In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward -- manipulating specific neurons to figure out exactly what they do, through a series of stunning experiments that reengineer the way fruit flies percieve light.

Glowing dogs ... mice that grow human ears ... bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe describes an astonishing series of recent bio-engineering experiments, and asks: Isn't it time to set some ground rules?

At the BIF innovation summit, Cat Laine draws on the Greek myth of Tantalus to explain the frustration developing countries face. She shows how we might help communities rich in human capital, but poor in resources and infrastructure, with cleverly engineered solutions.

In a single year, there are 200-300 million cases of malaria and 50-100 million cases of dengue fever worldwide. So: Why haven't we found a way to effectively kill mosquitos yet? Hadyn Parry presents a fascinating solution: genetically engineering male mosquitos to make them sterile, and releasing the insects into the wild, to cut down on diseas...

In the mid-19th century, suspension bridges were collapsing all across Europe. Their industrial cables frayed and snapped under the weight of their decks. So when German American engineer John Roebling proposed building the largest and most expensive suspension bridge ever conceived, New York City officials were understandably skeptical. Alex Ge...

Each of our bodies is utterly unique, which is a lovely thought until it comes to treating an illness -- when every body reacts differently, often unpredictably, to standard treatment. Tissue engineer Nina Tandon talks about a possible solution: Using pluripotent stem cells to make personalized models of organs on which to test new drugs and tre...

Pamela Ronald studies the genes that make plants more resistant to disease and stress. In an eye-opening talk, she describes her decade-long quest to isolate a gene that allows rice to survive prolonged flooding. She shows how the genetic improvement of seeds saved the Hawaiian papaya crop in the 1990s — and makes the case that modern genetics i...

What did the world learn from the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010? That shoddy buildings and bad planning can make a terrible situation even worse. "Haiti was not a natural disaster," says TED Fellow Peter Haas. "It was a disaster of engineering." The solution: Help builders on the ground get trained in modern engineering practi...

Joachim Horn wants engineering to feel more like cooking -- so he developed simple "ingredients" that can be easily mixed to make smart technology. By reinfusing technological engineering with joy and ease, anyone can be an inventor. SAM Labs powers K-12 educators with no frills, pedagogically sound solutions created by educators and researchers...

When Bran Ferren was just 9, his parents took him to see the Pantheon in Rome — and it changed everything. In that moment, he began to understand how the tools of science and engineering become more powerful when combined with art, with design and beauty. Ever since, he's been searching for a convincing modern-day equivalent to Rome's masterpiec...

As we move through the world, we have an innate sense of how things feel -- the sensations they produce on our skin and how our bodies orient to them. Can technology leverage this? In this fun, fascinating TED-Ed lesson, learn about the field of haptics, and how it could change everything from the way we shop online to how dentists learn the tel...

Robert Lang is a pioneer of the newest kind of origami -- using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.

International aid groups make the same mistakes over and over again. David Damberger analyzes his own engineering failure in India -- and calls for his friends in the development sector to publicly admit, scrutinize and learn from their missteps.

Flanked by two powerful nations, the English Channel has long been one of the world's most important maritime passages. Yet for most of its history, crossing was a dangerous prospect. Engineers proposed numerous plans for spanning the gap, including a design for an underwater passage more than twice the length of any existing tunnel. Alex Gendle...

What do you do when the nearest market is millions of miles away and delivery isn't an option? In this fun and educational talk, biochemist Sarah Kessans explains how advances in genetic engineering can enable us to synthesize everything we need to eat in space -- and make it taste good.

Engineering student Péter Fankhauser demonstrates Rezero, a robot that balances on a ball. Designed and built by students, Rezero is the first ballbot made to move quickly and gracefully -- and even dance. (Could the Star Wars sphere droid be real? Watch this and judge.)

Integrating disparate national electricity systems into a smart grid allows us to integrate renewable energy, be more efficient and empower consumers to use power wisely. But as we add intelligence to these systems, we introduce a vulnerability into it as well. Lorie Wigle outlines a new project to protect these complex and vital grids from attack.

The band OK Go dreamed up the idea of a massive Rube Goldberg machine for their next music video -- and Adam Sadowsky's team was charged with building it. He tells the story of the effort and engineering behind their labyrinthine creation that quickly became the YouTube sensation "This Too Shall Pass."

By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.

In January 1953, a tidal surge shook the North Sea. The titanic waves flooded the Dutch coastline, killing almost 2,000 people. 54 years later, a similar storm threatened the region. But this time, they were ready. This was thanks to a massive, interlocking system known as the Delta Works— the most sophisticated flood prevention project in the w...

Natalie Jeremijenko's unusual lab puts art to work, and addresses environmental woes by combining engineering know-how with public art and a team of volunteers. These real-life experiments include: Walking tadpoles, texting "fish," planting fire-hydrant gardens and more.

The Apollo 11 moon landing was about the astronauts, mission control, software and hardware all working together as a seamless integrated system. None of which would have been possible without the contributions of one engineer: Margaret Hamilton. Who was this pioneer? Matt Porter and Margaret Hamilton detail how a woman and her team launched the...

Graphene is often called the "material of superlatives" because so much about it is extreme. Made of a single layer of carbon atoms, it is the thinnest structure ever (it is actually 2D). It is impermeable, stronger than diamond, and the best thermal conductor found to date. Mikael Fogelstrom, head of the Graphene Institute at Chalmers Universit...

TED Resident Fawn Qiu designs fun, low-cost projects that use familiar materials like paper and fabric to introduce engineering to kids. In this quick, clever talk, she shares how nontraditional workshops like hers can change the perception of technology and inspire students to participate in creating it.

How do companies like SpaceX make sudden breakthroughs on decades-old challenges? Emerging tech expert Antoine Gourévitch explains how deep tech -- a new approach to innovation that merges science, engineering and design thinking -- is unlocking solutions to problems in space exploration, biology, energy and more. As Gourévitch says: "[deep tech...

Tal Golesworthy is a boiler engineer -- he knows piping and plumbing. When he needed surgery to repair a life-threatening problem with his aorta, he mixed his engineering skills with his doctors' medical knowledge to design a better repair job.

Kelli Anderson shatters our expectations about reality by injecting humor and surprise into everyday objects. She shares her disruptive and clever designs.

Designer and architect Neri Oxman is leading the search for ways in which digital fabrication technologies can interact with the biological world. Working at the intersection of computational design, additive manufacturing, materials engineering and synthetic biology, her lab is pioneering a new age of symbiosis between microorganisms, our bodie...

Long before sustainability was a buzzword, architect Shigeru Ban was using ecologically sound building materials such as cardboard tubes. He uses them to build remarkable temporary structures for disaster-struck nations such as Haiti, Rwanda and Japan. Yet often, these buildings remain a beloved part of the landscape long after they have served ...

Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.