Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...

Droids, mushrooms, pranks, fractals -- Reggie Watts shares some simple tools for brain expansion.

Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.

Your closet is likely full of all kinds of materials -- leather, cotton, nylon and polyester, to name a few -- that contribute to fashion's sustainability crisis. Biomaterials investigator Dan Widmaier explains how we could look to nature for sustainable replacements for these much-used materials and introduces a leather alternative made from mu...

Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses.

Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds.

How do music and psychedelics impact your brain? Neuroscientist Frederick Streeter Barrett discusses the specific neural regions activated when you listen to music and undergo the effects of psychedelic drugs like LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms). Learn about his research on how these experiences, when paired with the right conditions, may su...

Vegan chef (and head chef of TED Countdown Summit) Derek Sarno is on a mission to unleash the mighty power of plants, creating nutritious food from mushrooms and vegetables that's full of texture and flavor -- and good for the planet. He dishes out some creative cooking inspiration and shares how his personal journey led him to create amazing fo...

Quirky, fascinating talks about the design of practical things we all need, whether we know it or not.

Natsai Audrey Chieza is a designer on a mission -- to reduce pollution in the fashion industry while creating amazing new things to wear. In her lab, she noticed that the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor makes a striking red-purple pigment, and now she's using it to develop bold, color-fast fabric dye that cuts down on water waste and chemical r...

Humans are builders and creators—but how can we build thoughtfully, without waste? These talks explore sustainable design—both past and present—and its beautiful, inspiring results.

How did some of our quirkiest talks pull in millions of views? Watch these fun, fascinating hits and see for yourself.

Daryl Hannah gathers TED Talks that span the globe, from the Black Hills Mountains of the United States to the underwater worlds of Antarctica.

In today's TED Talk, biologist Mohamed Hijri directs our attention to an incredible biotechnology -- not one he invented, but one that’s been around for 450 million years. They are: mycorrhiza, microscopic mushrooms that grow in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of plants. These mushrooms are incredible at helping plants find phosphoro...

In agricultural entrepreneur Trang Tran’s native Vietnam, farmers traditionally burn the straw and husks that remain after the rice harvest. This practice happens at least twice a year for two months at a time, releasing noxious smoke and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Tran’s solution: using rice straw to cultivate mushrooms. Her soci...

Artist Jae Rhim Lee (watch her TED Talk) is asking us to rethink our relationship with death and the planet -- with the help of flesh-eating mushrooms, she's making human decomposition clean and green. You’re an artist and designer primarily concerned with how our bodies interact with the world. I’m concerned with finding alternatives ...

Yesterday at TEDMED, TEDTalks favorite Paul Stamets gave an emotional talk about new medical uses for mushrooms -- including a variety that, he says, helped treat his mother's cancer. Stamets spoke about powerful medical uses for mushrooms and their extracts, from anti-tuberculosis effects (Agarikon) to Cordyceps, a treasure trove of potenti...

Dan Widmaier is the founder and CEO of Bolt Threads, where he’s using biotechnology to create the next generation of materials. Think: leather made from mushrooms.

TED Senior Fellow Jae Rhim Lee develops new rituals and objects around death to point us toward a more sustainable future, including a mushroom burial suit that converts our unused bodies efficiently into clean compost.

Please enjoy your roundup of TED-related news: Prosthetics that feel more natural. A study in Science Robotics lays out a surgical technique developed by Shriya Srinivasan, Hugh Herr and others that may help prosthetics feel more like natural limbs. During an amputation, the muscle pairs that allow our brains to sense how much force is ap...

Interesting, informative, bizarre. Here's a round-up of interwebs reading from the past few weeks: Mushrooms are not at the top of my favorite foods list but, above, see why they are now at the top of my favorite things to watch a timelapse video of.  Shot by cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg (watch his TED Talks) and starring mushroom en...

Eben Bayer is co-inventor of MycoBond, an organic (really -- it's based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agriwaste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation.

Several members of the TED community had notable news this week. Below, some highlights: In 2010, Eben Bayer introduced a mushroom-based material that grows from agri-waste into any shape you want. It’s been used mainly as a packing material up to now, but this week, MoMA’s PS1 in Queens unveiled a soaring, sunny tower built of mushroom brick...

If you walk into the cemetery in Todmorden -- a small town in northern England -- you will find vegetables and herbs defiantly growing. Ditto if you examine the strips of land in the middle of the town’s roads, the area in front of its elder-care home, or the landscaping around its railroad station.  You will find corn as high as an elephant’s...

Alec Soth makes large-scale projects that are as much about dreams and heartache as they are about charting the landscape of Middle America.

Multitasking is highly overrated, says Paolo Cardini. In this talk, given at TEDGlobal 2012, he shares that he fed up with doing multiple things at once and would much prefer to “monotask.” He has created a series of 3D-printed “monotasking” smartphone covers to this end, which ensure that you can only do one thing at a time -- to truly listen...

You think your food tastes good, but food inventor Barb Stuckey thinks you could be doing better. In her book, Taste What You've Been Missing, Stuckey explores the science of what, exactly, what makes food taste good -- and what doesn't. Which brings us today to: Uuuuumami! (That's oo-ma-mee.) What is umami? That rich, brothy flavor witho...

Not all plastic is evil, but our world could probably do with a whole lot less of it. Check out these great ideas -- from a googly-eyed trash catcher to a styrofoam substitute made from mushrooms -- and learn some small steps you can take right now. Before you read this piece, just take a quick look: How many of the objects around you or on you...

Why an environmental chemist in Holland is betting that both farming and hospitals might be improved with the use of a fancy form of water. Something funny happens to water when you spray it through an electrical field: The water can now fight microbes. (Or something in the water can.) Plasma-activated water (PAW) is a fascinating substance tha...

Movement expert Daniel Wolpert on the relationship between brain and body: "Our brains map our own body's motions and correct our perception. That's why you can't tickle yourself." Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED Sheril Kirshenbaum talks about the science behind an ancient behavior, kissing: "We're interpreting the world through ou...