(NOTE: This talk was given in 2011, and this field of science has developed quickly since then. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details.) Surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using simila...

From ordering movie tickets to booking a dentist appointment, mobile and web apps have made the tasks of daily life easier. But there are some things that an app can’t do. Standing in line at the pharmacy is one of them. In today’s talk, Lee Cronin asks: “Could we make a really cool universal chemistry set? In essence, could we app chemistry?” ...

Economic growth has been slowing for the past 50 years, but relief might come from an unexpected place -- a new form of manufacturing that is neither what you thought it was nor where you thought it was. Industrial systems thinker Olivier Scalabre details how a fourth manufacturing revolution will produce a macroeconomic shift and boost employme...

Designer and architect Neri Oxman is leading the search for ways in which digital fabrication technologies can interact with the biological world. Working at the intersection of computational design, additive manufacturing, materials engineering and synthetic biology, her lab is pioneering a new age of symbiosis between microorganisms, our bodie...

Ronald Rael draws, builds, writes, 3D-prints and teaches about architecture as a cultural endeavor deeply influenced by a unique upbringing in a desolate alpine valley in southern Colorado.

Take this tour of medicine's future with some of the trailblazing doctors charting its course. Once you've seen a transplantable human kidney created from a 3D printer, almost anything is imaginable ...

A persistent sight in David Sengeh's childhood, growing up in Sierra Leone: amputees. Losing a limb was an all-too-common fact in the civil-war-torn region. But the aftermath was almost worse, Sengeh saw, as he watched family members and friends struggle with ill-fitting, uncomfortable prosthetics that hurt too much to wear. Here, the 201...

3D printing pioneer Avi Reichental is nostalgic for a time he never quite experienced -- a time of hyper-local, made-to-order, personalized craftsmanship. While the industrial revolution did a lot to advance humanity, says Reichental, it eradicated local manufacturing that people like his grandfather, a cobbler, excelled in. It atrophied socie...

Alexa Meade paints mesmerizing, illusionistic portraits directly on living subjects, subverting familiar visual cues with perspective and color.

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.

About this event: After a brief introductory TEDx video was shown, we watched: - Dale Dougherty: "We are Makers" - 3D Printer Avi Reichental: "What's Next in 3D printing" - Educator AnnMarie Thomas: "Hands-on Science With Squishy Circuits" - Physical Computing Guru Massimo Banzi: "How Arduino is Open-Sourcing Imagination" Afterwards our Technology Resources ...

About this event: TEDxYouth@TampaRiverwalk 2015 marked our 6th Annual TEDxYouth event in Tampa, and joined with TEDxYouth events all over the world to explore the theme “Made in the Future”. Prior to the event, guests were able to enjoy some “Made in the Future” fun at The HIVE makerspace on the 3rd floor of the West building of the John F. Germany Library. Th...

A part on the outside of a spaceship that morphs, rather than requiring an astronaut to perform a risky maneuver. Plumbing pipes able to bend and flex based on the needs of the water flowing through them. Furniture that assembles itself, no screwdriver required. Buildings with the ability to repair themselves when something goes awry. Thes...

It's not often that you see a designer throw their creation on the ground and break it to smithereens. But that's exactly what TED Fellow Skylar Tibbits does in the video above. Why? Because he works in the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT. When the pieces break apart, they quickly re-assemble themselves, as if the film were playing in reverse. In...

It is the dawn of the era of 3D printing. From artificial prosthetics to very real human kidneys to filigree skull sculptures -- the number and variety of applications for this technology are growing, layer by printed layer. Combine this with the decreasing cost of owning a printer, as well as the cheaper cost of manufacturing in general, an...

Here's something else fun to do with a 3D printer: Designers at Free Art and Technology have created an open-source template to connect all the different building blocks you used as a kid: Legos, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs and more (and maybe in the future: littleBits, from today's TEDTalk...). It's a fascinating project, both for the exciting...

