[ted id=1568]“It’s a great time to be a molecular biologist,” Ellen Jorgensen says in today’s TED Talk, given at TEDGlobal 2012. The realm of biotechnology is growing fast, she says, and advances are coming down the pipeline at a rapid clip. And yet, scientists aren’t so good at communicating to the public what is going […]
Last weekend, TED curator Chris Anderson sat down with CNN Money and shared a bold idea with host Ali Velshi: that ideas can make for a better future, with more pie for us all to enjoy. “A lot of the talks are about ways of repatterning the future. We have these different words for it […]
Got a case of the Mondays? We’re hoping that this performance from TEDxFIU might be enough to snap you out it. In this video, Peruvian and Japanese musician Tony Succar gives an big band tribute to his favorite musician, Michael Jackson, imagining what his classic songs would sound like with Latin flair. Get ready to […]
[ted id=1646]For a teenage girl, few things are more awkward than developing a good relationship with her father. This is something that Angela Patton knows well after years of listening to the girls at Camp Diva, her nonprofit dedicated to empowering African-American girls, talk about their dads. Patton wanted to help her campers find a […]
On Friday, Aaron Swartz — the 26-year-old internet innovator who helped create RSS and had a hand in the building of Reddit — was found dead in his apartment in an apparent suicide. Swartz, who suffered from depression, had reportedly found out just days before that a plea bargain deal with federal prosecutors had fallen […]
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: Dinos! and War stories. Dinos! It’s truly astonishing: Once upon a time, giant beasts the size of buildings roamed our Earth. What were they like, and what […]
Enjoy a sampling of the stories from around the internet that captured our interest this week: This look at the dramatic rise of MOOCs and other online college offerings points out a basic conundrum: can these courses make money? [The New York Times] Several TED speakers have given talks about online education this year: Peter […]
We asked three TED Fellows who work in the briny depths — whale researcher Asha de Vos, coral reef biologist Kristen Marhaver and artist Colleen Flanigan — to discuss how science and art are working in tandem to help the world fully appreciate our vanishing marine life. Describe what you do and what you’re working […]
TED Talks are available in 94 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our translators. So far, more than 8,500 volunteers have created the upwards of 33,000 translated talks. To celebrate this huge accomplishment, every week the TED Blog will be bringing you a Q&A with one of our most prolific […]
[ted id=1640]Many people have tried to sell me on the idea of meditating. Sometimes I try it, and have an incredible, refreshing experience. But usually, as I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, while I know that I’m supposed to be letting all thoughts go, more and more fly through my mind. Soon […]
[ted id=1645 width=560 height=315] When Celine, a housewife in West Cameroon, was diagnosed with HIV six years ago, she signed up to be part of a clinical trial that gave her the antiretroviral drugs she needed, for free. However, when doctor and clinical researcher Boghuma Kabisen Titanji met Celine five years later, she had gone […]
[ted id=1644 width=560 height=315]Jarrett J. Krosoczka — the man behind the Lunch Lady crime-fighting graphic novel series — credits his imagination with saving his life. In today’s talk, given at TEDxHampshireCollege, Krosoczka shares the story of how he became a children’s book author and illustrator. It isn’t a story full of rainbows and kittens — […]
Mexico City is home to nearly 9 million people. The 8th largest city economy in the world, Mexico City is bursting with energy, vibrancy and color. But at the same time, it is also facing a health crisis. Diabetes has crept up to become the leading cause of preventable death in Mexico — with about […]
Icarus is a mythological character with incredible staying power. Everyone knows his story — his dad made him wings to help him escape the minotaur’s labyrinth, and warned him not to fly too close to the sun lest his wings melt. Amazed to be flying, however, Icarus didn’t listen and tumbled into the ocean. It’s […]
[ted id=1643 width=560 height=315]Sue Austin’s first ride in a wheelchair was an exhilarating one. “An extended illness had changed the way I could access the world … I’d seen my life slip away and become restricted,” explains Austin in today’s talk, which was given at TEDxWomen in December. “When I started using the wheelchair 16 years ago, […]
We’re just a week into 2013, and the year seems filled with possibility. The turn of the New Year is generally an occasion to look back and reflect on the year that’s passed — the victories and defeats, the lives lost and the experiences found. But after we look back, we inevitably turn forward. We […]