Karen J. Meech is an astronomer who investigates how habitable worlds form and explores the bigger picture of whether there is life elsewhere.

In the 19th century, schools provided free housing for teachers. Gregg Garn, a dean at the University of Oklahoma, makes an eloquent argument to restart this tradition. In this fascinating talk, Garn reviews the brutal economics of being a teacher -- and asks how we as communities can enhance the quality of life for our best and brightest instru...

Loki the mischief-maker, writhes in Thor's iron grip. The previous night, he'd snuck up on Thor's wife and shorn off her beautiful hair. To fix what he'd done, Loki rushes to the dwarves and tricks them into making gifts for the gods. Wanting to best their smith rivals, the dwarves make a set of golden treasures, including a hammer called Mjolni...

Two hundred million years ago, our mammal ancestors developed a new brain feature: the neocortex. This stamp-sized piece of tissue (wrapped around a brain the size of a walnut) is the key to what humanity has become. Now, futurist Ray Kurzweil suggests, we should get ready for the next big leap in brain power, as we tap into the computing power ...

In 2011, journalist Bruno Torturra covered a protest in São Paulo which turned ugly. His experience of being teargassed had a profound effect on the way he thought about his work, and he quit his job to focus on broadcasting raw, unedited experiences online. In this fascinating talk, he shares some of the ways in which he's experimented with liv...

Joi Ito is the former director of the MIT Media Lab.

Sendhil Mullainathan asks a compelling question: what are the irrational choices we make that perpetuate poverty, corruption, discrimination?

Pawan Sinha researches how our brains interpret what our eyes see -- and uses that research to give blind children the gift of sight.

With a style that crackles with wry wit, writer and artist Oliver Jeffers captivates audiences of all ages.

Luvvie Ajayi Jones isn't afraid to speak her mind or to be the one dissenting voice in a crowd, and neither should you. "Your silence serves no one," says the writer, activist and self-proclaimed professional troublemaker. In this bright, uplifting talk, Ajayi Jones shares three questions to ask yourself if you're teetering on the edge of speaki...

What if we could better understand the world's biggest challenges simply by looking at a map? Jack Dangermond, a pioneer in geographic information system (GIS) technology that powers the digital maps people around the world use every day, speaks with TED technology curator Simone Ross about how his team is building a geospatial nervous system: a...

Chef Barton Seaver presents a modern dilemma: Seafood is one of our healthier protein options, but overfishing is desperately harming our oceans. He suggests a simple way to keep fish on the dinner table that includes every mom's favorite adage -- "Eat your vegetables!"

Did you know you have functioning neurons in your intestines -- about a hundred million of them? Food scientist Heribert Watzke tells us about the "hidden brain" in our gut and the surprising things it makes us feel.

Consider a bat that is infected with several deadly viruses, including ones that cause rabies, SARS, and Ebola. While this diagnosis would be lethal for other mammals, the winged wonder is totally unfazed, and may even spend the next 30 years living as if this were totally normal— because for bats, it is. So what's protecting bats from these dan...

Dina Katabi investigates how AI can make wireless devices sense human motion and vital signs.

Feed your curiosity and enjoy TED Talks on your favorite devices. Watch TED Talks on the go or at home with our award-winning mobile, tablet and smart TV apps. Listen to TED podcasts for a variety of original content, or use voice commands to play TED Talks on your smart speaker. TED Recommends TED Recommends delivers the best ideas, selected j...

Krista Donaldson is the CEO of D-Rev, a non-profit product development company improving the health and incomes of people around the world.

Swedish duo First Aid Kit take multi-genre inspiration from folk, country and the classic singer-songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s.

Skylar Tibbits is the founder and codirector of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT and assistant professor of design research in the department of architecture.

Hidden behind the allure of the newest innovations on the web are plenty of potential pitfalls for children—from online bullying to inappropriate content. Michael Fey offers practical advice for parents to close the digital divide between them and their children to help ensure the whole family has a healthy interaction discovering and enjoying t...

How did a young man born into a high caste in India come to free 83,000 children from slavery? Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi offers a surprising piece of advice to anyone who wants to change the world for the better: Get angry at injustice. In this powerful talk, he shows how a lifetime of peace-making sprang from a lifetime of ou...

Stacey Kramer offers a moving, personal, 3-minute parable that shows how an unwanted experience -- frightening, traumatic, costly -- can turn out to be a priceless gift.

In this short talk, Arianna Huffington shares a small idea that can awaken much bigger ones: the power of a good night's sleep. Instead of bragging about our sleep deficits, she urges us to shut our eyes and see the big picture: We can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness -- and smarter decision-making.

Debra Jarvis isn't your typical hospital chaplain. With wry wit, she aims to comfort patients -- and also challenge them.

Computer scientist Michael Rubinstein and his team have developed a "motion microscope" that can show video footage of barely perceivable movements, like breaths and heartbeats.

As the cofounder and executive director of Waterford UPSTART, Claudia Miner has one goal: to help families overcome barriers and prepare their children for lifelong learning.

Design legend Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the human body.

When faced with a parent suffering from Alzheimer's, most of us respond with denial ("It won't happen to me") or extreme efforts at prevention. But global health expert and TED Fellow Alanna Shaikh sees it differently. She's taking three concrete steps to prepare for the moment -- should it arrive -- when she herself gets Alzheimer's disease.

Amy Smith designs cheap, practical fixes for tough problems in developing countries. Among her many accomplishments, the MIT engineer received a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2004 and was the first woman to win the Lemelson-MIT Prize for turning her ideas into inventions.

Can folding a piece of paper 45 times get you to the moon? By seeing what happens when folding just one piece of paper we see the unbelievable potential of exponential growth. This lesson will leave you wanting to grab a piece of paper to see how many times you can fold it! [Lesson by Adrian Paenza, directed by TED-Ed, narrated by Adrian Paenza].