David Epstein obsesses over mistranslations of scientific research, and tries to temper the misconceptions that follow them.

The Vicar of St David's Church, Exeter, in the UK, is unafraid to take on some of religion's tougher issues.

After watching the collection of talks on The Deep Ocean, read a thoughtful recap of the major points in this TED Study, and learn where experts believe things are headed. Where next? TED speaker Robert Ballard and many other scientists and ocean explorers find it remarkable that we're expending so much effort to explore outer space when we have...

Oceanographer John Delaney is leading the team that is building an underwater network of high-def cameras and sensors that will turn our ocean into a global interactive lab -- sparking an explosion of rich data about the world below.

Graham Hawkes takes us aboard his graceful, winged submarines to the depths of planet Ocean (a.k.a. "Earth"). It's a deep blue world we landlubbers rarely see in 3D.

The massive layer of ice covering Greenland melted at a faster rate in July than at any other time in recorded history, with 97% of the entire ice sheet showing signs of significant thaw. The unprecedented rapid melting, which was captured in images taken from several satellites and released by NASA, alarmed scientists and deepened fears about...

Peter Tyack of Woods Hole talks about a hidden wonder of the sea: underwater sound. Onstage at Mission Blue, he explains the amazing ways whales use sound and song to communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean.

Peter Tyack studies the social behavior and acoustic communication in whales and dolphins, learning how these animals use sound to perform critical activities, such as mating and locating food.

We all share one planet -- we breathe the same air, drink the same water and depend on the same oceans, forests and biodiversity. Economist Naoko Ishii is on a mission to protect these shared resources, known as the global commons, that are vital for our survival. In an eye-opening talk about the wellness of the planet, Ishii outlines four econo...

Naoko Ishii leads the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a public financial institution that provides around US$1 billion every year to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

For billions of people, seafood provides a significant source of protein and nutrition, but over half the seafood we eat isn't caught in the wild, it's grown through aquaculture. Farmed seafood is one of the fastest-growing food industries, but the farming methods echo the problems we've seen in industrial agriculture. Is there a way to sustaina...

Enric Sala is a former university professor who saw himself writing the obituary of ocean life and quit academia to become a full-time conservationist as a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.

Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.

Bertrand Piccard circumnavigated the Earth in a hot-air balloon. Now he wants to circle it in an airplane powered only by solar energy.

Forget aerial drones. Underwater drones are where the action's at, at least according to OpenROV founder and TED Fellow David Lang. Imagine climbing into the cockpit of your own personal submarine, zooming and diving through the depths of the ocean and exploring otherwise-unreachable underwater worlds -- all without needing to know how to swim....

Think of penguins as ocean sentinels, says Dee Boersma -- they're on the frontlines of sea change. Sharing stories of penguin life and culture, she suggests that we start listening to what penguins are telling us.

David is founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, the world’s only organization to monetize plastic waste and provide an opportunity for the world's disadvantaged to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency.

Explorer and professor Tim Flannery seeks to grasp the big picture of planetary evolution and how humans can affect it -- for better or for worse.

Justin Hall-Tipping works on nano-energy startups -- mastering the electron to create power.

Sylvia Earle is a fearless 78-year-old woman. In the new documentary Mission Blue, we watch her dive with sharks in the deep blue sea and fearlessly dodge fishing nets as she swims through the middle of a major fishing operation. The film offers a bold new view of the famed oceanographer whose relentless pursuit of saving the ocean takes her ...

What will we find in the twilight zone: the vast, mysterious, virtually unexplored realm hundreds of meters below the ocean's surface? Heidi M. Sosik of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wants to find out. In this wonder-filled talk, she shares her plan to investigate these uncharted waters, which may hold a million new species and 90 percent...

Roz Savage gave up her life as a management consultant to row across the Atlantic in 2005. Her mission now is to row across the Pacific, from the West Coast to Australia, raising awareness along the way of plastic pollution, climate change and eco-heroism.

Sisonke Msimang untangles the threads of race, class and gender that run through the fabric of African and global culture.

In this bracing talk, coral reef ecologist Jeremy Jackson lays out the shocking state of the ocean today: overfished, overheated, polluted, with indicators that things will get much worse. Astonishing photos and stats make the case.

Photographer Brian Skerry shoots life above and below the waves -- as he puts it, both the horror and the magic of the ocean. Sharing amazing, intimate shots of undersea creatures, he shows how powerful images can help make change.

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.

TED Fellow Prumsodun Ok heals, empowers and advocates using the ancient art of Khmer classical dance.

Cartoonist Jim Toomey created the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, a wry look at underwater life starring Sherman the talking shark. As he sketches some of his favorite sea creatures live onstage, Toomey shares his love of the ocean and the stories it can tell.

Kate Stafford's research examines migratory movements, geographic variation and physical drivers of marine mammals, particularly large whales.

Documentary filmmakers Beverly and Dereck Joubert have worked to conserve wildlife for more than 25 years. As National Geographic Explorers in Residence, the couple influences public policy and perceptions.