Host Bruno Giussani open Session 3 of TEDGlobal 2011: Coded Patterns. Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED Physicist Geoffrey West asks: Are there quantitative, predictive laws of life? Yes -- there are laws for organisms because they are made of networks. Is the same true of cities and corporations? Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED ...

Smart stuff from the comments: TED community member Phillip Farris shared this in response to the TED Talk by nuclear physicist Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors: "Despite the rampant assumptions regarding nuclear power and its perceived dangers, Wilson’s fission idea addresses many of the problems found in react...

Deborah Rhodes' spectacular collaboration with a nuclear physicist led to a breakthrough in breast cancer detection. Kate Orff introduces us to the new hero of ecology: the oyster. Amber Case is a "cyborg anthropologist" -- she studies the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. The Ahn Trio: With cello, piano and violin, si...

Antonio Damasio: "If we are interested in gravity ... why should we not be interested in what is happening in the human self?" Damon Horowitz on the Prison University Project: "At that moment ... it is not professor and convict, it is two minds ready to do philosophy." Felisa Wolfe-Simon: "Can a microbe use arsenic in place of ...

Spiral galaxies are a stunning sight. As Don Lincoln explains in one of this week’s TED-Ed lessons, these galaxies were thought to rotate in highly predictable dances, with stars close to the center moving slowly and stars further away rotating quickly because they are pulled by the mass of the stars between them and the center. The stars loc...

TED2014 is our 30th-anniversary conference, and the speaker lineup is -- in a word -- thrilling. Speakers will touch on topics ranging from technology, entertainment, design and education to climate change, architecture, music, physics, parenting, typography, fireflies and the Golden Gate Bridge. Randall Munroe of xkcd will talk about his passio...

Since the first teaser in late 2013, we've been in countdown mode for Interstellar, Christopher Nolan's new outer-space epic that promises to blast us through space and time and wormholes. If you're as excited as we are but can't clear three hours to go see the whole movie, here's the plot we could figure out from obsessively watching trailer...

Haz clic para leer este artículo en español > For the first time ever, the annual TED Conference in Vancouver will feature an entire session of Spanish-language TED Talks, a bit of programming we felt called for celebration: We’ll be making the live session available for free online at live.ted.com on Tuesday, April 25, from 2:15 pm to 4:0...

We are thrilled to announce the new class of Fellows for TED2015. These 21 game-changing thinkers represent 15 countries—including, for the first time in our program, Vietnam, Romania and Tunisia. They work across disciplines, at the forefront of their fields. They include a South African physicist using lasers to target HIV and cancer; a Germ...

TED2014 will bring together more than 70 speakers with fresh thinking on topics as diverse as leadership, genetics and the magic of fireflies. But this is our 30th anniversary conference, and it’s also time to look back at some of the incredible ideas surfaced in the past. At TED2014, we will hold five All-Stars sessions that bring 50+ favorite ...

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: ...

About this event: Speaker Bios Times at the link are listed in PST. Times below are converted to EST. We will be watching two sessions of the multi-day, flagship TED conference Live from Vancouver, BC. Attendance is free, but RSVP at the ATTEND button link above right if you are a member of Meetup.com. 2014 marks TED’s 30th anniversary, and the theme fo...

Humans, ever-meaning-making creatures, will never cease to wonder: Why are things the way they are? Why do I think the way I do? And what does it all mean? Welcome to Session 7 of TED2014, in which speakers will ask big questions about how we -- and the world -- work. Here are the speakers who appeared in this session. Click below to read...

Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, passed away today after suffering from a stroke. The longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, Thatcher also holds the distinction of being the only woman to hold the post. She has died at 87-years-old. Below, some TED Talks that examine Thatcher's lega...

All photos: Ryan Lash Starting at 3:30 Eastern: Session 2! Watch the TEDYouth livestream in English >> Ver TEDYouth en español en linea >> Where do we start? With a question: What can you share with the world? Rives and Kelly and the entire audience share answers on the mic: "We can share style and music and fashion." ...

