With never-before-seen video, primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo (a TED Fellow) shows how bonobo ape society learns from constantly playing — solo, with friends, even as a prelude to sex. Indeed, play appears to be the bonobos’ key to problem-solving and avoiding conflict. If it works for our close cousins, why not for us? (Recorded at […]
There’s a fun new feature on TED.com this week. All the video ads that follow our talks have been specially chosen by a panel of judges as “Ads Worth Spreading.” They were selected from more than 1,000 entries as being especially powerful, funny, beautiful or engaging. We invite you to view them here and join […]
TED speaker Margaret Gould Stewart shares these great graphic notes on her blog, fountly.com. She writes: I take these notes so I can share the experience of being at TED with as many colleagues and friends as I can, and it’s also a great way to retain more info; in fact, there was a TED […]
What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading. Read Hans Rosling’s lively chat about this […]
“If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B … ” began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011. She tells the story of her metamorphosis — from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club to […]
The Gates Foundation and TEDx are presenting another extraordinary TEDxChange event — this time in New Delhi, India. In partnership with TEDxDelhi, TEDxChange @ TEDxDelhi is about some of the most interesting and creative development work happening in India right now. India is a hub of creative problem-solving for many of the issues that can […]
Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world — by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around us. (Recorded at TEDxAmsterdam, October 2010, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Duration: 16:52) [ted id=1098] Watch […]
Volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos tells a story of an act of heroism that didn’t go quite as expected — but that taught him a big lesson: Don’t wait to be a hero. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 4:08) [ted id=1096] Watch Mark Bezos’ talk on TED.com where you can download […]
We think of space as a silent place. But physicist Janna Levin says the universe has a soundtrack — a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a drum.) An accessible and mind-expanding soundwalk through the universe. (Recorded at TED2011, March […]
Tapping into his latest book, NYTimes 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 […]
Ogilvy Notes brings us Liisa Sorsa‘s graphic realization (click to see full size) of June Cohen’s talk this morning at SXSW: “Radical Openness: Growing TED by Giving It Away.” During this talk, June announced TED’s intention to open our API to coders to build new tools. A few more tweets from this talk: From @SuziDafnis […]
At SXSW this morning, June Cohen, TED’s Executive Producer of Media, announced TED’s intention to open an application programming interface (API) for its posted TEDTalks and associated data — in the hopes that developers will use the API to build new tools for viewing and sharing. Initially, the API will focus on TED’s content library, […]
Are you a Hulu fan? We’re adding the TEDTalks archive to Hulu’s great video library, starting with 55 TEDTalks — including the first talks released from TED2011 last week! Head to hulu.com/tedtalks to browse, review and discuss — and stand by as we build the collection. Watch TEDTalks on Hulu >>
From TEDxRainier: With streams and rivers drying up because of over-usage, Rob Harmon has implemented an ingenious market mechanism to bring back the water. Farmers and beer companies find their fates intertwined in the intriguing century-old tale of Prickly Pear Creek. (Recorded at TEDxRainier, November 2010, in Seattle, WA. Duration: 08:47) [ted id=1093] Watch Rob […]
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we […]
Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises — and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch […]