“The universe is teeming with planets,” and Jeremy Kasdin, an astronomer at Princeton University, wants to see them. Not in the way they’ve been detected so far, but directly. He wants to build a space telescope that will image a planet around another star and tell if it harbors life. There is probably one per star […]
What does augmented reality—and football—have to do with empathy? A lot, says Chris Kluwe, former NFL punter and author of the book Beautifully Unique Sparkle Ponies. “Augmented reality is not science fiction,” he says.”Augmented reality will happen in our lifetime. And it will change our lives as much as the Internet.” Kluwe is wearing the first […]
Del Harvey is watching what you’re doing on Twitter. Head of the Trust and Safety Team at the social network, she develops ways to keep Twitter’s 240 million-plus users safe. With that many people — sending 500 million tweets every day — dangerous things are bound to happen, she says at TED2014. For Harvey, the […]
“What do you think of when I say the word design?” Margaret Gould Stewart, director of product design at Facebook, is here to talk about the kind of design that you normally don’t think about — the design of digital systems that are used by billions of people each day. As examples, Steward reminds the audience […]
Technology is always a big theme at TED (it’s the “T,” after all), and in this session we draw back the curtain to take a closer look at what’s really going on within some of the world’s most influential companies. But this isn’t just about the current headline-grabbers. Speakers will also share thoughts and demos […]
“Right now you have a movie playing inside your head,” says philosopher David Chalmers. It’s an amazing movie, with 3D, smell, taste, touch, a sense of body, pain, hunger, emotions, memories, and a constant voice-over narrative. “At the heart of this movie is you, experiencing this, directly. This movie is your stream of consciousness, experience […]
In 1902, bears in the United States were symbols of all the dangers of the frontier. Bears were called “murderers” for their tendency to attack livestock, and they were being systematically killed by the federal government. That was, until President Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Mississippi on a hunting trip. Roosevelt had finished for the day, […]
“The world makes you something that you’re not — but you know inside what you are.” Model and activist Geena Rocero opens her powerful talk in the first session on Wednesday, March 19, at TED2014. Rocero, poised in sky-high black patent heels, shows photos from throughout her modeling career: bold, bikini-ed, confident. Her career as […]
Stephen Friend wants your genes — no, really. Today at TED2014 he announced the Resilience Project, a new crowdsourced effort to understand the quirks and patterns of human genetic code that control — and could help treat — genetic diseases. Thirty years ago, the open-science advocate was working as a pediatric oncologist at the Children’s […]
The ancient Egyptians went to great pains to preserve the body for the afterlife. But there was one part of the body they didn’t bother with: the brain. Instead, they mashed it up, pulled it out of the nose and discarded it. Rob Knight wonders: Is there a part of our bodies that has just as […]
Watch this talk on TED.com Onstage at TED, Nancy Kanwisher starts by telling us one of the most surprising results from recent neuroscience discoveries: The brain is not a general-purpose processor, but a collection of specialized components, “collectively building up who we are as human beings and thinkers.” Imagine, she says, walking into a daycare center and […]
To break up a dense (and early) morning session all about Us, performance artist Ze Frank wants to do a quick human test. He asks you to raise your hand when a question applies. Answer honestly. This is a safe space. Ready? Let’s begin: Have you ever eaten a booger long past your childhood? Have you […]
Elizabeth Gilbert has written a memoir so famous that strangers think she’s the author of the book … based on the movie. It sounds like a problem any writer would love to have, but to Gilbert, writing post-Eat Pray Love, seemed an impossible task. Says Gilbert in the final Wednesday session at TED2014, “How in […]
Who are we? What are we doing here? Such thoughts plague more than just angst-filled teenagers. In this session, speakers take a piercing look at these and other complex questions, challenging preconceived notions of who we really are (let’s not forget microbes), how the brain works — and how consciousness fits into the equation. Here […]
In January, Alex Trebek read the following Final Jeopardy! prompt: “This intellectual forum started in 1984, bringing together people from three different industries, hence its 3-letter name.” The answer, of course: What is TED? Tonight, Jeopardy! took its TED enthusiasm to the next level, with a full category about TED Talks. See if you can answer some […]
So what went down at TED on day two? Well, a lot, as it happens. As curator Chris Anderson commented rather tiredly later, “that was the most intense day of TED I can remember, ever.” Here, a lightning round-up of some of the day’s key moments. Edward Snowden trundles onto stage The first big surprise […]