Most people think of pure mathematics as a medium for ivory-tower abstraction, divorced from real-world applications. Mathematician Eugenia Cheng disagrees. In this talk, she demonstrates how numbers and mathematical structures can be used to shift perspectives, switch contexts and help us understand our fellow human beings in new and logical wa...

Playing Monopoly with his children one night, Adam Carroll noticed they were bending the rules. He wondered, "What if they're playing this way because the money isn't real?" In this talk, Carroll explains the concept of financial abstraction, and how our human perception of spending changes when the idea of money becomes more or less real. His c...

What can you do when the wheels of justice don't turn fast enough? Or when they don't turn at all? Vivek Maru is working to transform the relationship between people and law, turning law from an abstraction or threat into something that everyone can understand, use and shape. Instead of relying solely on lawyers, Maru started a global network of...

About this event: This year's theme, inspired by the Avenues World Element "Abstraction," challenges speakers to think creatively and interpret ideas in unique ways. Abstraction can be applied to topics like art, technology, science, communication, or personal experiences. Abstraction is the conceptual process of deriving general rules and concepts from real-wor...

About this event: African art is as diverse as African cultures, from sculptures from wood and other organic materials, to the visual abstraction and performance arts. Join us at the beautiful new On the Roof event space on Main Street (on the roof, above the Verizon Wireless store) for our September salon, Art & Africa.

Artist Sharmistha Ray has spent her life moving between India, the Middle East and the United States, discovering, layer by layer, her own sense of self, sexual identity and artistic vision in contrast or harmony with each new environment. Now, as her latest exhibition Reflections + Transformations is set to open at the Aicon Gallery in New ...

About this event: To deconstruct is to strip away layers of abstraction to uncover the essence of a concept. By deconstructing complex phenomena into their fundamental ideas, we discover how universal and relatable these concepts are. Deconstruction reveals how the ideas at the cores of such diverse fields as artificial intelligence, music, medicine, and others a...

Alyssa Monks transfers the intimacy and vulnerability of human experience onto a painted surface.

About this event: TEDxIMTGhaziabad is an independently organized one-day TED event conducted by IMTeam PRISM (Public Relations, Information, and Social Media) Committee at IMT, Ghaziabad. The main objective behind conducting the event is to inspire, educate and challenge audiences by providing a platform for thought-provoking ideas that evoke awe and wonder. Abo...

About this event: “Lost and Found”, is about the perpetual discovery and rediscovery that is essential to our existence as human beings. It questions what it means to feel lost and find purpose once again, be it in the formation of ourselves or the creation of our communities. It calls us to remember people, places, words, and histories we have left behind or tak...

In his work, economist Tyler Cowen looks at clues from pop culture, art, food, to gather data and make observations on the world's globalizing culture and commerce.

There are two kinds of people who fly: those who want to talk to the person sitting next to them and those who want a quiet ride. Luckily, Delta has created a sensory experience for both kinds of travelers in their Connectivity Space, outside the theater at TED2014. For the connectors, we’ll start with a tour through the Social Soul exhib...

Hailing from the Talent Search salon in Bangalore, Ajit Narayanan is here to tell us about his work helping autistic children to communicate. One of the challenges that faces those working in this field: People with autism can sometimes find it difficult to understand abstraction or symbolism--and therefore they struggle with language. Mu...

About this event: To say that "Unleash" is a multifarious abstraction would be an understatement. We can strive to elucidate it with innumerable viewpoints. The only certain aspect is the fact that it takes something substantial for someone to be able to unleash. It may be through inspiration or by the cognizance relayed from new acquaintances with different para...

What's that too-often quoted aphorism? "Good artists copy; great artists steal"? In this nuanced conversation, biologist and founder of Biomimicry 3.8 Janine Benyus speaks with Tim Brown, chief executive of IDEO, to discuss what's really interesting about borrowing. Tim Brown: As a creative person, I’ve always believed that I can’t be creativ...

This week TEDx celebrated the birthday of Rosalind Franklin, the pioneering scientist who helped our fundamental understanding of the structure of DNA strands. Sixty years after her famous Photo 51, Czech designer Vit Zemcik created a video to showcase his own understanding of the geometry of life. Zemcik explains his video, which showed a...

