Here are some thoughtful ways to keep older generations rooted in our lives and society at large.

Alex Wissner-Gross applies science and engineering principles to big (and diverse) questions, like: "What is the equation for intelligence?" and "What's the best way to raise awareness about climate change?"

These talks will inspire a professional renaissance and give you the courage to start along a new career path.

For most humans, farts are a welcome relief, an embarrassing incident, or an opportunity for a gas-based gag. But for many other creatures, farts are no laughing matter. Deep in the bowels of the animal kingdom, farts can serve as tools of intimidation, acts of self-defense, and weapons of malodorous murder. Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti dig in...

James Howard Kunstler may be the world’s most outspoken critic of suburban sprawl. He believes the end of the fossil fuels era will soon force a return to smaller-scale, agrarian communities -- and an overhaul of the most destructive features of postwar society.

Get back to nature with these talks from the wilder side of life.

It never hurts to have a basic set of guiding principles. Let these insightful talks help shape, redefine and build out your own leadership goals. (Curated in partnership with Brightline Initiative.)

Illuminate your journey as an entrepreneur with these insightful talks primed to inspire the current and future generations of female founders ready to embrace new heights of success. (Curated in partnership with Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), Dell's Global Community for female founders.)

Ever dreamed of starting your own business? These talks can help get your idea off the ground.

Creativity and innovation are flowing in South America, while countries across the continent still face unique challenges. As we plan for TEDGlobal 2014—happening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in October—this playlist will get you in the spirit.

From Twitter to word of mouth, explore the ways ideas spread so quickly from person to person.

Shubhendu Sharma creates afforestation methods that make it easy to plant maintenance-free, wild and biodiverse forests.

Jennifer Healey remembers totaling her car as a teenager. She was cruising down the highway, when she noticed the brake lights on the car in front of her go on. She assumed the car was slowing down, but it came to a halting, abrupt stop. Healey, now a research scientist at Intel working on mobile internet devices, simply couldn’t stop in time an...

Explore the ingenious designs and intriguingly gorgeous places that people call home.

These women fighting for justice and equality deserve center stage.

What's going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they're thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emot...

If architect and writer John Cary has his way, women will never need to stand in pointlessly long bathroom lines again. Lines like these are representative of a more serious issue, Cary says: the lack of diversity in design that leads to thoughtless, compassionless spaces. Design has a unique ability to dignify and make people feel valued, respe...

Insightful talks on what it takes to run a successful business.

Some of the world's greatest minds swore by the benefits of taking a stroll. Make your next walk better (or even just go for a mental walk in the woods) with these rousing talks.

About this event: At Intuit, whether we're reimagining how people do their taxes, handle their finances, or run their small business, we take our work seriously – and at the show we encouraged attendees to not take themselves too seriously. We chose The Art of Play, because while the act of play may evolve as we get older—we now race sports cars instead of soap b...

It only takes one voice to create change. Be inspired to take action through these talks by brave and passionate individuals.

Journalist Carl Honoré believes the Western world's emphasis on speed erodes health, productivity and quality of life. But there's a backlash brewing, as everyday people start putting the brakes on their all-too-modern lives.

Roman Mars is obsessed with flags -- and after you watch this talk, you might be, too. These ubiquitous symbols of civic pride are often designed, well, pretty terribly. But they don't have to be. In this surprising and hilarious talk about vexillology -- the study of flags -- Mars reveals the five basic principles of flag design and shows why h...

Carl June is the pioneer behind CAR T-cell therapy: a groundbreaking cancer treatment that supercharges part of a patient's own immune system to attack and kill tumors. In a talk about a breakthrough, he shares how three decades of research culminated in a therapy that's eradicated cases of leukemia once thought to be incurable -- and explains h...

Everyday, robots perform tasks like picking apples, screwing lids on jars and sewing. But while robots excel at many things, designing them to grasp and handle delicate items has been a challenge. In this tech demo, robotics entrepreneur Carl Vause explains how the octopus tentacle inspired him to develop a machine capable of picking up the most...

Lars Fæste helps CEOs transform their businesses and over the years he's noticed something troubling: managers tend to get comfortable during times of success and fail to be on constant lookout for ways to grow. Yet with today's unprecedented rate of change, constant transformation is the norm and adapting to it is the key to staying ahead of co...

A thoughtful ode to health care, composed by Tilo Alpermann and performed on the TED@Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany stage by Lars Jönnson.

The world owes much of its cultural legacy to Constantinople's walls. When Constantinople was under siege by neighboring enemies, the Roman city's elaborate system of moats, outer walls, and inner walls stood tall. Surviving numerous fire attacks, the walls were eventually brought down by more modern tools of warfare, but, thankfully, classical ...

The wheat, corn and rice we grow today may not thrive in a future threatened by climate change. Cary Fowler takes us inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vast treasury buried within a frozen mountain in Norway, that stores a diverse group of food-crop seeds ... for whatever tomorrow may bring.

To look at the evolution of modern bird feathers, we must start a long time ago, with the dinosaurs from whence they came. We see early incarnations of feathers on dinosaur fossils, and remnants of dinosaurs in a bird's wish bone. Carl Zimmer explores the stages of evolution and how even the reasons for feathers have evolved over millions of yea...