Quixotic Fusion is an ensemble of artists that brings together aerial acrobatics, dance, theater, film, music and visual fx. Watch as they perform three transporting dance pieces at TED2012.

Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world -- by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around us.

Photographer Monika Bulaj shares powerful, intimate images of Afghanistan -- of home life, of ritual, of men and women. Behind the headlines, what does the world truly know about this place?

Ed Boyden shows how, by inserting genes for light-sensitive proteins into brain cells, he can selectively activate or de-activate specific neurons with fiber-optic implants. With this unprecedented level of control, he's managed to cure mice of analogs of PTSD and certain forms of blindness. On the horizon: neural prosthetics. Session host Juan ...

Find out what sound a black hole makes, if (possible) alien life is blocking star light and other astounding things happening in our galaxy -- and beyond.

In the spectacular large-scale projects he's famous for (such as "Waterfalls" in New York harbor), Olafur Eliasson creates art from a palette of space, distance, color and light. This idea-packed talk begins with an experiment in the nature of perception.

Physicist Patricia Burchat sheds light on two basic ingredients of our universe: dark matter and dark energy. Comprising 96% of the universe between them, they can't be directly measured, but their influence is immense.

A simple ode to joy and the light it brings.

About this performance: Musicians Ryan and Hays Holladay blur the boundaries of sight and sound, creating a visual experience where music becomes the performer, rather than the performance with captivating colorful explosions that react to their music’s slightest beats and tones.

What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data? At TEDGlobal, Harald Haas demonstrates, for the first time, a device that could do exactly that. By flickering the light from a single LED, a change too quick for the human eye to detect, he can transmit far more data than a cellular tower -- and do it in a way that's more efficient...

A collection of talks from creative individuals striving to bring light to some of the world's most pressing issues.

Explore endless waters with these captivating talks that shine some (literal) light on what’s going in the deepest, darkest parts of our oceans.

Get ready to rock out with these awesome performances that have lit up the TED stage.

A genre unto herself, Kaki King fuses the ancient tradition of working with one's hands with digital technology, projection-mapping imagery onto her guitar in her groundbreaking multimedia work "The Neck Is a Bridge to the Body." Using her guitar's neck like a keyboard, she plays an intricate melody as she takes the audience on a musical journey...

Choreographer Aakash Odedra is dyslexic and has always felt that his best expression comes through movement. “Murmur” is his ode to that experience, teaming up with co-creators Lewis Major and Ars Electronica Futurelab. Watch him spin his way through the center of a storm, as pages of books take flight all around him.

Melissa Fleming sheds light on their devastating plight and remarkable resilience of refugees.

TED and Ford are partnering to explore the City of Tomorrow -- a visionary look at the challenges society must address to improve life in our cities, including the movement of people and goods. To bring that to life, Ford recently hosted the City of Tomorrow Symposium in San Francisco. As a part of Ford and TED's partnership, TED Studios partici...

These investigations into the dark underbelly of society shed light on some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Powerful, gripping personal narratives that shed light on what it means to live in some of the world’s most dangerous and volatile regions.

In a series of mind-bending demos, inventor Mary Lou Jepsen shows how we can use red light to see and potentially stimulate what's inside our bodies and brains. Taking us to the edge of optical physics, Jepsen unveils new technologies that utilize light and sound to track tumors, measure neural activity and could possibly replace the MRI machine...

These surprising, slightly psychedelic talks are better than staring at a blacklight poster.

Designer Bastian Schaefer shows off a speculative design for the future of jet planes, with a skeleton inspired by strong, flexible, natural forms and by the needs of the world's, ahem, growing population. Imagine an airplane that's full of light and space -- and built up from generative parts in a 3D printer.

Since the widespread use of antibiotics began in the 1940s, we've tried to develop new drugs faster than bacteria can evolve -- but this strategy isn't working. Drug-resistant bacteria known as superbugs killed nearly 700,000 people last year, and by 2050 that number could be 10 million -- more than cancer kills each year. Can physics help? In a...

Admit it, lasers are pretty cool. Discover the awesome, ingenious ways these beams of light are being used to fight against malaria and HIV, scan ancient monuments ... and even edit memory.

These talks honor those who have fought for their country while shedding light on what coming home from war means for many whose wounds are more than skin-deep.

Photography is about creating images by recording light. At the MIT media lab, professor Ramesh Raskar and his team members have invented a camera that can photograph light itself as it moves at, well, the speed of light.

Rogier van der Heide creates architectural spaces with light.

Safwat Saleem uses satire and art to bring to light stories of adversity.

Medical, legal, and financial documents should be easy to read, but too often they aren't. With spot-on (and funny) examples, Sandra Fisher Martins shows how overly complex language separates us from the information we need -- and three steps to change that. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

At Pixar, Danielle Feinberg delights in bending the rules of light to her every whim.