As we begin planning for the experiences of TED2012: Full Spectrum, we’re pleased to announce an open call for proposals to exhibit innovative works of technology art at TEDActive 2012, February 27-March 2, 2012, in Palm Springs, California. Each year at TEDActive, we host artists working in the field of technology to showcase their interactive […]
A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station … And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 16:52) […]
Ed Boyden shows how, by inserting genes for light-sensitive proteins into brain cells, he can selectively activate or de-activate specific neurons with fiber-optic implants. With this unprecedented level of control, he’s managed to cure mice of analogs of PTSD and certain forms of blindness. On the horizon: neural prosthetics. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in […]
A vegetarian diet can markedly improve your health and fitness, but what if you still love munching into a juicy burger every now and again? Graham Hill has a powerful and simple solution: Become a weekday vegetarian. Don’t eat meat Monday through Friday. During the weekends, you’re back to being a carnivore. Hill, who founded […]
Fiorenzo Omenetto shares 20+ astonishing new uses for silk, one of nature’s most elegant materials — in transmitting light, improving sustainability, adding strength and making medical leaps and bounds. On stage, he shows a few intriguing items made of the versatile stuff. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 9:41) [ted id=1142] […]
Experimental, organic, and polymathic, the TED Fellows program continues to provoke, inspire – and defy convention. The initiative was inspired by the success of 100 groundbreaking Fellows from around Africa at TED Global in 2007, which included Alexandra Graham, cofounder of Lagray Chemicals, the first vertically integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing company in West Africa;Mohammed Bah Abba, […]
Last month we announced our first-ever TED auditions, to explore the theme of TED2012: Full Spectrum. The challenge to the TED community: Make a one-minute video that describes your idea worth sharing — and how you’d share it with the world. We received hundreds of submissions from around the world in our short timeframe, and […]
Diving under the Antarctic ice to get waaaaaay too close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. […]
Pollination: it’s vital to life on Earth, but largely unseen by the human eye. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film “Wings of Life,” inspired by the vanishing of one of nature’s primary pollinators, the honeybee. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long […]
At TEDxCaltech, cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks — in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe — a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view of the nature of the universe, and our place in it. . (Recorded at TEDxCaltech, […]
Designer Suzanne Lee shares her experiments in growing a kombucha-based material that can be used like fabric or vegetable leather to make clothing. The process is fascinating, the results are beautiful (though there’s still one minor drawback …) and the potential is simply stunning. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 6:41) […]
With his team at SENSEable City Lab, MIT’s Carlo Ratti makes cool things by sensing the data we create. He pulls from passive data sets — like the calls we make, the garbage we throw away — to create surprising visualizations of city life. And he and his team create dazzling interactive environments from moving […]
Phyllis Rodriguez and Aicha el-Wafi have a powerful friendship born of unthinkable loss. Rodriguez’ son was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001; el-Wafi’s son Zacarias Moussaoui was convicted of a role in those attacks and is serving a life sentence. In hoping to find peace, these two moms have come […]
As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a “filter bubble” and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for […]
[ted id=1086] What do 13% of the people on the 2011 Time 100 list have in common? You can watch their TEDTalk online. Explore the full Time 100 list — billed as your chance to “Meet the most influential people in the world” — and meet the folks who overlap on the TEDTalks-Time 100 Venn […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzmlUNTblvo&w=528&h=325&rel=0] Brilliant video from TEDxBuenosAires: How can we connect the ideas of TED with the citizens of Buenos Aires? We called on the city’s most remarkable speakers: Taxi drivers. Watch what happens.