Cloud Appreciation Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney shows how seemingly idle pursuits provide unexpected paths to appreciating overlooked wonders.

From 2000 to 2011 Edi Rama was the mayor of Tirana, where he implemented a series of reforms to take back the city for the people.

Talithia Williams builds statistical models that study the spatial and temporal structure of data.

At TEDGlobal 2013 environmental systems researcher Lian Pin Koh presents a new and unexpectedly benign use for drones: nature conservation. Nepal has natural landscapes that are beautiful -- and in danger. But wildlife conservation is costly, and time- and labor-consuming. Behold: Conservation drones, a new tool being used in Nepal to com...

Matt Greoening poses with attendee Juliana Olsson. Photo: Gene Driskell, INK Conference, Lavasa, 2010 The last two sessions of the INK Conference were among the best of the three-day experience in Lavasa, India. On Sunday, December 12, attendees made it to the conference center bright and early to see talks by artist Raghava KK, The Simpsons ...

The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar.

Sally Kohn searches for common ground among political foes by focusing on the compassion and humanity in everyone.

AnnMarie Thomas works on the playful side of engineering -- using cool tools to teach and help others.

Session 3 of TED2016 examines the ‘i’ words: Imagination. Invention. Ingenuity. Hosted by TED Fellows Jedidah Isler and José Gómez-Márquez, this session is all about speakers who’ve taken the spark of inspiration and put it into action. Recaps of the talks in Session 3, in chronological order. A new way of “seeing.” Early in her career...

Babies start laughing before they can speak, and this delicious sound just may serve as a powerful source of human communication and connection, says psychology researcher Caspar Addyman. There are few sweeter sounds in this world than a baby’s laugh. As it turns out, provoking their giggles has little to do with splashy toys or silly jokes. In...

Enjoy this sampling of the stories from around the internet that captured our interest this week: Kids at heart, rejoice! Makeblock -- essentially, Lego for adults -- have officially launched. CNN takes a look at these open-source toys. Want to find more Lego fans? Watch Hillel Cooperman’s TED Talk about the outlandish reaches of Lego cul...

Artist Shih Chieh Huang teases out the personality from everyday objects by fusing them together into colorful, clamorous creations. Where others see trash, mundane household items or random electronics components, New York City–based artist (and TED Fellow) Shih Chieh Huang sees the possibility for glowing, waving, whirring, multi-tentacled cr...

Talks from scientists, musicians, innovators, activists -- all under the age of 20. Watch these amazing wunderkinds.

TED Fellow Soyapi Mumba creates technology solutions for low-resource environments.

Instructional videos can be invaluable when it comes to organizing a TEDx event. Check out our archive of brilliant TEDx’ers and TED staffers showing how it’s done.

About this event: The 3 C's include CREATIVITY-COLLABORATION-COMPASSION. Attendees will embrace & experience the 3 C's in a way that will act as a catalyst for discovering their own brilliance. TEDxWindsor is about breaking barriers of Geography, Gender & Generations. It's about reintroducing ourselves on the most basic, universal, HUMAN level. As a...

Yes, the classic TEDTalk involves one speaker and a deck of slides. But when two speakers take the TED stage together, the effect is layered and dynamic. From playful banter to moments of shared struggle, two-speaker talks are never short on personality. Here are eight talks where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Sergey Brin ...

A dolphin's brain-to-body-weight ratio is second only to a human's. They live complex social lives, can understand abstract concepts and even use tools. But as Denise Herzing asks in Session 8 of TED2013, "Do they have a language? If so, what are they talking about?" For 28 years, Herzing has been researching dolphins in the wild, spendin...

About 20 miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville was a town divided in the early 1980s. The locals, many of whom lived in an economically depressed area, saw us students as rich and privileged. Some of them worked at UVA, where they seemed either invisible to students or served as objects...

Micro-mechanician Bill Robertson builds sophisticated, fully working replicas of rare tools, gadgets and houses from the 17th and 18th centuries. His exquisite creations put history’s hidden details in the palms of our hands. Many of us have fond memories of playing with dollhouses, most of which were machine-made of plastic. But the first doll...

Called "the queen of canopy research," Nalini Nadkarni explores the rich, vital world found in the tops of trees. She communicates what she finds to non-scientists -- with the help of poets, preachers and prisoners.

Jessica O. Matthews makes toys, like a soccer ball and jump rope, that generate electricity. Jane Chen invented a portable, low-cost incubator that keeps premature babies warm and saves lives. Erin Bagwell directed a documentary called Dream, Girl that celebrates the drive of female entrepreneurs. When TED asked filmmaker Gilly Barnes to c...

High school senior Yash Khatavkar takes issue with the fact that, as he was learning Spanish, his elementary school only offered one hour of Spanish instruction per week. Even as he got older, he felt like Spanish classes in school just weren't enough to move him past the point of having to translate between English and Spanish in his head. ...

Charlie Jane Anders writes novels and stories about building community, discovering our truest selves and coping with radical change.

About this event: The world often requires people to think in terms of black and white. Rigid, unbendable choices seem to close us in sometimes. After a while, life seems more monochrome than ever. But we live in a world of color, and texture, and music! This year, we at TEDxTucson challenge you to imagine our new world. We invite you to imagine, to question, to ...

Daniel Suarez's novel Kill Decision features a scientist, Laura McKinney, whose work studying ants is purloined by bad guys wanting to use her research to create an automated drone army. It's pretty terrifying; here's an excerpt. McKinney gestured to the covered object in the center of the table. "What's in the sack?" "Something you should...

Today, Nov. 19, 1-5pm Eastern: TEDYouth's speaker lineup includes a MythBuster, an oceanographer turned viral video star, the "Science Babe," and a roboticist who studies flying geckos -- plus poets, musicmakers, geeks and writers -- all giving short TED-style talks for young people. And you can watch it live for free online -- in English...

These incredible pups catch poachers, sniff out invasive plants and diseases, and more, thanks to the work of wildlife biologist and conservation-dog expert Megan Parker. What happens to those dogs that are just too much dog for people to handle? “You know them -- you go to your friend's barbecue, their dog is so happy to see you that she pees ...

Dive into the unexplored universe beneath the waves: the beautiful, fragile (and sometimes terrifying) world of the ocean.