The path to better food is paved with data, says entrepreneur Erin Baumgartner. Drawing from her experience running a farm-to-table business, she outlines her plan to help create a healthier, zero-waste food system that values the...

What is the best voting system? Voting seems relatively straightforward, yet four of the most widely used voting systems can produce four completely different winners.

Aliens - Are We Looking in the Wrong Place?

Artist Aaron Koblin takes vast amounts of data -- and at times vast numbers of people -- and weaves them into stunning visualizations. From elegant lines tracing airline flights to landscapes of cell phone data, from a Johnny Cash video...

Most spiders are solitary creatures, but a few species group up instead, creating giant colonies where they live and hunt together.

What if we could diagnose some of the world's deadliest diseases by the smells our bodies give off? In a fascinating talk and live demo, biologist James Logan introduces Freya, a malaria-sniffing dog, to show how we can harness the...

Some people think that being a fighter pilot and a parent means that you will have a household full of daughters - but does the data back that up?

Most animals keep their poop chutes on the opposite side of their body from where they eat. But that doesn’t mean it’s always the case, and bryozoans are great examples of how creative you can get with where you put your anus.

So last week we talked about what special interest groups are and how they influence the political system, and today we’re going to focus on why we even have them in the first place. As to avoid getting too cynical, we’re going to focus...

A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.

We need to change how we prescribe drugs, says physician Daniel Kraft: too often, medications are dosed incorrectly, cause toxic side effects or just don't work. In a talk and concept demo, Kraft shares his vision for a future of...

Some birds fly in V shapes because it has many benefits, but other birds fly in clumps instead. Why would they do that?

There's a job out there with a great deal of power, pay, prestige, and near-perfect job-security. And there's only one way to be hired: get appointed to the US Supreme Court. But how do US Supreme Court Justices actually get that honor?...

Today, artificial intelligence helps doctors diagnose patients, pilots fly commercial aircraft, and city planners predict traffic. These AIs are often self-taught, working off a simple set of instructions to create a unique array of...

Social entrepreneur Bernhard Kowatsch shares real-life examples of how a business approach focused on accelerating tech (like a blockchain-supported way to bring food to refugees or a machine that fortifies flour at small mills in...

Hank discusses some new research that studied what makes us unhappy with ourselves and with other people, focusing on homophobia and consumerism.

What can you do to build a better world? Sharing stories from her pioneering career dedicated to tackling poverty, Jacqueline Novogratz offers three principles to spark and sustain a moral revolution. Learn how you can commit (or...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how immune individuals in a population give the entire group a herd immunity. Concepts of immunity, vaccines, basic reproduction number, and herd immunity threshold are discussed.

Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some...

Introduction to probability density functions.

Hank explains the evolutionary basis for altruistic behavior in animals, including vampire bats!

In the 1600s, the Dutch East India Company employed hundreds of ships to trade goods around the globe. In order to fund their voyages, the company turned to private citizens to invest money to support trips in exchange for a share of the...

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: a new crayfish population made entirely of asexually reproducing, all-female clones. But is it a new species?

The basic idea of human rights is that each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are born, is entitled to the same basic rights and freedoms. That may sound straightforward enough, but it gets incredibly complicated as soon as...