The TED community is busy as ever! Below, a few highlights. Brené Brown special planned for Netflix. As she announced on Instagram, vulnerability expert Dr. Brené Brown has partnered with Netflix for a one-hour special: The Call to Courage. In the show, Dr. Brown will explain how to embrace vulnerability as a source of power and choose “co...

On stage at TEDGlobal 2011, Geoffrey West talked about the universal mathematics that govern cities and corporations. Knowing only the population of a city, he can predict the number of patents, the crime rate, the average walking speed and many other features of a city. Before the conference, TED's Ben Lillie reached him in his office at...

Dr. Helen Czerski investigates the physics of ocean bubbles and spends a lot of time sharing the big scientific ideas hidden in the small objects around us.

Today, we're thrilled to announce the TED2012 speaker program. This year’s conference program includes explorers, storytellers, photographers, scientists, pioneers and educators, visionaries and thinkers from all parts of the globe. Themed “Full Spectrum,” TED2012 will take place from February 27 through March 2 in Long Beach, CA, and Palm S...

It's the Saturday before the start of TEDSummit, and while the conference staff are prepping and speakers are rehearsing, a few of the tribes gathering this week in Banff got things started a little early. The TEDx Global Forum, an advisory group of TEDx hosts from all over the world, met up on Saturday to think on big questions about the TED...

In her 2007 TED Talk, "This is Saturn," planetary scientist Carolyn Porco blew some minds with images taken by Cassini, the robot spaceship launched in October 1997 to study and photograph Saturn and its accompanying moons. Gleaning "oohs" and "aahs" from the assembled TED audience, she concluded with a stunning shot of a backlit picture of ...

Physicist

About this event: Come join thought leaders from around Des Moines to watch a livestream of the 2011 TED conference. This year's theme is "The Rediscovery of Wonder" and will feature talks from Bill Gates, Indra Nooyi, Bill Ford, Salman Khan, and the artist known as JR. Feel free to stay for one session or all four as the Greater Des Moines Partnership will b...

Sean Carroll took a two hour break from his vacation to chat on TED Conversations about his talk on the nature of time and other questions about time, the cosmos, and poker. Thanks to everyone who came by with questions, and to Sean for exciting answers about an enormous topic. As proof that we was in Vegas, and that he's good at poker, he sent ...

Physicist Brian Green promises he will tell the audience at TED 2014 the whole history of the universe in four minutes. "Forgive me," he says, "if I leave out a detail here or there." He does it with two metaphors. One from the beginning till now, and another from now till the end. The universe today is 13.8 billion years old, and it c...

We're thrilled to announce the 19 members of 2011's TED Fellows class. Founded in January 2009, the TED Fellows program handpicks world-changing innovators from around the globe, and brings them to the TED stage – literally and figuratively – to raise international awareness of their remarkable work. TED also announces today its 2011 Senior ...

In 2006, TED started putting talks online for free, a milestone in democratizing ideas worth spreading. Since then, the world has seen monumental shifts in history, including the rise and fall of revolutions, the roar of a deadly epidemic, the largest-ever leak of government secrets, an astronomical discovery predicted by Einstein and the el...

One of the best known and most renowned scientists in history, Richard Feynman pioneered quantum mechanics. His knack for accessible explanations made him a popularizer of physics of equal distinction to laypeople.

Aaron O'Connell is the first person to experimentally induce and measure quantum effects in the motion of a humanmade object, bridging the quantum and classical worlds.

The venue that housed TEDxKalamata certainly had some history: held in an ancient amphitheater, this was the first TEDx event in an archaeological site. To be specific, the location was an ancient outdoor ekklesiasterion (assembly hall) in Messene, Greece, that has been used for public gatherings since 369 B.C. At TEDxKalamata, 18 speakers and...