David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 5:21.) Watch David Gallo’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate […]
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery — the heart of Alias, Lost and the upcoming Cloverfield — back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, […]
View the interactive TED2008 Conference Program >>Download a PDF of the TED2008 schedule >> Slated to appear at TED2008: memeticist Susan Blackmore (top) addresses the question “What is life?” Singer and activist Vusi Mahlasela (middle) asks, “How can we change the world?” Designer Yves Behar (bottom) asks, “How do we create?” Many people come to […]
Armed with a few students, a backhoe and a handful of markers, Deborah Gordon digs up ant colonies in the Arizona desert. She asks: How do these chitinous creatures get down to business — and even multitask when they need to — with no language, memory or visible leadership? Her answers could lead to a […]
Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a careful lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, um, for men. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 6:15.) Watch Yossi Vardi’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances. Read more about Yossi Vardi on […]
In one of the most beloved talks from TED2007, novelist Isabel Allende talks about writing, women, passion, feminism. She tells the stories of powerful women she has known, some larger-than-life (listen for a beauty tip from Sophia Loren), and some simply living with grace, dignity and ingenuity in a world that, in too many ways, […]
Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our drive to overprotect our children — and spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer. This talk comes from TED University 2007, a pre-conference program […]
Lakshmi Pratury talks about letter-writing, and shares a series of notes her father wrote her before he died. This short talk may inspire you to set pen to paper too. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 4:09.) Watch Lakshmi Pratury’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it […]
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Through psychological experiments and a story of the Santa Cruz Strangler, he shows how we are all born with the capacity for empathy — but we sometimes choose to ignore it. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 13:13.) […]
In a lively performance, “mathemagician” Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares in his head, performs a massive mental calculation, and guesses a few birth days. How does he do it? He’ll be happy to tell you. (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:14.) Watch Arthur Benjamin’s performance […]
Wielding laypeople’s terms and a sense of humor, Nobel Prize winner Murray Gell-Mann drops some knowledge about particle physics, asking questions like, Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones? Can the fundamental law, the so-called “theory of everything,” really explain everything? His answers will surprise you. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, […]
Legendary designer Philippe Starck — with no pretty slides behind him — spends 17 minutes reaching for the very roots of the question “Why design?” Along the way he drops brilliant insights into the human condition; listen carefully for one perfectly crystallized motto for all of us, genius or not. Yet all this deep thought, […]
“I am a mathematician, and I would like to stand on your roof.” This is how Ron Eglash greeted many African families while researching the intriguing fractal patterns he noticed in villages across the continent. He talks about his work exploring the rigorous fractal math underpinning African architecture, art and even hair braiding — and […]
Biologist Robert Full shares his fascination with spiny cockroach legs that allow them to scuttle at full speed across loose mesh and gecko feet that have billions of nano-bristles to run straight up walls. His talk, complete with wonderful slow-mo video of cockroach, crab and gecko gaits, explains his goal of creating the perfect robotic […]
Chris Anderson and Emeka Okafor write: We’re delighted to tell you that there will be another TED conference in Africa next year, and that we hope to make it an annual event on the continent! TEDAfrica will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 29-October 1, 2008 (save the date!), and will follow the […]
Recorded at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford, UK: 2006 TED Prize winner and Google.org director Larry Brilliant uses a clip from an old Frank Capra movie to show that we’ve known about global warming for 50 years — yet in half a century, we’ve done almost nothing to solve it. He explores […]