Learn all about the anglerfish! A creepy-looking, deep-sea-dwelling creature that glows!

When the ocean changes, the planet changes -- and it all starts with microbes, says biological oceanographer Angelicque White. Backed by decades of data, White shares how scientists use these ancient microorganisms as a crucial barometer...

Out of billions of galaxies and billions of stars, how do we find Earth-like habitable worlds? What is essential to support life as we know it? Ariel Anbar provides a checklist for finding life on other planets.

An oblate spheroid is a special case of an ellipsoid where two of the semi-principal axes are the same size.

We've found thousands of exoplanets over the years, but if we're going to find one that can sustain life, we need to take a look at the one planet we know that can, Earth.

You don't have to be a scientist to help protect the world's oceans, says underwater drone expert and TED Fellow David Lang -- in fact, ordinary citizens have pulled together to save the planet's natural treasures many times in history....

385 million years ago, a group of fish would undertake one of the most important journeys in the history of life and become the first vertebrates to live on dry ground. But first, they had to acquire the ability to breathe air.

Plastic is an incredible substance for the economy -- and the worst substance possible for the environment, says entrepreneur Andrew Forrest. In a conversation meant to spark debate, Forrest and head of TED Chris Anderson discuss an...

Over the course of hundreds of scuba dives, marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson fell in love -- with a fish. In this ode to parrotfish, she shares five reasons why these creatures are simply amazing (from their ability to poop white...

Although gelatinous animals might seem like simple creatures, they'll probably outlast the rest of us, because being gelatinous might turn out to be the ultimate survival strategy.

Today, we’re going to visit Siberia and take a closer look at how temperatures there (and around the globe) impact the way cultures, communities, and landscapes form. Air temperature plays a much bigger role than just helping us decide...

Today, we're going to take a closer look at how the oceans circulate by following the life of a discarded water bottle as it gets snagged in the North Pacific Garbage Patch. We'll talk about what causes the movement of water, called...

You probably know about the geomagnetic field that protects the earth from solar storms and radiation. But precision satellites have measured ANOTHER magnetic field coming from Earth, and its signals might hold the key to searching for...

We start this new decade knowing that it is the most consequential period in history, says Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot," he calls on us all to rise to our greatest challenge...

One way to help us live on Mars would be to terraform the planet. Some scientists think we might be able to do that by giving it a new magnetic field!

At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on "clean coal."

Antarctica wasn't always covered in kilometer thick ice sheets, in fact, scientists have spent years figuring out what turned this once lush continent into its current icy state.

As small as Jupiter's moons are in comparison to the giant planet, they may actually have an important role to play in keeping each other warm, heating the moons enough to have liquid oceans!

Hamish Jolly, an ocean swimmer in Australia, wanted a wetsuit that would deter a curious shark from mistaking him for a potential source of nourishment. (Which, statistically, is rare, but certainly a fate worth avoiding.) Working with a...

We're headed towards a global food crisis: Nearly 3 billion people depend on the ocean for food, and at our current rate we already take more fish from the ocean than it can naturally replace. In this fact-packed, eye-opening talk,...

James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how...

Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That's the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is...

Life on Earth requires three things: liquid water, a source of energy within a habitable range from the sun and organic carbon-based material. But life is surprisingly resilient, and organisms called extremophiles can be found in hostile...

How is it possible for air-breathing marine mammals like sperm whales and elephant seals to hold their breath for so long?