Photo: James Duncan Davidson “We’ve run into a giant fracking problem,” says TED curator Chris Anderson by way of introducing the next speaker, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who comes to the stage to talk about methods to solve the energy crisis facing the United States. Or as he puts it, his “alternative to alternative energy” […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson Drawn into controversy Wearing his wide-brimmed hat, climate scientist James Hansen starts his TEDTalk by asking, “What do I know that would cause me, a reticent midwestern scientist, to get arrested in front of the White House, protesting?” Hansen studied under professor James Van Allen, who told him about observations of Venus […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson Ken Mogi, a Ph.D and researcher from the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo, bears a flag nearly twice his height, bright blue, covered with images of koi fish and Japanese letters. He begins by reminding us about a tragically transformative day in his country on March 11, 2011 that would […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson Wade Davis is a familiar figure on the TED stage, but he’s probably best known for sharing his incredible pictures of Tibet or the Amazon or the various farflung places to which he’s traveled. This time, he tells the “story of my own backyard,” the sacred headwaters in British Columbia. “It’s the […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson Artist Sharon Beals is captivated by the art form of nests, and she is fascinated by the industry, endeavor, and materials used to make them. So she photographs them, making beautiful images like those shown above. At TED2012 she breathed life and color into a meditative walk through the nests of an extraordinary […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson As a filmmaker and photographer, Karen Bass has traveled from one end of the earth to the other to film and photograph the earth, its creatures and people. Bass proceeds to show some of her truly jaw-dropping footage to an appreciative TED audience, much of it shot with the BBC or for National Geographic, […]
Here, we take a closer look at the incredible place we call home, with a collection of speakers who celebrate the Earth’s natural beauty as it is now — or who are proposing (sometimes controversial) ways to keep it that way. In this session: Karen Bass has traveled the world to explore and capture footage […]
We asked: What do you love so far? And the TED audience answered … Editing: Mindy Ellliott
Photos: James Duncan Davidson Colin Robertson is a futurist and is not someone most people have heard of. And as he began his presentation, the crowd was treated to a TED speaker’s worst nightmare: The slides crashed and the Mac multi-colored pizza-wheel of death appeared. Then an error message appeared on screen. Then another, and […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson Welcome to Autonomous Agile Aerial Robots i.e. flying robots that can move like anything. Vijay Kumar, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, makes robots related to unmanned airplanes. But those are big and heavy and aren’t autonomous — they need humans to pilot them. The robots he works with are tiny. […]
Recognizing the impact of the late Steve Jobs on the lives of essentially every person in the TED crowd, curator Chris Anderson introduces this ad, the original Apple “Think Different” ad, narrated by the company founder.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson “The electricity powering the lights in this theater was generated just moments ago,” says MIT professor, Donald Sadoway, now on stage at TED2012 to talk power. “The way things stand, electricity demand must be in balance with electricity supply.” The problem is: coal and nuclear plants can’t address demand fast enough. How […]
Marco Tempest, the magician who was a spectacular hit at TEDGlobal 2011, takes the stage to tell a story, with projections, pop-up books, magic gestures, to tell the story of Nicola Tesla. Photo: James Duncan Davidson Marco dons a hat, and Tesla’s face projects on his, as he continues the story. Photo: James Duncan Davidson […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson As it happens, the majority of anatomy classes don’t actually have access to dead bodies. This stark, somewhat gruesome topic is the focus of the next talk in The Lab, where Jack Choi is demonstrating a virtual dissection table developed to help students learn about anatomy and dissection without the need […]
Photos: James Duncan Davidson “Be nice to nerds…” As the opening slide from a TEDTalk, not too surprising. As the opening line from Regina Dugan, the director of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), kind of ominous. But the projects she demonstrated are extraordinary, and how they get there, even more so. If you want […]
Photo: James Duncan Davidson “Bye, Lisa, I’m off to the TED Conference!” That’s what Scooter announced just before being grabbed by a hook and pulled into a series of wonderful events. So, there was a delay, but he made it. And what he didn’t mention in the movie is: He was a speaker! On stage […]