There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique -- called the memory palace -- and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him. Talk by Joshua Foer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Explore the British policy called Operation Legacy, where the government hid incriminating documents from its former colonies. -- In 2009, five Kenyan people took a petition to the British Prime Minister. They claimed they endured human rights abuses in the 1950s, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, and demanded reparations. They had no documentary evidence that Britain sanctioned systems of torture— but thousands of secret files were waiting to be discovered. Audra Diptée digs into the...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/music-and-emotion-through-time-michael-tilson-thomas In this epic overview, Michael Tilson Thomas traces the development of classical music through the development of written notation, the record, and the re-mix. Talk by Michael Tilson Thomas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Explore the prevailing scientific theory of why crooked teeth and impacted wisdom teeth are recent developments in human evolution. -- According to the fossil record, ancient humans usually had straight teeth, complete with wisdom teeth. In fact, the dental dilemmas that fuel the demand for braces and wisdom teeth extractions today appear to be recent developments. So, what happened? While it’s nearly impossible to know for sure, scientists have a hypothesis. G. Richard Scott shares the prevaili...
As you surf the Web, information is being collected about you. Web tracking is not 100% evil -- personal data can make your browsing more efficient; cookies can help your favorite websites stay in business. But, says Gary Kovacs, it's your right to know what data is being collected about you and how it affects your online life. He unveils a Firefox add-on to do just that. Talk by Gary Kovacs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Trace the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire, which became one of the wealthiest and most powerful states in the early modern world. -- Though he was descended from some of the world’s most successful conquerors, Babur struggled to gain a foothold among the many other ambitious princes in Central Asia. So he turned his attention to India, where his descendants stayed and built the Mughal Empire. Stephanie Honchell Smith details the rise and fall of one of the wealthiest and most powerful states ...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/pavlovian-reactions-aren-t-just-for-dogs-benjamin-n-witts Dr. Ivan Pavlov's groundbreaking work revealed that a dog will respond to neutral stimuli, such as a bell, in the same way that it will respond to, say, mouth-watering food. This research is widely applicable beyond a dog's salivation. Benjamin N. Witts sketches a few situations in which people are conditioned to react in a Pavlovian way, from dating to parenting. Lesson by Benjamin N. Witts, an...
Dig into why ethnic diversity is so important to medical research when creating new treatments and medicines for diseases. -- While all humans share 99.9% of our DNA, differences in the remaining 0.1% hold important clues about the causes of diseases—and their potential treatments. The problem is, the genetics that researchers are combing through are heavily biased to those of people from European descent, and often overlook other ethnicities. Greg Foot explains the importance of ethnic diversit...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-search-for-other-planets-olivier-guyon Billions of stars. Billions of galaxies. A thousand years just to count all of the stars in our galaxy and then another thousand to count the galaxies in the universe. At TEDYouth 2012, Olivier Guyon examines the possibility of finding other planets within these astronomical numbers, some potentially rife with life. Talk by Olivier Guyon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dig into the history of the Papal Schism, which caused a split in the Catholic Church while 3 popes vied for supremacy. -- For almost two millennia, the Pope has been a figure of supreme spiritual authority for Catholics around the world. But in the late 14th century, Catholics found themselves with not one, not two, but three popes. Where did this plethora of popes come from? And who among them was the genuine article? Joëlle Rollo-Koster shares the origins of this papal predicament. Lesson by ...
Coding isn't just for computer whizzes, says Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Lab -- it's for everyone. In a fun, demo-filled talk Resnick outlines the benefits of teaching kids to code, so they can do more than just "read" new technologies -- but also create them. (Filmed at TEDxBeaconStreet.) Talk by Mitch Resnick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dig into geoengineering, which uses technology to manipulate Earth’s environments to counteract climate change. -- In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted and its emissions spread across the globe, blotting out the sun for almost an entire year. This wreaked havoc on agriculture, leading to famines all across the Northern hemisphere. It was the year without summer— one of the darkest periods in human history. So why are some modern researchers considering repeating it? David Biello digs into geoengineeri...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-much-does-a-video-weigh-michael-stevens What color is a mirror? How much does a video weigh? Michael Stevens, creator of the popular educational YouTube channel Vsauce, spends his day asking quirky questions like these. In this talk he shows how asking the right -- seemingly silly -- questions can make incredibly effective lessons. Talk by Michael Stevens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dig into the psychological benefits of positive self-talk, and find out when it can become problematic. -- Being caught talking to yourself can feel embarrassing, and some people even stigmatize this behavior as a sign of mental instability. But decades of research show that talking to yourself is completely normal; most if not all of us engage in some form of self-talk every day. So why do we talk to ourselves? And does what we say matter? Dig into the psychological benefits of positive self-ta...
