Almost all matter in the universe should have been annihilated shortly after the Big Bang, but looking around, we see galaxies, stars, planets, and, you know... us. So obviously that didn't happen, and the why of it may have something to...

Our fundamental picture of the universe seems pretty nearly complete these days, to the point that some people are suggesting that we’ve arrived at some version of “the end of physics.” And sure, physics is at a turning point, but it...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Sexting, like anything that's fun, runs its risks -- but a serious violation of privacy shouldn't be one of them....

Two developments in quantum computing in the past couple of weeks are the harbingers of a whole new era of smart technology. Google announced that it's building a quantum computer designed by a company called D-Wave in partnership with...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. What can you do if you're the victim of revenge porn or cyberbullying? Shockingly little, says journalist and...

Today, we’re going to take a look at how the government plays a role in the economy. Specifically, the way the government creates and maintains our market economic system. Now sure, the government’s role in the economy can be...

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln legally changed the status of over 3 million people from "slave" to "free." But his emancipation proclamation wasn't a law - it was an executive order. The framers of the American Constitution made...

Even as the Deepwater Horizon tragedy unfolded, Carl Safina took the stage at TEDxOilSpill to share what the facts were known at the time. In a blood-boiling cross-examination, he suggests that the consequences will stretch far beyond...

Cities have been working hard to transform the areas around roads into healthy habitats for important pollinating insects. And these insects seem to love our roadside landscapes, but these areas might also be luring them to their...

A white, puffy dress. Eternal love. A joint tax return. Marriage means something different to everyone and has changed over time and across cultures. Alex Gendler traces the history of getting hitched, providing insights on polygamy,...

Today, one of the biggest paradoxes in the universe threatens to unravel modern science: the black hole information paradox. Every object in the universe is composed of particles with unique quantum properties and even if an object is...

Tech that can decode your brain activity and reveal what you're thinking and feeling is on the horizon, says legal scholar and ethicist Nita Farahany. What will it mean for our already violated sense of privacy? In a cautionary talk,...

After a long day working on the particle accelerator, you and your friends head to the arcade to unwind. The lights go out for a second, and when they come back, there before you gleams a foosball table. Always game, you insert your...

Today we're learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought millions of captive Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, with the largest number of people trafficked between 1700 and 1808. We'll look at...

Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data...

Our universe is prone to increasing disorder and chaos. So how did it generate the extreme complexity we see in life? Actually, the laws of physics themselves may demand it.

Every day, we move and operate within systems of power that other people have constructed. But we're often uncomfortable talking about power. Why? Eric Liu describes the six sources of power and explains how understanding them is key to...

This week Craig continues our conversation on presidential powers by looking at those NOT found in the Constitution - implied or inherent powers. We’ll talk about how the president uses his or her power to negotiate executive agreements,...

The idea of conservation might seem like a thing that’s only popped up in the last century or so, but organized efforts to conserve resources that directly benefit humans go back centuries!

Designer Jared Ficklin creates wild visualizations that let us see music, using color and even fire (a first for the TED stage) to analyze how sound makes us feel. He takes a brief digression to analyze the sound of a skatepark -- and...

In which John Green explores exactly when Rome went from being the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Here's a hint: it had something to do with Julius Caesar, but maybe less than you think. Find out how Caesar came to rule the empire,...

In which Craig Benzine teaches you about the US Governments Separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. In theory, the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Brach are designed to keep each other in...

Most of us take gravity as an assumed part of our living realities, but why? Basic physics introduces us to the concept of gravity from a Newtonian sense, but when you start factoring Einstein into an understanding of gravity, things get...

Entropy is surely one of the most intriguing and misunderstood concepts in all of physics. The entropy of the universe must always increase - so says the second law of thermodynamics. It's a law that seems emergent from deeper laws - ...