About this event: The quality of abstraction being the most essential attribute of a theme, we chose “Embracing Uncertainty” as ours because it signifies many different perspectives across people of all ages and fields, be it how a few seconds can change the color of a medal for a sportsperson, how the momentary lapse of judgment can mean life or death to a soldi...

Are we becoming blank-eyed cyberzombies, thanks to the internet and all the tech tools we obsess about every day? Instead of asking whether the Web is making us stupid, Howard Rheingold turns that lens around and asks how digital media could actually improve our intelligence. In his new TED Book, Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us...

Cities are a constellation of dreams -- dreams that are constantly dying and being born. Cities are living things, with character and distinct personalities. Africa’s cities teem with these dreams. Who gets to decide which ones live, and which ones die? To become an architect, Christian Benimana had to go far away from home. There were no...

A new way to practice for the SAT. The SAT, a standardized college admissions exam, is a mammoth test, and every minute of practice is invaluable. But SAT practice courses can be expensive -- which oftentimes means kids with less money, or from disadvantaged backgrounds, do worse. One year ago, Khan Academy, a free online platform for learni...

Watch James Flynn's TED Talk: "Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents' Jim Flynn is an expert in intelligence famous for his research on the Flynn effect, the phenomenon that humanity's IQ has been dramatically increasing since the 1930s. He opens Session 11 today on the last day of TED2013 to help answer the question, "Who ar...

Art so often seeks to capture the beauty of the natural world -- from cave drawings of animals, to paintings of landscapes, to sculptures of the human form in marble, bronze or wood. But in this playlist, find artists and designers who take this to the next level, making art based on the laws of nature and the invisible workings of biology i...

While it may result in tremendous good, empathy can also be narrow, biased and surprisingly insensitive, argues psychology professor Paul Bloom. Does empathy make the world a better place? It certainly looks like it. After all, empathy drives people to treat others’ suffering as if it were their own, which then motivates action to make the suff...

Julie Taymor, the director behind Frida, Across the Universe and the Broadway reimagining of The Lion King, creates productions that tickle the senses. Filled with saturated colors, offbeat imagery, stacatto movement and big sound -- each of her productions shares her unique style, yet manages to be completely distinct. In today’s talk, Taymo...

Ever want to play with genes? Synthetic biologist Oliver Medvedik thinks anyone should be able to access a biology lab and tinker with the stuff of life. That's why he co-founded Genspace, the world's first fully equipped community biolab, where citizen scientists of all stripes meet to explore, experiment and learn about genetic engineering. ...

How to Be a Better Human How to Discover Your Humanity... Through Math? (with Francis Su) (Transcript) July 25, 2022 [00:00:00] Chris Duffy: You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about math. And before you skip this episode, because you're saying to yourself, I'm no...

Tuesday, November 9, 2021 Adam Grant: Hey WorkLifers, it’s Adam Grant. Welcome back to Taken for Granted, my podcast with the TED Audio Collective. I’m an organizational psychologist, and this series is about rethinking assumptions we often take for granted about how we work, lead, and live. Today’s guest is Esther Duflo, the MIT economist who ...

Re:Thinking with Adam Grant November 9, 2021 Esther Duflo wants you to think like a plumber Adam Grant: Hey WorkLifers, it’s Adam Grant. Welcome back to Taken for Granted, my podcast with the TED Audio Collective. I’m an organizational psychologist, and this series is about rethinking assumptions we often take for granted about how we work, lea...

How to Be a Better Human What will you do with your one wild and precious planet? (w/ Bill McKibben) June 19, 2023 [00:00:00] Chris Duffy: You are listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. When I was a senior in college, I lived in a big off-campus house with a bunch of friends, and we made some perfunctory attempts at ...

Squishy, vivid, frozen, frothy – architect and artist Antonio Torres's wildly colorful and whimsical built spaces are often created using membranes filled with gases, liquids and organic materials, inviting people to crawl in, jump, touch and play. Here, we ask him about his incredible works and where his inspiration comes from. Tell m...