We've all heard of 3D printing. But what the heck is 4D printing? During TED Senior Fellow's Skylar Tibbits' talk at TED University on Thursday, he unveiled the concept -- 3D printed objects that seamlessly continue to expand, fold and harden into different forms (see video below). The talk has gotten a lot of attention. We spoke to Skylar a...

About this event: The inaugural TEDxED in Warsaw (and in Poland! yay!) focused on exploring unusual methods, ways and approaches towards teching, learning and functioning educational system as a whole. Four live speakers talked about economical education, applied drama helping build great lessons, mathematical intuition and creative process. We also showed a hand...

About this event: The theme was: Next world. We presented a view into the future in the fields of society, arquitecture, medicine and technology. We had 8 speakers presenting great ideas. You can see the speaker´s list on our event page: https://www.tedxbarcelona.com/events/2014/06/tedxbarcelona And in the break there was a small expo where we could see (and to...

How did fishermen record their trophy catches before the invention of photography? In 19th century Japan, fishing boats were equipped with rice paper, sumi-e ink, and brushes in order to create gyotaku: elaborate rubbings of freshly caught fish. K. Erica Dodge recounts the story of this competitive fishing culture, plus some tips on how to make ...

A powerful bitter sweet As race continues to dominate the news, it seems like perfect timing for artist Kara Walker’s latest piece, her first large-scale installation, housed in the shell of the old Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Shown above, the piece has a grand title: At the behest of Creative Time Kara E. Walker has conf...

By Olivia Cucinotta and Emily McManus Here, a look at just a few members of the TED community making headlines this week. Rob Knight’s American Gut project released its latest results this week, with data from the microbiomes (i.e., the microbial world inside each human body) of 3,238 participants so far. Some interesting facts they’ve c...

The past few weeks have brimmed over with TED-related news. Here, some highlights: This is what extinction looks like. Photographer Paul Nicklen shocked the world with footage of a starving polar bear that he and members of his conservation group SeaLegacy captured in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. “It rips your heart out of your chest,” Ni...

Feeling disconnected from creating art within classical conventions, artist Georgia O'Keeffe began experimenting with abstract drawings that defied easy classification. Using the shapes and rhythms of nature to capture her internal world, these experiments became the cornerstone of the movement known as American Modernism. Iseult Gillespie explo...

Eero Johannes Pitkänen introduces session 11 of TEDGlobal 2013 with a perfect synthesis of visual and sound effects. To a tinny metal drum-beat, colored Tetris blocks bounce up and down and in and out of shapes as each chord of sound has its impact. Describing himself as a “designer/illustrator during the day, musician during the night,” ...

About this event: News about Robots, Electronics, Wearables, Drones and 3D Printing seem to be everywhere. Smarter Phones, Watches, Cities, Cars, Energy… well everything. We live in a world surrounded by innovation where even the largest and most successful industries, companies and organizations are embracing disruption and change as the new norm. In so many way...

Prosthetics can't replicate the look and feel of lost limbs but they can carry a lot of personality. Designer Scott Summit shows 3D-printed, individually designed prosthetic legs that are unabashedly artificial and completely personal -- from macho to fabulous.

  [embed]https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_dalio_how_to_build_a_company_where_the_best_ideas_win[/embed] The past few weeks have brimmed over with TED-related news. Below, some highlights. Exploring the ocean like never before. A school of ocean-loving TED speakers have teamed up to launch OceanX, an international initiative dedicated to di...

What could you do with the world's smallest 3D printer? Klaus Stadlmann demos his tiny, affordable printer that could someday make customized hearing aids -- or sculptures smaller than a human hair.

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Chris Anderson comes on stage to acknowledge that the TED stage is more often the domain of the techno-optimist than the doomer. So, in somewhat stark contrast with Paul Guilding, the founder, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis now takes the stage. Diamandis starts off his talk wi...