SciShow
Who Really Invented the Radio
In the radio race, one inventor came out ahead while the other was overshadowed. Michael Aranda goes into the history of the radio and the many people who contributed to make the tool we use every day.
TED Talks
TED: The pharmacy of the future? Personalized pills, 3D printed at home | Daniel Kraft
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...
TED-Ed
Why good ideas get trapped in the valley of death -- and how to rescue them | TED-Ed
All new products must pass through the "valley of death" before they reach the market. Many never make it out, and sometimes that's OK -- if they don't work, don't fill a need or for any number of reasons. One of the fields where this...
TED Talks
Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions
In the Maasai community where Richard Turere lives with his family, cattle are all-important. But lion attacks were growing more frequent. In this short, inspiring talk, the young inventor shares the solar-powered solution he designed to...
TED Talks
TED: What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation | DK Osseo-Asare
In Agbogbloshie, a community in Accra, Ghana, people descend on a scrapyard to mine electronic waste for recyclable materials. Without formal training, these urban miners often teach themselves the workings of electronics by taking them...
TED Talks
TED: The playful wonderland behind great inventions | Steven Johnson
Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, not always. Steven Johnson shows us how some of the most transformative ideas and technologies, like the computer, didn't emerge out of necessity at all but instead from the strange...
TED Talks
Shohini Ghose: Quantum computing explained in 10 minutes
A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely, based on emerging scientific understanding -- and more than a bit of uncertainty. Enter the quantum wonderland with TED...
TED Talks
Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds
Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs...
TED Talks
Arnav Kapur: How AI could become an extension of your mind
Try talking to yourself without opening your mouth, by simply saying words internally. What if you could search the internet like that -- and get an answer back? In the first live public demo of his new technology, TED Fellow Arnav Kapur...
TED Talks
Edward Tenner: The paradox of efficiency
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...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez
Imagine you were asked to invent something new. It could be whatever you want, made from anything you choose, in any shape or size. That kind of creative freedom sounds so liberating, doesn't it?
TED Talks
TED: How going to Mars improves life on Earth | Eric Hinterman
Memory foam, air purifiers, scratch-resistant lenses: these are just a few of the everyday items originally developed for space missions. Aerospace engineer Eric Hinterman invites us to dream big and imagine what technological...
TED Talks
TED: The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant
How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of...
TED-Ed
How does artificial intelligence learn? | Briana Brownell
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...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The Greek myth of Talos, the first robot | Adrienne Mayor
Hephaestus, god of technology, was hard at work on his most ingenious invention yet. He was creating a new defense system for King Minos, who wanted fewer intruders on his island kingdom of Crete. But mortal guards and ordinary weapons...
TED Talks
TED: The affordable, 3D-printed bionics of the future | Enzo Romero
Creating functional prosthetics at a fraction of the cost of imported tech, bionic innovator and TED Fellow Enzo Romero shares a groundbreaking model for designing 3D-printed assistive technology sourced from recycled materials -- built...
SciShow
The Truth About 10 Famous Inventions
Did Thomas Edison invent the lightbulb? I mean... kind of... but also... no. Every great, world-changing invention is the culmination of efforts by dozens or hundreds of people, spanning decades or centuries.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Philip A. Chan: How close are we to eradicating HIV?
The world is getting closer to achieving one of the most important public health goals of our time: eradicating HIV. And to do this, we won't even have to cure the disease. We simply have to stop HIV from being transmitted until...
TED Talks
Doris Kim Sung: Metal that breathes
Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and...
Crash Course
The History of Electrical Engineering: Crash Course Engineering #4
Next stop on our tour of engineering’s major fields: electrical engineering. In this episode we’ll explore the history of telecommunications, electric power and lighting, and computers. We’ll introduce topics like magnetism, electrical...
TED Talks
TED: A young scientist's quest for clean water | Deepika Kurup
Deepika Kurup has been determined to solve the global water crisis since she was 14 years old, after she saw kids outside her grandparents' house in India drinking water that looked too dirty even to touch. Her research began in her...
TED Talks
TED: What if we eliminated one of the world's oldest diseases? | Caroline Harper
Thousands of years ago, ancient Nubians drew pictures on tomb walls of a terrible disease that turns the eyelids inside out and causes blindness. This disease, trachoma, is still a scourge in many parts of the world today -- but it's...
TED Talks
Anirudh Sharma: Ink made of air pollution
What if we could capture pollution in the air around us and turn it into something useful? Inventor Anirudh Sharma shares how he created AIR-INK, a deep black ink that's made from PM 2.5 pollution. See how he hacked together a clever way...
TED Talks
Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty
Iqbal Quadir tells how his experiences as a kid in poor Bangladesh, and later as a banker in New York, led him to start a mobile phone operator connecting 80 million rural Bangladeshi -- and to become a champion of bottom-up development.