TED Talks
Paul MacCready: A flight on solar wings
Paul MacCready -- aircraft designer, environmentalist, and lifelong lover of flight -- talks about his long career.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do ventilators work?
In the 16th century, physician Andreas Vesalius described how a suffocating animal could be kept alive by inserting a tube into its trachea and blowing air to inflate its lungs. Today, Vesalius’s treatise is recognized as the first...
TED-Ed
How does ultrasound work? | Jacques S. Abramowicz
In a dark cave, bats can't see much. But even with their eyes shut, they can navigate rocky topography at incredible speeds. This is because bats aren't just guided by their eyes, but rather, by their ears. It may seem impossible to see...
TED Talks
Joshua Silver: Adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses
Josh Silver delivers his brilliantly simple solution for correcting vision at the lowest cost possible -- adjustable, liquid-filled lenses. At TEDGlobal 2009, he demos his affordable eyeglasses and reveals his global plan to distribute...
TED Talks
TED: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions | John Koenig
John Koenig loves finding words that express our unarticulated feelings -- like "lachesism," the hunger for disaster, and "sonder," the realization that everyone else's lives are as complex and unknowable as our own. Here, he meditates...
TED Talks
Majd Mashharawi: How I'm making bricks out of ashes and rubble in Gaza
Majd Mashharawi was walking through her war-torn neighborhood in Gaza when an idea flashed in her mind: What if she could take the rubble and transform it into building materials? See how she designed a brick made out of ashes that's...
TED Talks
TED: The future we're building -- and boring | elon Musk
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.
TED-Ed
How much land does it take to power the world? | TED-Ed
No matter how we make electricity, it takes up space. Coal requires mines, and plants to convert it into electricity. Nuclear power takes uranium mines, facilities to refine it, a reactor, and a place to store the spent fuel safely....
TED Talks
Ueli Gegenschatz: Extreme wingsuit flying
Wingsuit jumping is the leading edge of extreme sports -- an exhilarating feat of almost unbelievable daring, where skydivers soar through canyons at over 100MPH. Ueli Gegenschatz talks about how (and why) he does it, and shows...
TED Talks
Boaz Almog: The levitating superconductor
How can a super-thin 3-inch disk levitate something 70,000 times its own weight? In a riveting demonstration, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail --...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: M Jackson: How to grow your own glacier
In the 13th century, Genghis Khan embarked on a mission to take over Eurasia, swiftly conquering countries and drawing them into his empire. But, legend has it that there was one obstacle that even he couldn't overcome: a towering wall...
TED Talks
TED: Easy DIY projects for kid engineers | Fawn Qiu
TeD Resident Fawn Qiu designs fun, low-cost projects that use familiar materials like paper and fabric to introduce engineering to kids. In this quick, clever talk, she shares how nontraditional workshops like hers can change the...
TED Talks
Gever Tulley: Life lessons through tinkering
Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to...
SciShow
This Is Your Brain on GPS
Researchers have revealed a potentially life-saving rapid blood type test, and does using GPS to get around make your brain lazy?
SciShow
The Terrifying Fish with Transparent Teeth
The deep-sea dragonfish is a predator that lives deep in the Pacific Ocean. Like many other deep sea predators, it's got an oversized jaw and a bioluminescent appendage to attract prey, but it does have one weird (and strangely useful)...
TED Talks
TED: The incredible potential of flexible, soft robots | Giada Gerboni
Robots are designed for speed and precision -- but their rigidity has often limited how they're used. In this illuminating talk, biomedical engineer Giada Gerboni shares the latest developments in "soft robotics," an emerging field that...
TED Talks
Christoph Keplinger: The artificial muscles that will power robots of the future
Robot brains are getting smarter and smarter, but their bodies are often still clunky and unwieldy. Mechanical engineer Christoph Keplinger is designing a new generation of soft, agile robot inspired by a masterpiece of evolution:...
TED Talks
TED: Don't fear superintelligent AI | Grady Booch
New tech spawns new anxieties, says scientist and philosopher Grady Booch, but we don't need to be afraid an all-powerful, unfeeling AI. Booch allays our worst (sci-fi induced) fears about superintelligent computers by explaining how...
SciShow
How Aspirin Changed Medicine Forever
Aspirin isn't just an old medicine cabinet stand-by, it's one of the oldest medicines we humans learned how to make ourselves. And our research into aspirin did more than just make it better at relieving pain, it opened the door to whole...
TED Talks
Bill Gross: A solar energy system that tracks the sun
Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab, talks about his life as an inventor, starting with his high-school company selling solar energy plans and kits. Learn here about a groundbreaking system for solar cells -- and some questions we haven't...
TED Talks
TED: Good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer | Laura Indolfi
Anyone who has lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer knows the devastating speed with which it can affect an otherwise healthy person. TED Fellow and biomedical entrepreneur Laura Indolfi is developing a revolutionary way to treat this...
TED Talks
TED: A smart loan for people with no credit history (yet) | Shivani Siroya
Trust: How do you earn it? Banks use credit scores to determine if you're trustworthy, but there are about 2.5 billion people around the world who don't have one to begin with -- and who can't get a loan to start a business, buy a home...
TED Talks
TED: Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over europe? | Genevieve von Petzinger
Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they...
TED Talks
TED: How AI can bring on a second Industrial Revolution | Kevin Kelly
The actual path of a raindrop as it goes down the valley is unpredictable, but the general direction is inevitable, says digital visionary Kevin Kelly -- and technology is much the same, driven by patterns that are surprising but...