Adam Spencer isn’t just the host of the Australian radio program Triple J Breakfast Show. He also has a degree in pure mathematics and, in today’s talk, he ascends into “geek heaven” to explains his deep love of massive prime numbers, the largest of which was discovered earlier this year and is 17.5 million digits […]
Our office might be closed for summer vacation, but the TED Fellows are hard at work at the very first TED Fellows Retreat, happening now in Whistler, British Columbia. Because the Fellows have proliferated since the program officially launched in 2009, many of these extraordinary thinkers have never had a chance to meet and conspire. And thus, the TED […]
Time off is a beautiful thing. It’s also an essential — the thing we all need to breathe deeply, enjoy life, and come back to work refreshed. This was the point of Stefan Sagmeister’s talk, The Power of Time Off. In it, he shares that every seven years, he takes a year-long sabbatical. We in […]
[ted id=853] Malaria kills about 2,000 people every day. The mosquito-borne disease has ravaged the equatorial areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, where a combination of poverty and climate make a dangerous breeding ground for disease. There is currently no vaccine. But Nathan Myhrvold has a solution. In his talk and demonstration […]
The venue that housed TEDxKalamata certainly had some history: held in an ancient amphitheater, this was the first TEDx event in an archaeological site. To be specific, the location was an ancient outdoor ekklesiasterion (assembly hall) in Messene, Greece, that has been used for public gatherings since 369 B.C. At TEDxKalamata, 18 speakers and 50 volunteers […]
“Dream me. Build me. Make me real.” This is the driving philosophy behind TEDCity2.0, happening Friday, Sept. 20. To visually represent the event, curators Courtney Martin and John Cary turned to the design firm Kiss Me I’m Polish, who created a set of posters keyed into the idea of collective creation. See, these posters are customizable, […]
When TED began in 1984, it was simply a conference. But in the 30 years since, we’ve grown into an international organization with a constellation of departments and initiatives — TED.com, two annual classes of TED Fellows, the million dollar TED Prize, the student-friendly TED-Ed, the business-focused TED Institute. To help you keep it all […]
Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of fascinating TED-related news items. Here, some highlights. Yesterday, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder announced a major relaxing of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug possession. He asked prosecutors to use their discretion when charging nonviolent, low-level offenders and opt not to list the quantities of drugs involved […]
Architect Shigeru Ban uses paper tubes to build temporary, ecologically sustainable structures. These geometrically complex structures can be big and impressive — like a concave complex built for Expo 2000 in Germany — or small and functional, like the half-pipe office Ban built for himself atop the Pompadou Center in Paris. No matter their size […]
TED Talks are available in 102 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our volunteer translators. So far, more than 10,000 volunteers have created nearly 45,000 talk translations — and today, the TED Blog brings you a Q&A with one of them. Here, meet French and Urdu translator Shadia Ramsahye. 1. Where […]
[ted id=310] Hypnosis is a source of both debate and fear. It’s an intimidating thought that the subconscious mind can listen and react to outside sources. But there are still many questions to be answered: Does the subconscious work independently of the conscious mind? Is it programmed by experiences or instructions? These are questions posed […]
This week’s TED Radio Hour examines the hacker, a term often associated with computer crime. But, as host Guy Raz tells us, “All of our TED speakers today are hacking for good — hacking into our brains, into the environment, even into the DNA of extinct animals — hackers trying to save the world.” First […]
The star attraction on the TEDx Blog this week: penguins. The site featured a post containing two moving TEDx Talks on the ooooh and ahhhh-worthy animals — one on an epic mass rescue (above) and a second (below) on a brief but inspiring encounter. In these two talks you can see the informative and inspiring […]
Around the world, cities are growing at an exceptionally fast clip. As the oft-quoted statistic goes, by 2030, 6 out of every 10 people on the planet will live in a city. So how do we make sure our urban areas are filled with beauty, complexity and possibility rather than simply with overcrowding? TED is […]
During her freshman year of college, Eleanor Longden began hearing voices: a narrator describing her actions as she went about her day. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Longden began what she describes as a “psychic civil war,” fighting to stop the voices as they became antagonistic. What helped her was something unexpected: making peace with them. By […]
By Logan Smalley In a job market where many top jobs didn’t even exist a decade ago, how can teachers help prepare students for careers that haven’t been invented yet? While preparing students for careers is not the sole purpose of education, it’s clear that teachers and guidance counselors are working hard to help students […]