In 1998, aircraft designer Paul MacCready looks at a planet on which humans have utterly dominated nature, and talks about what we all can do to preserve nature's balance. His contribution: solar planes, superefficient gliders and the electric car.

In long-term relationships, we often expect our beloved to be both best friend and erotic partner. But as Esther Perel argues, good and committed sex draws on two conflicting needs: our need for security and our need for surprise. So how do you sustain desire? With wit and eloquence, Perel lets us in on the mystery of erotic intelligence.

Too often, cancer treatments have a short-sighted focus on individual cells, says David Agus. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs, computer modeling and protein analysis to diagnose and treat the whole body.

What if your job didn't control your life? Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler practices a radical form of corporate democracy, rethinking everything from board meetings to how workers report their vacation days (they don't have to). It's a vision that rewards the wisdom of workers, promotes work-life balance — and leads to some deep insight on what wo...

Daniel Kraft offers a fast-paced look at the next few years of innovations in medicine, powered by new tools, tests and apps that bring diagnostic information right to the patient's bedside.

(NOTE: This talk was given in 2010, and this field of science has developed quickly since then. Enjoy it as a piece of science history but not as the last word on this topic. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details.) William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the ...

Jim Simons was a mathematician and cryptographer who realized: the complex math he used to break codes could help explain patterns in the world of finance. Billions later, he's working to support the next generation of math teachers and scholars. TED's Chris Anderson sits down with Simons to talk about his extraordinary life in numbers.

What happens when we teach a computer how to learn? Technologist Jeremy Howard shares some surprising new developments in the fast-moving field of deep learning, a technique that can give computers the ability to learn Chinese, or to recognize objects in photos, or to help think through a medical diagnosis. (One deep learning tool, after watchin...

In 2007, as the world worried about a possible avian flu epidemic, Laurie Garrett, author of "The Coming Plague," gave this powerful talk to a small TED University audience. Her insights from past pandemics are suddenly more relevant than ever.

Philosopher Dan Dennett calls for religion -- all religion -- to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.

After mapping humans' intricate social networks, Nicholas Christakis and colleague James Fowler began investigating how this information could better our lives. Now, he reveals his hot-off-the-press findings: These networks can be used to detect epidemics earlier than ever, from the spread of innovative ideas to risky behaviors to viruses (like ...

Anthropologist Helen Fisher takes on a tricky topic – love – and explains its evolution, its biochemical foundations and its social importance. She closes with a warning about the potential disaster inherent in antidepressant abuse.

How might the human race end? Stephen Petranek lays out 10 terrible options and the science behind them. Will we be wiped out by an asteroid? Eco-collapse? How about a particle collider gone wild?

Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics -- and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials.

All humans share some common bits of DNA, passed down to us from our African ancestors. Geneticist Spencer Wells talks about how his Genographic Project will use this shared DNA to figure out how we are -- in all our diversity -- truly connected.

Treo creator Jeff Hawkins urges us to take a new look at the brain -- to see it not as a fast processor, but as a memory system that stores and plays back experiences to help us predict, intelligently, what will happen next.

How do we make sense of today's political divisions? In a wide-ranging conversation full of insight, historian Yuval Harari places our current turmoil in a broader context, against the ongoing disruption of our technology, climate, media -- even our notion of what humanity is for. This is the first of a series of TED Dialogues, seeking a thought...

Stewart Brand is a futurist, counterculturist and visionary with a very wide-ranging mind. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Brand discusses ... just about everything: human nature, bringing back the wooly mammoth, geoengineering, rewilding and science as organized skepticism -- plus the story of an acid trip on a San Francisco ro...

We teach girls that they can have ambition, but not too much ... to be successful, but not too successful, or they'll threaten men, says author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In this classic talk that started a worldwide conversation about feminism, Adichie asks that we begin to dream about and plan for a different, fairer world -- of happier men and...

Philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates offers insights into the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing why testing and self-isolation are essential, which medical advancements show promise and what it will take for the world to endure this crisis. (This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by head of TED Chris Anders...

“Can today's corporation deliver tomorrow's economy?” Even after a quarter-century of declarations for a green and circular economy, today’s world is still hurtling towards planetary boundaries, and the question we must ask is — why? Through his ideas, Pavan talks about how the Private Sector has been measured, and they are in the Trillions o...

Ramakrishnan Balaji is a Celebrity Brand Activation manager who came out of his closet two years back and who had gone through a lot of obstacles in life in terms of society and parents. He identified himself as a gender fluid person, got into cross-dressing, got featured in one of the budding clothing brand called 'Sanjoli handicrafts' in Gurga...

Balaji Vishwanathan is the founder of the robotics company - Invento. The company aims to be at the forefront of AI enabled hardware. He is also one of the most followed people on the Q&A website, Quora.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence together have the potential to change our lives. Balaji Lakshmanan explains how AI-enabled Robots disrupt surveillance, Cancer diagnostics, manufacturing, cinematics, prosthetics, and driverless cars. He says humans are hooked whereas Robots are learning.

What is it to talk about an activity that requires no brain cells? And how can one learn to run, when all that it takes people is to just put one foot after another? Balaji shares his experience of discovering that running is not about what to learn but how to learn.

In this talk Bolaji Oyejide discusses his childhood introversion and anxiety and how it helped push him into that career that he does today. Mr. Oyejide writes children's books about superheroes from all walks of life about how people can use things that society tells them is bad, to become a hero in their own lives.

A talk about the daily struggles and challenges he faces being an introvert in this extroverted world. Date of recording - 27th September 2020

Did you know that animal agriculture is more responsible for more climate change than emissions from all transportation? In this passionate call to action, Varun Deshpande throws light on the hidden environmental impacts caused by the consumption of meat. Giving alternate and green solutions to replacing meat, Varun poses some pressing questio...

Attaining the status of a cohesive Nation, having different Units all agreeing to be together is an appropriate description of a Nation. This talk highlights the role of soft-power as a route to Nation building.

Aishwarya Balaji is the founder and CEO of the Impact Chain Lab, a blockchain innovation lab focused on global development and social impact, and is also an investor for 37 Angels, a women-led angel network. She is passionate about developing systems that challenge the current order, promoting women in tech, entrepreneurship and venture capital,...