She’s best described as the modern-day Indiana Jones. Using infrared imagery from satellites, she identifies ancient sites lost in time. In Egypt, she helped locate 17 potential pyramids, plus 1,000 potential forgotten tombs and 3,100 possible lost settlements. That’s in addition to her discoveries throughout the Roman Empire. Sarah Parcak uses 21st century technology to make the […]
An idea alone, even when paired with passion, is not enough to change the world. What makes change really lift off and take hold is collaboration — working together to bridge skills and know-how to transform reality. At TED@StateStreet, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, twelve speakers and two performance groups shared how, together, our collective genius […]
Some inventions are about solving a need. Others are about opening up our understanding of the world. Still others are motivated by a sense of whimsy or adventure. At TED@IBM, 14 speakers shared ideas that fit into all of these categories. Themed “Necessity & Invention,” the second edition of TED@IBM challenged the often-repeated truism and […]
On Wednesday morning at John B. Russwurm Elementary School in Harlem, students pointed excitedly at cat photos on the Internet. No, they weren’t goofing off. They were participating in a “self organized learning environment,” or SOLE, a teaching method where kids are given an open-ended, curiosity-stroking question and asked to research it in small groups. […]
RejectTED Talks. Onion Talks. DED Talks. Here in the TED office, you often hear chuckles as someone watches one of the quickly growing crop of TED spoofs floating in the ether. And surprisingly, there are some pretty good lessons for speakers embedded in these spoofs. See what I mean below. The spoof: Stephen Colbert’s RejecTED Talks […]
Can we build a future without war? What does it take to bring peace? Join those who have experienced every aspect of war — fighters, journalists, psychologists, and more — for a look at the impact of war in the world. TED Talks Live: War and Peace brings a night of thought-provoking talks and performances to New […]
Attention all engineers, inventors, makers, technology professionals and enthusiasts! TED is seeking jaw-dropping tech demos or talks, to be shared at our 2016 conference in Vancouver. The ideal talk/demo will feature a new piece of technology that can be shown in just a few minutes from the stage, tell us about something brand-new, or offer […]
Adriana Eguia Alaniz started her talk in the United States, speaking English. She ended it in Mexico, speaking Spanish. Welcome to TEDxMonumento258, an event held across the US-Mexico border. On September 4, 2015, attendees gathered in both San Diego and Tijuana to watch as ideas permeated the border fence that divides the cities. The organizers […]
In 1831, Michael Faraday stood in a lecture hall and demoed an idea that changed everything: electromagnetic induction. This work paved the way for widespread use of electricity. On September 29, 2015, in the same lecture hall, attendees gathered for TEDGlobal>London to hear more ideas with the potential to shift reality. Sixteen TED speakers shared […]
The MacArthur Foundation revealed its list of 2015 Fellows this morning. Twenty-four people received the “genius grant,” a $625,000 no-strings-attached stipend — and two of them are TED Fellows: Patrick Awuah and LaToya Ruby Frazier. Patrick Awuah founded Ashesi University, a college in his home country of Ghana dedicated to educating Africa’s next generation of leaders by […]
The latest TV show from TED’s creative team spins ideas from TED Talks in new directions — en español. Soy TED, a new Spanish-language TV series about big ideas, premieres on Vme TV this Friday, September 25, at 7pm EST. Each episode of Soy TED centers on a theme — from happiness to exploration to […]
Roman Mars had two ideas for his TED Talk: the talk he thought he should give and the talk he wanted to give. As the creator of 99% Invisible, a podcast about the design elements in life that usually go unnoticed, Mars felt like his talk should tackle the basic principles of design and how […]
Camp: a home under the stars and sun. A space to dream, commune with friends, create — and play. That’s the atmosphere TED Fellows director Tom Rielly wanted to create for this year’s TED Fellows Retreat, which took place at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, August 25-28. To create the look and […]
What will life be like in the year 2035? Will the typical classroom still be full of desks, or some kind of virtual wonderland? What are the issues everyone will be talking about? What kind of work will today’s students be doing? Adults have lots of ideas, but they don’t necessarily have all the answers. […]
How exactly do you ship fragile dinosaur bones? Or move a 12.5-ton locomotive through the air? And what are all the little things that have to happen to get relief supplies delivered when and where they’re needed? Employees at UPS think about these kinds of challenges all the time. It’s why the theme, “Think. Solve, Do.,” […]
The TED community has news to share. Read on for highlights. The rarest animal on Earth, spotted once again. Peter Ward hadn’t seen his “old friend,” the Allonautilus scrobiculatus, since 1984. But he recognized its hairy, slimy, golden shell instantly. Ward wrote about his rediscovery of this creature — alongside its more-common relative, the nautilus, […]