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What makes for an effective outbreak response? Explore successful systems from around the world that prevented epidemics. -- In 2013, an Ebola outbreak began in Guinea. The country had no formal response system and the outbreak became the largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history. Guinea then completely overhauled their response system, and were able to successfully combat another outbreak in 2021. So what does an effective epidemic response look like? George Zaidan explores how different commu...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/making-sense-of-how-life-fits-together-bobbi-seleski From something as miniscule as a cell to the biosphere we all call home, living things fit together in numerous interesting ways. Bobbi Seleski catalogs biology from our body and beyond, tracking how unicellular organisms, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, and our biosphere build off of each other and work together. Lesson by Bobbi Seleski, animation by ...
Practice more problem-solving at https://brilliant.org/TedEd -- Hundreds of years ago, your ancestor stole a magical tarot deck from Fate herself— and it came with a terrible cost. Once every 23 years, one member of your family must face Fate in a duel with rules only known to your opponent. And every time, generation after generation, the outcome is the same: Fate claims their soul. Today, it’s your turn. Can you defeat Fate? Dan Finkel shows how. Lesson by Dan Finkel, directed by Igor Coric, A...
High school science teacher Tyler DeWitt was ecstatic about a lesson plan on bacteria (how cool!) -- and devastated when his students hated it. The problem was the textbook: it was impossible to understand. He delivers a rousing call for science teachers to ditch the jargon and extreme precision, and instead make science sing through stories and demonstrations. (Filmed at TEDxBeaconStreet.) Talk by Tyler DeWitt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Get to know the works of William Faulkner, whose inventive literature made him one of America’s most remarkable writers. -- William Faulkner is considered one of America’s most remarkable and perplexing writers. He confused his audience intentionally, using complex sentences, unreliable narrators, and outlandish imagery. His body of work is shocking, inventive, hilarious, and challenging. So how can readers navigate his literary labyrinths? Sascha Morrell explains how to read one of literature's...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/string-theory-and-the-hidden-structures-of-the-universe-clifford-johnson What is everything made of? Thus far, we can break everything in the universe down to a few very small elementary particles. But they fit into strange patterns that are not understood. Some scientists believe that this is because we can go deeper - perhaps to simple vibrating strings! At TEDYouth 2012, Clifford Johnson describes these ideas, along with the concept of string theory...
Get to know avant-garde music composer John Cage, whose work challenged the boundaries between music and noise. -- In 1960, composer John Cage went on television to share his latest work. But rather than using traditional instruments, Cage appeared surrounded by household clutter, including a bathtub, ice cubes, a toy fish, a rubber duck, several radios, and performed “Water Walk.” Most people watching had the same question: is this even music? Hanako Sawada explores the boundaries between music...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/dare-to-educate-afghan-girls-shabana-basij-rasikh Imagine a country where girls must sneak out to go to school, with deadly consequences if they get caught learning. This was Afghanistan under the Taliban, and traces of that danger remain today. 22-year-old Shabana Basij-Rasikh runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. She celebrates the power of a family's decision to believe in their daughters -- and tells the story of one brave father who stood up to ...
Find out what expiration date labels on food actually mean, and discover ways communities and governments can lessen food waste. -- Countries around the world waste huge amounts of food every year: roughly a fifth of food items in the US are tossed because consumers aren’t sure how to interpret expiration labels. But most groceries are still perfectly safe to eat past their expiration dates. If the dates on our food don’t tell us that something’s gone bad, what do they tell us? Carolyn Beans sha...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/from-mach-20-glider-to-humming-bird-drone-regina-dugan "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects -- a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet -- that her agency has created by not worrying that they might fail. (Followed by a...
Trace the history of anesthesia from the 3rd century to today, and explore how doctors performed surgery before anesthetic drugs. -- The quest for anesthetics that could induce unconsciousness and enable more meticulous surgeries began around the early 3rd century CE. Before anesthesia was widely used, patients had to consciously endure every moment of surgery. So, what methods did doctors use before modern medicine caught up? Sally Frampton traces the history of anesthetic drugs. Lesson by Sall...
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-giant-bubble-for-debate-liz-diller How do you make a great public space inside a not-so-great building? Liz Diller shares the story of creating a welcoming, lighthearted (even, dare we say it, sexy) addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.) Talk by Liz Diller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dig into the phenomenon of face pareidolia, which is the tendency of our brains to see faces in everyday objects. -- Imagine opening a bag of chips, only to find Santa Claus looking back at you. Or turning a corner to see a building smiling at you. Humans see faces in all kinds of mundane objects, but these faces aren’t real— they're illusions due to a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. So why exactly does this happen, and how far does this distortion go? Susan G. Wardle explores why we see il...
Is there more than one universe? In this visually rich, action-packed talk, Brian Greene shows how the unanswered questions of physics (starting with a big one: What caused the Big Bang?) have led to the theory that our own universe is just one of many in the "multiverse." Talk by Brian Greene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Witness the clash of mythology’s speediest supernaturals in an epic race and find out which creature is the fastest. -- It’s time for the Myth Olympics: the eternal arena in which creatures and deities compete for glory. Almost every mythical tradition claims one creature as the fastest— from goddesses who run like the wind to creatures who outstrip every captor. So, who will emerge victorious in a race of superhuman swiftness? Iseult Gillespie convenes mythology’s speediest supernaturals for an...
