Expensive to build and often needing highly skilled engineers to maintain, artificial intelligence systems generally only pay off for large tech companies with vast amounts of data. But what if your local pizza shop could use AI to...

Designer Bastian Schaefer shows off a speculative design for the future of jet planes, with a skeleton inspired by strong, flexible, natural forms and by the needs of the world's, ahem, growing population. Imagine an airplane that's full...

America was built by makers -- curious, enthusiastic amateur inventors whose tinkering habit sparked whole new industries. At TED@MotorCity, MAKE magazine publisher Dale Dougherty says we're all makers at heart, and shows cool new tools...

elon Musk discusses his new project digging tunnels under LA, the latest from Tesla and SpaceX and his motivation for building a future on Mars in conversation with TeD's Head Curator, Chris Anderson.

The divisiveness plaguing American politics today is nothing new, says constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman. In fact, it dates back to the early days of the republic, when a dispute between Alexander Hamilton and James Madison led the...

The transistors that power the phone in your pocket are unimaginably small: you can fit more than 3,000 of them across the width of a human hair. But to keep up with innovations in fields like facial recognition and augmented reality, we...

economic growth has been slowing for the past 50 years, but relief might come from an unexpected place -- a new form of manufacturing that is neither what you thought it was nor where you thought it was. Industrial systems thinker...

A recent study has concluded that people all over the world are probably ingesting microscopic plastic all the time. Now scientists want to know where this plastic is coming from, how it ends up inside of us, and the damage it could do...

Is our obsession with efficiency actually making us less efficient? In this revelatory talk, writer and historian Edward Tenner discusses the promises and dangers of our drive to get things done as quickly as possible -- and suggests...

Hank shares the latest ambitious project from SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk: The Gigafactory. Learn more about how batteries work, what the big deal is about lithium, and why people are getting so charged up. See what we did...

Soybeans have been cultivated in Asia for thousands of years, and have since spread across the globe. Today, soy is in so many foods that most people consume it every day without even knowing it. So, what makes soybeans so versatile? And...

"Remember before the internet?" asks Joi Ito. "Remember when people used to try to predict the future?" In this engaging talk, the head of the MIT Media Lab skips the future predictions and instead shares a new approach to creating in...

Just like his beloved grandfather, Avi Reichental is a maker of things. The difference is, now he can use 3D printers to make almost anything, out of almost any material. Reichental tours us through the possibilities of 3D printing, for...

The only way we're going to make substantial progress on the challenging problems of our time is for business to drive the solutions, says social impact strategist Wendy Woods. In a data-packed talk, Woods shares a fresh way to assess...

In this live, unedited conversation, Elon Musk -- the head of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company -- digs into the recent news around his bid to purchase Twitter and gets honest about the biggest regret of his career, how his...

People have been using silkworm silk to make stuff for thousands of years, but spider silk could potentially be even more useful. It's stronger than steel, super stretchy, and could be made into anything from bridge cables to...

In which John Green teaches you about the economic malaise that beset the United States in the 1970s. A sort of perfect storm of events, it combined the continuing decline of America's manufacturing base and the oil shocks of 1973 and...

Here's a paradox you don't hear much about: despite a century of creating machines to do our work for us, the proportion of adults in the uS with a job has consistently gone up for the past 125 years. Why hasn't human labor become...

Australians call them “runners." The British know them as “trainers.” Americans refer to them as “sneakers.” Whatever you call them, these casual shoes are worn by billions of people around the world. Today, roughly 23 billion shoes are...

New ReviewDespite an economic turnaround in recent decades, Italy is split into two very different halves. Northern Italy is the country’s economic powerhouse, and the Lombardy region, which produces about 40 percent of Italy’s GDP, is at its...

New ReviewDid you know that France is a leading industrialized country with one of the world's largest economies? In fact, it's a main global exporter. Learn more about France’s key economic sectors and industries. Explore the country’s role and...

New ReviewWith the signing of its constitution in 1993, South Africa was divided into nine provinces, each with its own capital, legislature, and unique characteristics. The four provinces of the greatest economic importance and with the highest...

New ReviewA high percentage of women in Singapore are educated and have professional training. This should come as no surprise considering the emphasis the society places on education and learning a skill or profession. Almost all women work, even...

New ReviewFrom its early days of independence, Singapore set about becoming a major player in the competitive world of international business. Since 1968, the economic growth been enviable, and Singapore is among the most competitive nations in...