What moves Jill Bolte Taylor? "I love talks that contribute to the overall well-being of who we are as humanity -- about how we can explore ourselves as people in relationship with one another and with this beautiful planet."

Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth studies the traits that allow us to stick to our goals — and she chose four great talks that explore other facets of how human beings behave.

In 1998, aircraft designer Paul MacCready looks at a planet on which humans have utterly dominated nature, and talks about what we all can do to preserve nature's balance. His contribution: solar planes, superefficient gliders and the electric car.

Artist Doris Mitsch invites us to revel in the wonders of nature through her dazzling photography: stacked images of starlings in flight, hawks surfing thermal updrafts, bats echolocating through the night sky and more. Revealing the hidden trails created by creatures in flight, her work offers unique insight into the intelligence behind nature'...

Symmetry is everywhere in nature. And we usually associate it with beauty: a perfectly shaped leaf or a butterfly with intricate patterns mirrored on each wing. But it turns out that asymmetry is pretty important, too — and more common than you might think. Leo Q. Wan takes us into the human body to show how biological asymmetry can be quite bea...

TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.

Columnist David Brooks unpacks new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences -- insights with massive implications for economics and politics as well as our own self-knowledge. In a talk full of humor, he shows how you can't hope to understand humans as separate individuals making choices based on their conscious awareness.

For a genuine conversation, consider talking to a robot; the less humanized, the better. Consumer researcher Anne Scherer shares her findings on why some machines get us to open up better than actual people, revealing fascinating insights about human nature that could lead to more honest interactions in our day-to-day lives.

How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and trusting hu...

Competition is a core part of human nature, and it can drive us to extraordinary feats. But when it goes wrong, the results can be devastating. Poker champion and science communicator Liv Boeree introduces us to "Moloch's trap" — the dark force of game theory driving many of humanity's biggest social problems, which is now threatening to derail ...

Over the years, research has shown a counterintuitive fact about human nature: Sometimes, having too much choice makes us less happy. This may even be true when it comes to medical treatment. Baba Shiv shares a fascinating study that measures why choice opens the door to doubt, and suggests that ceding control -- especially on life-or-death deci...

After witnessing the "violent rage" shown by babies whenever deprived of an item they considered their own, Jean Piaget – a founding father of child psychology – observed something profound about human nature: Our sense of ownership emerges incredibly early. But why do we become so attached to things? Christian Jarrett details the psychology of ...

Imagine aliens land on Earth a million years from now. What will these curious searchers find of us? They will find what geologists, scientists, and other experts are increasingly calling the Anthropocene, or new age of mankind. David Biello explains how the impacts that humans have made have become so pervasive, profound, and permanent that som...

Human beings are everywhere. With settlements on every continent, we can be found in the most isolated corners of Earth's jungles, oceans and tundras. Our impact is so profound, most scientists believe humanity has left a permanent mark on Earth's geological record. So what would happen if suddenly, every human on Earth disappeared? Dan Kwartler...

Shakespeare boasted an uncanny understanding of human nature. Might the Bard be a helpful workplace consultant with tips on navigating the plot twists and characters taking stage in the modern world? (Want to learn whom you can trust at work? Take a meeting with Othello. Need advice on creative problem solving? Check in with Hamlet.) John Bolton...

Working in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, he began his career as a neurologist before pioneering the discipline of psychoanalysis, and his influence towers above that of all other psychologists in the public eye. But was Sigmund Freud right about human nature? And were his methods scientific? Todd Dufresne puts this controversial figure...

There's an angry divisive tension in the air that threatens to make modern politics impossible. Elizabeth Lesser explores the two sides of human nature within us (call them "the mystic" and "the warrior”) that can be harnessed to elevate the way we treat each other. She shares a simple way to begin real dialogue -- by going to lunch with someone...

After witnessing the atrocities of his fellow man in World War II, William Golding was losing his faith in humanity. Later, during the Cold War, as superpowers began threatening one another with nuclear annihilation, he was forced to interrogate the very roots of human nature and violence. These musings would inspire his first novel: "Lord of th...

Stewart Brand is a futurist, counterculturist and visionary with a very wide-ranging mind. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Brand discusses ... just about everything: human nature, bringing back the wooly mammoth, geoengineering, rewilding and science as organized skepticism -- plus the story of an acid trip on a San Francisco ro...

Some of the world's greatest minds swore by the benefits of taking a stroll. Make your next walk better (or even just go for a mental walk in the woods) with these rousing talks.

Catharine Young describes a visit to Liberia, where Ebola may be contained but the public health story has only just begun. Traveling through the streets of Monrovia, Liberia, I am struck by the city’s contrasts. Bursts of color highlight the fragile shells of businesses and houses. The summer air is soft, but the faces of the local people are ...

Carin Bondar is an expert on the sexual life of animals -- and loves to tell their wild sex stories.

Pharmaceutical companies often only patent drugs they can monetize, creating synthetic versions of remedies already available in nature. In this quick talk, physician and entrepreneur Jeff Chen offers a path to affordable, effective natural medicines — for everyone.

Emma Marris is a writer focusing on environmental science, policy and culture, with an approach that she paints as being "more interested in finding and describing solutions than delineating problems, and more interested in joy than despair."

If you ever meet Apollo Robbins in person, hold onto your wallet. The professional sleight-of-hand artist, who has been studying magic for more than 25 years, made headlines in 2001 when he pickpocketed Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail, taking their badges and even the keys to the motorcade. Since then, he has gained a reputation as the ...

Paul Bloom explores some of the most puzzling aspects of human nature, including pleasure, religion and morality.

We're not done with anatomy. We know a tremendous amount about genomics, proteomics and cell biology, but as Diane Kelly makes clear at TEDMED, there are basic facts about the human body we're still learning. Case in point: How does the mammalian erection work?

What can we learn from the slimy, smelly side of life? In this playful talk, science journalist Anna Rothschild shows us the hidden wisdom of "gross stuff" and explains why avoiding the creepy underbelly of nature, medicine and technology closes us off to important sources of knowledge about our health and the world. "When we explore the gross s...