While sugar is easy to spot in candy, soft drinks and ice cream, it also hides out in foods you might not expect -- including peanut butter, pasta sauce and even bologna! Robert Lustig decodes confusing labels and sugar's many aliases to help determine just how much of that sweet carbohydrate makes its way into our diets. [Directed by The Tremen...

Does food talk? And if so, what is it saying? Microbe researcher Robert Prill decodes the messages sent by microorganisms to discover the telltale and potentially deadly signs of contaminated foods. Prill says that by paying closer attention we can save lives and better protect our food supply from adulteration.

In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward Buddha nature.

Social justice advocate and law scholar Dorothy Roberts has a precise and powerful message: Race-based medicine is bad medicine. Even today, many doctors still use race as a medical shortcut; they make important decisions about things like pain tolerance based on a patient's skin color instead of medical observation and measurement. In this sear...

Robert Reffkin is on a mission to help everyone find their place in the world.

It's a master class in collaboration as violinist Robert Gupta and cellist Joshua Roman perform Halvorsen's "Passacaglia" for violin and viola. Roman takes the viola part on his Stradivarius cello. It's powerful to watch the two musicians connect moment to moment (and recover from a mid-performance hiccup). The two are both TED Fellows, and thei...

Imagine if you could plug your brain into a machine that would bring you ultimate pleasure for the rest of your life. The only catch? You have to permanently leave reality behind. Hayley Levitt and Bethany Rickwald explore Robert Nozick's thought experiment that he called the Experience Machine. [Directed by Avi Ofer, narrated by Addison Anderson].

Robert Neuwirth’s writings on the street-level reality of the developing world have opened a new dialogue on development and economics.

As our political landscape becomes more and more polarized and the fallout manifests itself across dining tables everywhere, philosopher Robert Talisse believes we need to take a big step back. In this provocative talk, he argues that there's a time and place for politics. "In order to do democracy well," he says, "we have to sometimes do things...

Robert Fischell invented the rechargeable pacemaker, the implantable insulin pump, and devices that warn of epileptic seizures and heart attacks. Yet it's not just his inventive genius that makes him fascinating, but his determination to make the world a better place.

Violinist Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic at the age of 19 -- and maintains a passionate parallel interest in neurobiology and mental health issues. He's a TED Senior Fellow.

Robert Muggah creates tools to understand cycles of violence in urban environments and opens dialogues on ways to confront them globally.

Robert Sapolsky is one of the leading neuroscientists in the world, studying stress in primates (including humans).

TED Fellow Robert Hakiza is the co-founder of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID), which empowers refugees and builds community through vocational education, English classes, access to sports and computer literacy skills.

The co-founder of Friends of the High Line, Robert Hammond helped lead the effort to build an elevated park on an abandoned railway line in Manhattan.

Robert Waldinger is the Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history.

The first American to be ordained a Tibetan Monk by the Dalai Lama, Robert A.F. Thurman is a scholar, author and tireless proponent of peace.

Robert Lang merges mathematics with aesthetics to fold elegant modern origami. His scientific approach helps him make folds once thought impossible -- and has secured his place as one of the first great Western masters of the art.

Robert Swan is the first person in history to walk to both the North and South Poles. Now he wants to make sure that Antarctica, the world's last great wilderness, is never exploited.

Robert Palmer investigates how the financial system facilitates corruption and other crimes.

The best-selling author of "Nonzero," "The Moral Animal" and "The Evolution of God," Robert Wright draws on his wide-ranging knowledge of science, religion, psychology, history and politics to figure out what makes humanity tick -- and what makes us moral.

Robert Full studies cockroach legs and gecko feet. His research is helping build tomorrow's robots, based on evolution's ancient engineering.

On more than 120 deep-sea expeditions, Robert Ballard has made many major natural discoveries, such as the deep-sea vents. Oh, and he found the Titanic.

After Robert Lang's talk on origami at TED2008, Bruno Bowden stepped onstage with a challenge -- he would fold one of Lang's astonishingly complicated origami figures, blindfolded, in under 2 minutes. He's accompanied by the cellist Rufus Cappadocia.

Fascinating, insightful talks on what it means to be human and live a good life.

Robert J. Gordon is among the most influential macroeconomists in the world. And the big picture he sees is not altogether rosy.

Designer Isaac Mizrahi dashed off these stylish, breezy notes on why these 6 TEDTalks are a source of inspiration for him.

Robert Lee Hotz is the science columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he writes about cutting-edge research on climate change, cosmology, molecular medicine, the human brain and much more ... He has traveled three times to the South Pole.

Help me discover new cures for brain disorders utilizing a responsive neurostimulator computer device implanted into the cranial bone connected by wires to electrodes in the brain. Create the final design for a portable Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator (TMS) that can erase a migraine headache without drugs. Create a Brain Trust to rethink our ap...

Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli thought their baby boy Mario was healthy -- until at 10 days old, they discovered he'd had a perinatal stroke. With Mario unable to control the left side of his body, they grappled with tough questions: Would he be "normal?” Could he live a full life? The poignant story of parents facing their fears -- and h...