That would be like putting a square peg in a round hole." He said, not trying to be funny, "B...

Who knew equations and graphs could guide your love life? Mathematician Hannah Fry does -- and shares a few formulas for finding The One. When it comes to love, making long-term decisions is a risky business. Sooner or later, most of us decide to leave our carefree bachelor or bachelorette days behind us and settle down. Our wild oats have been...

One mathematician’s spirited answer to bored, frustrated and reluctant math students. Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón suspects that when people ask him what's the use of math, they’re really asking a more pointed question. “They're asking you, ‘Why did I have to study that bullshit I never used in my life again?’” he says. Sáenz de Cabezón (TED Talk: ...

Adam Spencer isn’t just the host of the Australian radio program Triple J Breakfast Show. He also has a degree in pure mathematics and, in today’s talk, he ascends into “geek heaven” to explains his deep love of massive prime numbers, the largest of which was discovered earlier this year and is 17.5 million digits long. So what is it about...

A round-up of funny, interesting and strange stories on the Internet this week: Hyperbole and a Half's Allie Brosh is back after a two-year hiatus, with part 2 of an illustrated account of overcoming depression. Dark and delightful. [Hyperbole and a Half] Even world-famous scientists have tiffs. Obviously this bet between Stephen Hawki...

On the anniversary of September 11, we're proud to launch an idea that is the deepest possible antidote to terror. It's the powerful story of Zak Ebrahim, who grew up the son of a terrorist (his father helped plan the 1993 WTC bombing), and chose tolerance over hatred. This idea reaches you in a form that's new for us: It's the first in a...

The founder of Zimbabwe's first graphic arts college shares some teaching resources he loves. Ten years after writing the book on Africa's graphic design heritage, Saki Mafundikwa is now at work on a new text -- about the long, rich history of African art and innovation (TED Talk: Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets). Mafundik...

Laurence Kemball-Cook on his Pavegen at TEDYou during TEDActive 2012, March 1, 2012. Photo: Michael Brands / TED TEDActive's TEDYou Session 2 has it all: smiles, education (reform) reform, dances for disability, interrupting cows, kung fu and robotic twins. Leigh Rowan, “The Zaniness of the Frequent Flyer”: Leigh Rowan, COO of Moderne Co...

A new way to practice for the SAT. The SAT, a standardized college admissions exam, is a mammoth test, and every minute of practice is invaluable. But SAT practice courses can be expensive -- which oftentimes means kids with less money, or from disadvantaged backgrounds, do worse. One year ago, Khan Academy, a free online platform for learni...

Before TEDGlobal 2013, director Bruno Giussani reached out to the giant community of TEDx organizers around the world to ask for some comic relief. He asked them, “What are the funniest videos from your event?” And, as usual, TEDx’ers came through -- with wild enthusiasm. Below, the 5 hilarious TEDx Talks Giussani selected to show at TEDG...

At first glance, the image above may look like an artistic tangle of worms. But it is actually a visualization of the words that appear most often in TED Talk descriptions. Each line corresponds to a word, and its snaking movement shows how its frequency of use has changed over time. Mouse over the word “work” and you can see that the line p...

Mathematicians Hannah Fry and Thomas Oléron Evans have crunched the numbers. Forget utilities -- these are the properties you really should be investing in. To our minds, there is nothing more magical than a full-blown family argument caused by a good old-fashioned game of Monopoly. Officially, Monopoly ends when all players but one go bankrupt...

At TEDGlobal 2012, Max Little (watch his TED Talk) asked the public to contribute voice samples to the Parkinson's Voice Initiative, a data-gathering project that aims to help develop a way to diagnose the neurological disease quickly, non-invasively and in its early stages. If it succeeds, it could change the quality of care for Parkinson's p...

Enjoy this sampling of the stories from around the internet that captured our interest this week: Can a disabled form of HIV be used to fight cancer? A story in The New York Times delves into an experimental treatment. Earlier this week, Markham Nolan shared how his team verifies videos from war-torn regions to make sure that they are legi...

TED Fellow Renée Hlozek -- currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University -- recently established a fund and mentoring program to bring young South African female science undergraduates to the US for summer research. The mentorship’s first recipient, Julia Healy, just completed four weeks w...

Each week, TEDx chooses four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Below, give this week’s talks a listen. Why you hate math: Laura Overdeck at TEDxWestVillageWomen When dining out, how often do you slide your check acros...

In his talk at TEDGlobal 2010, Conrad Wolfram championed a radical new way of teaching mathematics: removing the notion that math is the same as calculating, and completely redesigning the curriculum around the new possibilities opened by computers. He's now launched a website to collect ideas, and in November he will be hosting The Computer...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Welcome to Autonomous Agile Aerial Robots i.e. flying robots that can move like anything. Vijay Kumar, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, makes robots related to unmanned airplanes. But those are big and heavy and aren't autonomous -- they need humans to pilot them. The robots he works with are tiny...

Architecture and microbiology may seem like an odd couple, but TED Senior Fellow Jessica Green would beg to differ. In today’s talk, she reveals what’s teeming all over the surfaces around us, and how it can help us build smarter, healthier buildings. As the founding director of the Biology in the Built Environment Center at the University of...

Saki Mafundikwa founded the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, ZIVA, a Bauhaus-style school focused on African heritage. (“Vigital” denotes visual arts taught using digital tools.) It's the first graphic design and new media college in the nation, and he wanted his students to understand the power of design--and in particular to understand ...

From dancing math to teaching in languages other than English – this week’s X marks the spot is a selection of TEDx Talks about rethinking education. Each week, TEDx chooses four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Below, find...