In 2002, investigative journalist and TED Fellow Will Potter took a break from his regular beat, writing about shootings and murders for the Chicago Tribune. He went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing: "I thought it...

Today, Craig is going to talk about the most important part of the Constitution - the Fourteenth Amendment. In particular, we're going to discuss the "equal protection" clause and how it relates to our civil rights. So we've spent the...

We don’t know what happens to stuff when it gets sucked into a black hole, but in the same instance, we don’t know what happens to the black hole. There’s a possibility that sucked up stuff might actually give the black hole “quantum hair”.

Hank looks for some things science can add to the conversation about guns and gun violence in the wake of the tragedy last week in Newtown, Connecticut.

Our deepest sympathies are with the community of Sandy Hook, and with anyone...

Why is the past different from the future? Caltech physicist Sean Carroll explains how the arrow of time is not an intrinsic property of physics, but rather an emergent feature.

Rising inequality and growing political instability are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory, says entrepreneur Nick Hanauer. In a visionary talk, he dismantles the mantra that "greed is good" -- an idea he describes as...

Just a few days before he died, Stephen Hawking submitted one last research paper using string theory math to talk about the multiverse.

Last week we lost legendary scientist Stephen Hawking. To honor of one of the greatest legacies in cosmology, we wanted to celebrate and unpack some of his most famous findings.

Feeling safe is a human right -- but in many African countries, colonial-era laws make it dangerous for LGBTQIA+ people to gather and share their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Creating a space that leaves no...

At TED U, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do -- and why a little danger is good for both kids and grownups.

This week Craig Benzine discuses bureaucracies. Bureaucracies tend to be associated with unintelligible rules and time-wasting procedures, but they play an important, though controversial, role in governing. From the FDA to the EPA,...

The word "theory" is used very differently in casual everyday life vs. in science. In science, the word "theory" means so much more! Learn about what a scientific theory is with The Amoeba Sisters and discover why a scientific theory...

Political prisoners aren't the only ones being tortured -- the vast majority of judicial torture happens in ordinary cases, even in 'functioning' legal systems. Social activist Karen Tse shows how we can, and should, stand up and end the...

Can you imagine a future where wars are fought not with bombs and bullets but computer viruses and pacemaker shutdowns? Cyberware is unique in that it is not covered by existing legal framework and it often inspires more questions than...

We don't just need better laws -- we need better culture. Nate Garvis asks: What can we do to create an environment in which powerful institutions are used for the common good?

As a young girl, photojournalist and TED Fellow Kitra Cahana dreamed about running away from home to live freely on the road. Now as an adult and self-proclaimed vagabond, she follows modern nomads into their homes -- boxcars, bus stops,...

You botched your forward double somersault and biffed it hard on the water. Why does it have to hurt so bad?

Could DAOs, or "decentralized autonomous organizations," be the key to building the next great city? Experimental urbanist Scott Fitsimones shares how these mission-driven, blockchain-governed, collectively owned organizations could...

Be it Elliott Smith or Queen, classical or dub step, there's usually a clear understanding that some songs are sad, and some songs are happy. But what is it about the music that makes us feel these feelings we're feeling?

When Esta Soler lobbied for a bill outlawing domestic violence in 1984, one politician called it the "Take the Fun Out of Marriage Act." "If only I had Twitter then," she mused. In this sweeping, optimistic talk, Soler charts 30 years of...

It’s usually not a great idea to break laws, but breaking the laws of science is an exception! In fact, it’s often how we make progress.

In 1956, a team of scientists conducted an experiment that, seemed kind of trivial, but the results would challenge one of our fundamental beliefs about the entire universe.

The fact that no one knows the answer to this question is what makes it exciting. The story of physics has been one of an ever-expanding understanding of the sheer scale of reality, to the point where physicists are now postulating that...

With words like shards of glass, Chinaka Hodge cuts open 2016 and lets 12 months of violence, grief, fear, shame, courage and hope spill out in this original poem about a year none of us will soon forget.