At age 17, Ben Gulak invented an electric motorcycle that was named “Invention of the Year” by Popular Science. He’s now working on a snowmobile-ATV hybrid. Though being a full-time student and running two businesses has meant a lot of sacrifices — including his favorite TV show “Dexter” — Ben says the rewards are well […]
This week, religious scholar and 2008 TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong released 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life, a practical guide to the understanding and practice of compassion. On Christmas eve, the TED Blog had a chat with Karen about the ways people around the world are embracing the Charter for Compassion — the result […]
The iconic portrait of 2011 TED Prize winner JR, jumping in front of a bold pair of eyes, was shot by the photographer and writer Christopher Shay. The story of how this photo came to be is an interesting one — and we asked Shay to tell it: I met JR when I was writing […]
Michelle Borkin’s 3-D imaging work uses tools from astronomy to help doctors visualize patients’ hearts. She makes fluid flow visualization pop with 3-D modeling, helping everyone from geophysicists to architects see their data in new ways. You have your fingers in a lot of different pots. What are you up to these days? I’m working […]
Practicing physician Nassim Assefi gets a kick out of saving lives and celebrating life. Working on her second novel and first film, she continues to be a powerful voice in global health policy while organizing a TEDx event in Seattle. Learn her thoughts on the importance of courage, education and salsa dancing in this Fellows […]
The following is a cross-post from the TEDxOilSpill Expedition blog. The recent Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has been on everyone’s mind and media outlets for the past month. Between horrifying photos, misleading information and many failed attempts at stopping the gushing oil well, a growing national frustration has mounted into a […]
From pollution-eating robots to abstract animated films, TED Fellow Cesar Harada is involved in an ocean of projects. He was able to squeeze in this interview with TED, where he talks about architecture, his love of the sea and a special cartoon cat. What are the most important things you’re working on right now? The […]
Dan Ariely’s new book, The Upside of Irrationality, debuts tomorrow — he sends us this teaser, based on research that’s described in much more detail in Chapter 1 of the new book: Recently there has been a public outcry against astronomical executive salaries. The basic public sentiment is that it seems unfair that people make […]
Here’s the remarkable story behind a TEDx event held this month: Despite opposition from village elders, a swine flu outbreak and huge logistical issues, TEDxShekhavati organizer Masarat Daud pulled off an amazing event, attracting over 1,000 attendees. Daud was determined to bring TEDx to her hometown of Fatehpur, a tiny village in the Shekhavati region […]
Shereen El Feki explains the interplay between the Internet, economics and politics in the mesh of civilizations
Photo: Sendhil Mullainathan at TEDIndia, Session 4, “Reinventing Development,” November 6, 2009, in Mysore, India. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson Session 4 of TEDIndia, “Reinventing Development,” brought together some of the most innovative minds working in India’s development sector. Here’s what they told us: Sendhil Mullainathan looks at a frustrating issue in public health […]
Today, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School and the man behind today’s TEDTalk, agreed to answer any question that our TED Facebook fans proposed. Here are his answers, accompanied by a personal note: I thank you all for your excellent and thought-provoking questions. Since Tinkering School is itself being tinkered with, it is always […]
Last week, we posted Jonathan Drori’s fascinating short talk about the Millennium Seed Bank — a massive effort to preserve the world’s threatened plant life within a global network of seed archives. It’s a big topic to cover in 3 minutes, so the TED Blog asked Drori if he had time to answer a few […]
Via LiveScience.com: Researchers at MIT have found valuable insight into body armor by studying the African fish Polypterus senegalus. A living fossil, the fish is largely unchanged since the Cretaceous period — when its ancestors faced an ocean full of large, toothy predators. In its defense, it developed a bite-resistant “armored” skin, whose scales are […]
TED’s Matthew Trost reports from the World Science Festival‘s Sunday-afternoon session “Looking for the Laws of Life“: John Hockenberry moderated this discussion on how life works, what its prerequisites are and where else we might find it in the universe. Featuring synthetic biology expert Steven Benner, researcher and astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull and cosmologist-astrobiologist-physicist-author Paul Davies. […]
TED’s Matthew Trost reports from this Saturday session of the World Science Festival: Nobel Prize winner and cell biologist Paul Nurse moderates a discussion between the leader of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, physician and geneticist James Evans, and sociologist Nikolas Rose after an introductory piece of context by Misha Angrist, who recently had […]