Max Little, MIT postdoc and TED Fellow, shares this news: 6.3 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s, which means that many of us know someone suffering from this incurable disease. Although no biomarkers for the disease are currently known, Max’s research has shown that using voice recordings alone, it is possible to quantify the symptoms of […]
Humanity is generating a huge explosion of data, information that can be used for or against us. How can we democratise access to it? With the Vibrant Data Project, complexity scientist Eric Berlow has created – in collaboration with artist and designer David Gurman – Tru North MAPPR, a revolutionary new tool that harnesses the […]
Going to an outdoor event during the steamy months of summer generally involves packing a miniature fan and slathering yourself in sunscreen, as most venues do little to shade attendees in the cheap seats. This is something Wolfgang Kessling, of the German climate engineering firm Transsolar, would like to change. In a talk at the […]
They say that change is hard, but this is one that will be easy to roll with. TED.com has a new, improved video player, built in large part thanks to your user requests. What should you expect? For starters, higher quality video, easier-to-read (and find) subtitles, and a toolbar that makes sharing, rating and favoriting […]
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/43684443 w=500&h=281] Illusionist Marco Tempest is known for making magic out of new technology, memorably using iPods culled from the TED audience for his talk about the beauty of deception. But for his newest TEDTalk, Tempest reaches to the past to create visual wizardry, telling the story of inventor Nikola Tesla using the principles […]
By far the most viewed talk from TED2012 was given by an introvert who doesn’t like talking. Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, quietly and powerfully delivered a call to action: take introverts seriously and understand what they can do in the right environment. There is, […]
Biomineralogist Damian Palin (watch his TED Talk) collaborates with bacteria to mine valuable minerals from desalination brine, the toxic byproduct of desalinating seawater — creating wealth from waste while protecting the environment. You work in the field of geomicrobiology. What is it, and why is it becoming increasingly important? Geomicrobiology is a field of science […]
At TEDMED 2012, Rebecca Onie stunned the audience with her blockbuster talk on a new vision for health care. She is the founder of Health Leads, an organization that brings an elite, competitive team of college volunteers into hospitals and clinics — a team that connects patients to services that help provide food, housing, insurance […]
What’s next for Joshua Klein, the man who built a vending machine for crows? The versatile hacker is the new host of the National Geographic show The Link, in which he travels the world to research and reveal the origins of some of history’s most important technological innovations, like Greek fire and the Chinese long […]
Prize-winning novelist and MD Uzodinma Iweala traveled to Nigeria to talk to everyday people, doctors, government officials, activists, sex workers, even Femi Kuti — Fela Kuti’s son — about HIV/AIDS. Our Kind of People is his highly personal account of the AIDS epidemic and its transformative effect on love, relationships and humanity. Healing requires more […]
Guest blogger Deirdre Barrett is a psychologist who researches dreams and sleep — and explores how dreams can be used to unlock waking-world problems. In this post, she looks at the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, which recently featured a cartoon involving what might be a TED speaker’s worst nightmare … It started when, over […]
At TEDxSummit, Walters Art Museum curator William Noel gave this fascinating talk on revealing the lost codex of Archimedes. The TED Blog caught up with him to talk about the digital future of a traditionally closed institution: the art museum. As with the Archimedes codex, the Walters Art Museum’s online collection operates under the Creative […]
We love this time of year, when the graduation addresses start hitting YouTube. This year’s included some wonders — and TED-Ed is busy turning them into flipped lessons! Check out these three: Neil Gaiman at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Speaking at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, writer Neil Gaiman tells the graduating […]
CERN particle physicist Bilge Demirköz investigates everything from dark matter to the possibility of antigalaxies, trying to understand what we — and the universe — are made of. What is it about space and the investigation of dark matter and antimatter that captures your imagination? Well to me, the question is, Why are we here? […]
We’ve heard the statistics. Obesity has more than doubled worldwide since 1980. For the first time in history, being overweight is killing more people than being underweight. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Where do we begin to tackle such an immense problem? There is […]
Explore these TEDTalks that discuss income inequality — what causes it, the brutal effects, and how we might fight it. Start with this talk from Richard Wilkinson, whose 2009 book The Spirit Level gathers decades of research to draw this conclusion: Societies with more income inequality suffer — in utterly predictable ways — more than […]