Edi Rama — the mayor of Tirana, Albania, for 11 years — was an artist before a politician. “I still paint. I love the joy that color can give to our lives and to our communities,” says Rama in today’s talk, filmed at TEDxThessaloniki. “I try to bring something of the artist in me to […]
From ordering movie tickets to booking a dentist appointment, mobile and web apps have made the tasks of daily life easier. But there are some things that an app can’t do. Standing in line at the pharmacy is one of them. In today’s talk, Lee Cronin asks: “Could we make a really cool universal chemistry […]
How is it that science classes have become about memorization and filling in the right circle on a Scantron sheet, rather than about doing hands-on experiments and activities that reveal the wonder of the world around us? It’s a problem that Tyler DeWitt tackled in yesterday’s talk, “Hey science teachers — make it fun.” And […]
As he approached his 30th birthday, artist Cesar Kuriyama noticed that time seemed to be evaporating. And thus, he began work on a project called 1 Second Everyday. “Basically, I’m recording one second of every day of my life for the rest of my life—chronologically compiling these one-second, tiny slices of my life into one […]
In today’s TED Talk, Tyler DeWitt makes a fantastic case for a simple idea: make science fun. Educators and writers get caught up in the idea that science needs to be taken seriously, and forget that the best way to get kids interested is to… make it interesting. Too much emphasis on being accurate can […]
At TED2012, Susan Cain asked us to stop the madness. That is: the group work madness. At offices and schools around the globe, the desire for collaboration has led to an onslaught of open floor plans and group projects where individuals aren’t given much space to think on their own. And this is a big […]
Hans Rosling has given nine TED Talks, each sharing a carefully measured dataset to change misconceptions about global issues. Now, the Gates Foundation shares a new demonstration from Rosling. Here, using powerful moving charts, Rosling shatters the fallacy of the “developed” world versus the “developing” world. By looking at the facts, we are able to […]
Two years ago, waves of revolution swept through the Middle East. On February 17, 2011 — two months after civil resistance began in Tunisia and less than a month after the people of Egypt rose up in Tahrir Square — revolt began in Libya to oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Activist Zahra’ Langhi was part of […]
When you hear the word “cancer,” what do you think about? And how do you know what you think you know? Do you think of cancer as a disease of the old or as something that can affect anyone, as a death sentence or as a surmountable twist of fate? When you picture someone with […]
TED playlists are collections of talks around a topic, built for you in a thoughtful sequence to illuminate ideas in context. This weekend, two new playlists are available: “What’s wrong with what we eat?” and “Our brains: predictably irrational” — and a bonus! A TED primer of 11 classic TED Talks. Think of it as […]
On Sunday in New Orleans, the San Francisco 49ers will face off with the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII. For the first time in Super Bowl history, the head coaches of the two opposing football teams are brothers. John Harbaugh, the older of the brothers, has been the head coach for the Ravens since 2008. […]
You may have heard of Google Glass — a new venture by Google, where a user wears a head-mounted display (think, futuristic sunglasses) that overlays digital information and images onto the physical world. Tom Chi was on the team that developed Google Glass, and spoke about the experience at TEDYouth. In this newly released TED-Ed […]
Artist Julie Freeman uses data as a source material to make biologically inspired artworks — giving musicality to the movement of fish and expressing city lights in the quiver of moths’ wings. Now she’s finding ways to translate data so that we may gain new perspectives on what it’s trying to tell us. What do […]
By Shyam Sankar and Gabe Rosen The Internet is the new Wild West, a frontier big enough for every pioneer and outlaw to roam free. Today, The New York Times revealed that hackers in China had spent the last four months infiltrating its computer systems and pilfering employee passwords. As in the old West, it’s […]
[ted id=1660] The glittering skyline of Doha, the capital of Qatar, has become famous in recent years. But as Fahad Al-Attiya points out in today’s talk, the ability for any city to grow in Qatar is surprising. After all, this is a country without any water. Al-Attiya, the chair of Qatar’s National Food Security Programme, […]
By Courtney E. Martin & John Cary Pregnancy is supposed to be about life. And yet, every day, 800 women across the globe die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In Malawi, which has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, a shocking 1 in 36 pregnant women die rather […]