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.
Last day to vote: We’re happy to announce that TED has been nominated for five Webby Awards this year, four for TED.com and one for TEDTalks. (And we’re thrilled to be in such excellent company too.) Between today and April 28, you can vote for TED in the People’s Voice voting campaign. Sign in here […]
Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad — with clever, swipeable video and graphics, and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is “Our Choice,” Al Gore’s sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth.” (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 4:35) [ted id=1134] Watch […]
Our newest Twitter feed, @TEDTranslations, tracks the latest TEDTalks available for our worldwide volunteer translator corps — plus news of interest to language fans. TED’s Open Translation Project has created more than 17,500 translations in 81 languages. Find talks in your language to work on, and browse talks that have already been translated and are […]
Inspired by an abalone shell, Angela Belcher programs viruses to make elegant nanoscale structures that humans can use. Selecting for high-performing genes through directed evolution, she’s produced viruses that can construct powerful new batteries, clean hydrogen fuels and record-breaking solar cells. At TEDxCaltech, she shows us how it’s done. (Recorded at TEDxCaltech, January 2011 at […]
We’re amazed! Thanks to everyone who made a video for TED’s Full Spectrum auditions. We’ve been screening video all week (and sat up last night watching the submissions roll in). We held this audition to give a chance to the undiscovered talent we know is out there — and especially talent that can help us […]
The feeling of security and the reality of security don’t always match, says computer-security expert Bruce Schneier. He explains why we spend billions addressing news story risks, like the “security theater” now playing at your local airport, while neglecting more probable risks — and how we can break this pattern. (Recorded at TEDxPSU, October 2010 […]
Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally — or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make ourselves smarter, faster, better. Neo-evolution is within our grasp. What will we do with it? (Recorded at TED2011, March […]
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: […]
All over the planet, giant telescopes and detectors are looking (and listening) for clues to the workings of the universe. At the INK Conference, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy tours us around these amazing installations, taking us to some of the most remote and silent places on Earth. (Recorded at the INK Conference, December 2010, in […]
[ted id=1100] Last week we announced our first-ever video audition for TED. Make a one-minute application video to get started — video deadline is April 25, 2011, at 11:59pm Eastern. Finalists will be invited to our May 24 audition in New York City. (Get more details, and learn how to enter.) As the entries start […]
John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4’x5′ plywood board — and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches — spontaneous, and always surprising — go further than classroom lectures can. (Recorded at TED2011, March […]