Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.

Today's AI algorithms require tens of thousands of expensive medical images to detect a patient's disease. What if we could drastically reduce the amount of data needed to train an AI, making diagnoses low-cost and more effective? TED Fellow Pratik Shah is working on a clever system to do just that. Using an unorthodox AI approach, Shah has deve...

During the 1600's, the exotic tulip became a nationwide sensation; some single bulbs even sold for ten times the yearly salary of a skilled craftsman. Suddenly, though, the demand completely plummeted, leaving the tulip market in a depression. What happened? Prateek Singh explains the peak of a business cycle, commonly referred to as a mania. [D...

When Nicolas Bourbaki applied to the American Mathematical Society in the 1950s, he was already one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. He'd published articles in international journals and his textbooks were required reading. Yet his application was firmly rejected for one simple reason: Nicolas Bourbaki did not exist. How is th...

Christien Meindertsma, author of "Pig 05049" looks at the astonishing afterlife of the ordinary pig, parts of which make their way into at least 185 non-pork products, from bullets to artificial hearts.

Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett explains that design doesn't have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems.

In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument that innovation isn't just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are creating products and paradigms that companies can't.

About 40% of what you do, day in and day out, is done purely out of habit. Nir Eyal decodes how technology companies -- the masters of "habit-forming" products -- design the tech products we can't put down. But it isn't all negative manipulation, he says. It can and should be used for good.

Designer Ross Lovegrove expounds his philosophy of "fat-free" design and offers insight into several of his extraordinary products, including the Ty Nant water bottle and the Go chair.

Imagine a world in which every ad you saw was relevant -- where advertising wasn't random or intrusive, but rather a carefully thought out combination of products you already wanted to know about. In this talk, advertising researcher Kristi Rogers describes how involving advanced mathematics in marketing will ultimately transform the way we inte...

A microscope that costs less than $1. A post-natal incubator for $25. These TED Talks highlight exciting innovations that render formerly-expensive things affordable — whether it’s to save you money, or to save lives.

Focus groups have been widely used by organizations and individuals to find out how their products and ideas will be received by an audience. From the usage of household products to a politician's popularity, almost everything can be explored with this technique. But how are focus groups put together? And how did they come about in the first pla...

Andras Forgacs produces animal products -- meat and leather -- without the animal.

We all want customized experiences and products -- but when faced with 700 options, consumers freeze up. With fascinating new research, Sheena Iyengar demonstrates how businesses (and others) can improve the experience of choosing.

IKEA currently makes up 0.1 percent of all global carbon emissions -- but by 2030, they're planning to be carbon negative across their business. Discussing new thinking about the lifespan of their products, from the forest to the landfill, Jesper Brodin and Pia Heidenmark Cook of Ingka Group (IKEA) share their company's steps towards sustainably...

MOMA design curator Paola Antonelli previews the groundbreaking show Design and the Elastic Mind -- full of products and designs that reflect the way we think now.

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...

Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time."

In this inspiring talk about recent developments in biomimicry, Janine Benyus provides heartening examples of ways in which nature is already influencing the products and systems we build.

New York Times columnist David Pogue takes aim at technology’s worst interface-design offenders, and provides encouraging examples of products that get it right. To funny things up, he bursts into song.

If you go to the store in search of milk, there are a dizzying number of products to choose from. There's dairy milk, but also plant-based products such as almond, soy, and oat milks. So which milk is actually best for you? And which uses the fewest resources and produces the least pollution? Jonathan J. O'Sullivan and Grace E. Cunningham dive i...

Juan Enriquez challenges our definition of bioenergy. Oil, coal, gas and other hydrocarbons are not chemical but biological products, based on plant matter -- and thus, growable. Our whole approach to fuel, he argues, needs to change.

In today's global marketplace, a brand lives beyond the products graced with its logo. James Curleigh shares his experience shepherding a brand beyond its original incarnation, helping Levi's claim not just market but closet share.

Designers spend their days dreaming up better products and better worlds, and you can use their thinking to re-envision your own life, says design professor Bill Burnett. He shares five tips to try, whether you're at the start of your career or contemplating your next act.

Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and WWF's Jason Clay says global markets will shift to protect the planet our consumption has already outgrown. Hear how his extraordinary roundtables are getting big brand rivals to agree on green practices first -- before their products duke it out on store shelves.

Adaptive, intelligent and consistent, algorithms are emerging as the ultimate formula for everything from matching consumers to products to assessing medical diagnoses. Vishal Sikka shares his appreciation for the algorithm, charting both its inherent beauty and its growing power.

Solar-powered LED lightbulbs could transform the lives of rural Haitians, but as Daniel Schnitzer found, they don't simply sell themselves. At TEDxPittsburgh, he shows how smart health and energy products for the developing world are useless unless the market works too.

TED Fellow Pratik Shah creates novel intersections between engineering, medical imaging, machine learning and medicine.

Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world's most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.

Will Cathcart is the head of WhatsApp, where he oversees development of the digital technologies that connect the world.