By 2050, it will take 100 billion land animals to provide the world's population with meat, dairy, eggs and leather goods. Maintaining this herd will take a huge, potentially unsustainable toll on the planet. What if there were a...

Sad but true: Many of the cures and vaccines our world desperately needs -- for illnesses millions of people have -- just aren't being produced or developed, because there's no financial incentive. Thomas Pogge proposes a $6 billion plan...

We've heard a lot of rhetoric lately suggesting that countries like the uS are losing valuable manufacturing jobs to lower-cost markets like China, Mexico and Vietnam -- and that protectionism is the best way forward. But those jobs...

We've made incredible advances in technology in recent years, but too often it seems only certain fortunate people can benefit. Engineer Krista Donaldson introduces the ReMotion knee, a prosthetic device for above-knee amputees, many of...

When we throw away our plastic trash, where does it go? In this hard-hitting talk, Van Jones shows us how our throwaway culture hits poor people and poor countries "first and worst," with consequences we all share no matter where we...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how an overall chemical reaction is made up of several elementary steps. The stoichiometry of this equation can be predicted but the rate law must be measured. If the elementary steps of the...

Building a skyscraper? Forget about steel and concrete, says architect Michael Green, and build it out of … wood. As he details in this intriguing talk, it's not only possible to build safe wooden structures up to 30 stories tall (and,...

The water hyacinth may look like a harmless, even beautiful flowering plant -- but it's actually an invasive aquatic weed that clogs waterways, stopping trade, interrupting schooling and disrupting everyday life. In this scourge, green...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how disturbances to a reversible reaction at equilibrium affect the equilibrium constant and the reaction quotient. For example if the concentration is changed the reaction will move to reestablish...

Many people are looking for ways to reduce their consumption of animal products. And these days, there are a ton of plant-based alternatives to help them do that. But many companies are working on ways to make animal-free animal products...

How do you build a product people really want? Allow consumers to be a part of the process. "empathy for what your customers want is probably the biggest leading indicator of business success," says designer Tom Hulme. In this short...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how you can drive non spontaneous processes by adding external energy (like electricity or light) or by coupling it to a spontaneous process (like the conversion of ATP to ADP)

No business, no matter how innovative and amazing it is, will survive if people haven’t heard of it. If people don’t know something exists, they’ll never be able to purchase it. It’s time to work on our communication skills.

Facebook's "like" and "share" buttons are seen 22 billion times a day, making them some of the most-viewed design elements ever created. Margaret Gould Stewart, Facebook's director of product design, outlines three rules for design at...

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than...

Can India become a global hub for innovation? Nirmalya Kumar thinks it already has. He details four types of "invisible innovation" coming out of India and explains why companies that used to just outsource manufacturing jobs are...

Starting with the simple tale of an ant, philosopher Dan Dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of memes -- concepts that are literally alive.

Business in Africa is booming -- but international companies are missing out, says emerging markets expert Nomava Zanazo. Rushing in without knowing their customers, businesses underestimate Africans and make costly assumptions about...

Smuggling yourself aboard the rogue submarine was the easy part. Hacking into the nuclear missile launch override — a little harder. And you've got a problem: you don't have the override code. You know you need the same numbers that were...

IKEA currently makes up 0.1 percent of all global carbon emissions -- but by 2030, they're planning to be carbon negative across their business. Discussing new thinking about the lifespan of their products, from the forest to the...

In the 1600s, an expansive autonomous settlement called Palmares reached its height in Brazil. It was founded and led by people escaping from slavery, also called maroons. It was one of the world's largest maroon communities, its...

Christien Meindertsma, author of "Pig 05049" looks at the astonishing afterlife of the ordinary pig, parts of which make their way into at least 185 non-pork products, from bullets to artificial hearts.

Navi Radjou has spent years studying "jugaad," also known as frugal innovation. Pioneered by entrepreneurs in emerging markets who figured out how to get spectacular value from limited resources, the practice has now caught on globally....

A small correction for the integer multiplication algorithm mentioned at the end. A “straightforward” application of FFT results in a runtime of O(N * log(n) log(log(n)) ). That log(log(n)) term is tiny, but it is only...