Life on Earth has always been shaped by other bodies in space, and life in our oceans is especially susceptible to interactions that have huge effects on life as we know it!

How does an astronaut prepare physically and mentally to launch into space? NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, who traveled to the International Space Station in April 2021 as part of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission, shares stellar life lessons...

When we experience loss, grief travels with us everywhere -- even work. What can companies do to support grieving employees? Sharing his own story of unimaginable heartbreak, Tilak Mandadi offers three ways organizations can cultivate a...

NASA's Dragonfly -- a robotic rotorcraft-lander that's designed to hop across the surface of an extraterrestrial body -- is set to voyage deep into the solar system to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2026. Planetary scientist...

As a medical clown, TED Resident Matthew A. Wilson takes the old adage that laughter is the best medicine very seriously. In this heartwarming talk, he shares glimpses of how clowning around can help patients (and medical staff) navigate...

There's no shortage of resources to help people change their health behaviors -- but far too often, these resources aren't accessible in underserved communities, says physician Priscilla Pemu. Enter "culturally congruent coaching," a...

Why do we love people we're related to? Compared to strangers, why do we feel such a deep sense of connection with our family members? Sure, they're nice to us, we take care of each other, and we often live with them, but there has to be...

Only if you are truly open to the possibility of being wrong can you ever learn, says researcher Alex Edmans. In an insightful talk, he explores how confirmation bias -- the tendency to only accept information that supports your personal...

Millions of baby boomers are moving into their senior years with empty pockets and declining choices to earn a living. And right behind them is a younger generation facing the same challenges. In this deeply personal talk, author...

In some parts of the world, half of the women lack basic reading and writing skills. The reasons vary, but in many cases, literacy isn't valued by fathers, husbands, even mothers. Photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak traveled to...

In 2011, Teresa Njoroge was convicted of a financial crime she didn't commit -- the result of a long string of false accusations, increasing bribe attempts and the corrupt justice system in her home in Kenya. Once incarcerated, she...

Hank talks with MacArthur Fellow Dr. Victoria Orphan of CalTech about organisms of the deep sea and the impact it has on our environment.

An amazing new technology will let scientists grow new kidneys for patients using their own stem cells inside of pigs.

What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history's great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like "The Office" and "The Good Place")...

Plants are finding their ways into caves, and it's all our fault.

There are some weird animals out there, but few environments have produced stranger creatures than the deep ocean!

We’ve probed some 250 kilometers into Jupiter’s atmosphere, and that’s raised some new questions about the mysterious planet. And we’ve taken another important step in looking for life on Mars by using a common chemistry process for the...

In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners...

In today’s episode, Hank asks you to consider all the ways people talk about justice and what we really mean when we use that word. We’ll explain various theories of justice, just distribution, and different approaches to punishment.

Trilobites are famous not just because they were so beautifully functional, or because they happened to preserve so well. They're known the world over because they were everywhere!

Garik Israelian is a spectroscopist, studying the spectrum emitted by a star to figure out what it's made of and how it might behave. It's a rare and accessible look at this discipline, which may be coming close to finding a planet...

Natasha Tsakos presents part of her one-woman, multimedia show, "Upwake." As the character Zero, she blends dream and reality with an inventive virtual world projected around her in 3D animation and electric sound.

You might think of plate tectonics as destructive since it's the ultimate force behind earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. But the slow movement of our planet's surface does a lot more than shake things up now and then. Some...

Chitons are constantly scraping their teeth on rocks to eat the algae off of them, but that means their teeth need to be pretty tough. And it turns out one species's teeth are the hardest, stiffest biominerals in any living thing we've...