With technical advancement comes great ethical responsibility. In these talks, amazing, life-altering feats of science make us ask: How could we mess this up?

These thoughtful talks explore the timeless concept of beauty. How do we decide what — and who — is beautiful? What role does this play in our lives?

These talks take a new, fresh perspective while exploring the epidemic of addiction.

Dan Barasch and James Ramsey have a crazy plan — to create a park, filled with greenery, underneath New York City. The two are developing the Lowline, an underground greenspace the size of a football field. They're building it in a trolley terminal abandoned in 1948, using technology that harvests sunlight above-ground and directs it down below....

Open up a whole new world of possibilities and experiences with these talks that show the benefit (and fun!) of learning a new language.

Being the new person is never easy. Let these talks help you in walking into your workplace with your shoulders back and head held high.

Always wanted to do something more with your free time? Let these talks inspire you to take up anything from a classic hobby, to something a little less conventional.

The same resolutions every year -- get more sleep, eat healthier -- we know the drill. Let these talks inspire you to keep with those goals and perhaps add a few more to your list too.

New Year's resolutions are easy to make … and hard to keep. Our advice: Make resolutions that reflect your core values, to be kinder, more confident, more open to change. Some inspiration:

Death is a topic that is relevant to us all, and yet it simply isn’t pleasant to talk about. These speakers offer subtle reframes to help us face this fact of life more thoughtfully and with greater compassion.

4 reasons why you shouldn't be afraid to make up new words (no matter how ridiculous they may sound).

Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.

Designer Jessi Arrington packed nothing for TEDActive but 7 pairs of undies, buying the rest of her clothes in thrift stores around LA. It's a meditation on conscious consumption -- wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity.

Fifty percent of traffic accidents happen at intersections. Gary Lauder shares a brilliant and cheap idea for helping drivers move along smoothly: a new traffic sign that combines the properties of "Stop" and "Yield."

For the first time in history, the majority of American parents don't think their kids will be better off than they were. This shouldn't be a cause for alarm, says journalist Courtney E. Martin. Rather, it's an opportunity to define a new approach to work and family that emphasizes community and creativity. "The biggest danger is not failing to ...

Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.

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.

Is there an equation for intelligence? Yes. It's F = T ∇ Sτ. In a fascinating and informative talk, physicist and computer scientist Alex Wissner-Gross explains what in the world that means.

All under the age of 16, brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are from New Jersey, a US state that's better known for the rock of Bruce Springsteen than the bluegrass of Earl Scruggs. Nonetheless, the siblings began performing bluegrass covers, as well as their own compositions, at a young age. Here, they play three dazzling songs in three d...

"Copy editing for The New Yorker is like playing shortstop for a Major League Baseball team -- every little movement gets picked over by the critics," says Mary Norris, who has played the position for more than thirty years. In that time, she's gotten a reputation for sternness and for being a "comma maniac," but this is unfounded, she says. Abo...

Dan Barasch’s grandmother grew up in New York’s Lower East Side. Now, he’s building an underground park in her old neighborhood, where greenspace is limited.

Yochai Benkler explains how collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux represent the next stage of human organization.

Inspired by the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, TED Fellow Camille A. Brown choreographed "New Second Line," a celebration of the culture of New Orleans and the perseverance of Black people in the midst of devastation. The performance borrows its name from the energetic, spirited people who follow the traditional brass band parades for wedd...

Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action -- and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group.

400 years after Hudson found New York harbor, Eric Sanderson shares how he made a 3D map of Mannahatta's fascinating pre-city ecology of hills, rivers, wildlife -- accurate down to the block -- when Times Square was a wetland and you couldn't get delivery.

One day, Ed Gavagan was sitting on the subway, watching two young med students practicing their knots. And a powerful memory washed over him -- of one shocking moment that changed his life forever. An unforgettable story of crime, skill and gratitude.

What does it take to regrow bone in mass quantities? Typical bone regeneration -- wherein bone is taken from a patient’s hip and grafted onto damaged bone elsewhere in the body -- is limited and can cause great pain just a few years after operation. In an informative talk, Molly Stevens introduces a new stem cell application that harnesses bone’...

Martin Seligman talks about psychology -- as a field of study and as it works one-on-one with each patient and each practitioner. As it moves beyond a focus on disease, what can modern psychology help us to become?

Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own.

In this brand-new slideshow (premiering on TED.com), Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists recently predicted. He challenges us to act.