TED Talks with English transcript

Simona Francese: Your fingerprints reveal more than you think

TED2018

Simona Francese: Your fingerprints reveal more than you think
2,372,231 views

Our fingerprints are what make us unique -- but they're also home to a world of information hidden in molecules that reveal our actions, lifestyles and routines. In this riveting talk, chemist Simona Francese shows how she studies these microscopic traces using mass spectrometry, a technology that analyzes fingerprints in previously impossible detail, and demonstrates how this cutting-edge forensic science can help police catch criminals. (Note: This talk contains descriptions of sexual violence.)

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Kai-Fu Lee: How AI can save our humanity

TED2018

Kai-Fu Lee: How AI can save our humanity
3,583,197 views

AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human."

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DK Osseo-Asare: What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation

TEDGlobal 2017

DK Osseo-Asare: What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation
1,277,722 views

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 apart and putting them together again. Designer and TED Fellow DK Osseo-Asare wondered: What would happen if we connected these self-taught techies with students and young professionals in STEAM fields? The result: a growing maker community where people engage in peer-to-peer, hands-on education, motivated by what they want to create. Learn more about how this African makerspace is pioneering a grassroots circular economy.

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Will MacAskill: What are the most important moral problems of our time?

TED2018

Will MacAskill: What are the most important moral problems of our time?
2,112,093 views

Of all the problems facing humanity, which should we focus on solving first? In a compelling talk about how to make the world better, moral philosopher Will MacAskill provides a framework for answering this question based on the philosophy of "effective altruism" -- and shares ideas for taking on three pressing global issues.

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Walter Hood: How urban spaces can preserve history and build community

TED2018

Walter Hood: How urban spaces can preserve history and build community
1,410,406 views

Can public spaces both reclaim the past and embrace the future? Landscape architect Walter Hood has explored this question over the course of an iconic career, with projects ranging from Lafayette Square Park in San Francisco to the upcoming International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. In this inspiring talk packed with images of his work, Hood shares the five simple concepts that guide his approach to creating spaces that illuminate shared memories and force us to look at one another in a different way.

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Bronwyn King: You may be accidentally investing in cigarette companies

TEDxSydney

Bronwyn King: You may be accidentally investing in cigarette companies
2,880,250 views

Tobacco causes more than seven million deaths every year -- and many of us are far more complicit in the problem than we realize. In a bold talk, oncologist Dr. Bronwyn King tells the story of how she uncovered the deep ties between the tobacco industry and the entire global finance sector, which invests our money in cigarette companies through big banks, insurers and pension funds. Learn how Dr. King has ignited a worldwide movement to create tobacco-free investments and how each of us can play a role in ending this epidemic.

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Renzo Piano: The genius behind some of the world's most famous buildings

TED2018

Renzo Piano: The genius behind some of the world's most famous buildings
1,056,271 views

Legendary architect Renzo Piano -- the mind behind such indelible buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York City -- takes us on a stunning tour through his life's work. With the aid of gorgeous imagery, Piano makes an eloquent case for architecture as the answer to our dreams, aspirations and desire for beauty. "Universal beauty is one of the few things that can change the world," he says. "This beauty will save the world. One person at a time, but it will do it."

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Sunni Patterson: "Wild Women"

TEDWomen 2017

Sunni Patterson: "Wild Women"
371,890 views

With lightning on her tongue, Sunni Patterson performs her powerful poem, "Wild Women," accompanied by the entrancing moves of dancer Chanice Holmes.

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Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes: "Chasms"

TEDWomen 2017

Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes: "Chasms"
222,988 views

Writer and activist Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes lights up the stage with a powerful poem about hope, truth and the space between who we are and who we want to be.

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Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens?

TED2018

Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens?
5,111,570 views

The universe is incredibly old, astoundingly vast and populated by trillions of planets -- so where are all the aliens? Astronomer Stephen Webb has an explanation: we're alone in the universe. In a mind-expanding talk, he spells out the remarkable barriers a planet would need to clear in order to host an extraterrestrial civilization -- and makes a case for the beauty of our potential cosmic loneliness. "The silence of the universe is shouting, 'We're the creatures who got lucky,'" Webb says.

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Supasorn Suwajanakorn: Fake videos of real people -- and how to spot them

TED2018

Supasorn Suwajanakorn: Fake videos of real people -- and how to spot them
1,453,308 views

Do you think you're good at spotting fake videos, where famous people say things they've never said in real life? See how they're made in this astonishing talk and tech demo. Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn shows how, as a grad student, he used AI and 3D modeling to create photorealistic fake videos of people synced to audio. Learn more about both the ethical implications and the creative possibilities of this tech -- and the steps being taken to fight against its misuse.

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Christina Wallace: How to stop swiping and find your person on dating apps

TED2018

Christina Wallace: How to stop swiping and find your person on dating apps
2,174,628 views

Let's face it, online dating can suck. So many potential people, so much time wasted -- is it even worth it? Podcaster and entrepreneur Christina Wallace thinks so, if you do it right. In a funny, practical talk, Wallace shares how she used her MBA skill set to invent a "zero date" approach and get off swipe-based apps -- and how you can, too.

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Lucy Marcil: Why doctors are offering free tax prep in their waiting rooms

TED2018

Lucy Marcil: Why doctors are offering free tax prep in their waiting rooms
1,358,090 views

More than 90 percent of children in the US see a doctor at least once a year, which means countless hours spent in waiting rooms for parents. What if those hours could be used for something productive -- like saving money? Through her organization StreetCred, pediatrician and TED Fellow Lucy Marcil is offering free tax prep to parents right in the waiting room, reimagining what a doctor's visit can look like and helping to lift families out of poverty. Learn more about how free tax prep and guidance could be the best poverty prescription we have in the US.

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Pratik Shah: How AI is making it easier to diagnose disease

TEDGlobal 2017

Pratik Shah: How AI is making it easier to diagnose disease
1,571,835 views

Today's AI algorithms require tens of thousands of expensive medical images to detect a patient's disease. What if we could drastically reduce the amount of data needed to train an AI, making diagnoses low-cost and more effective? TED Fellow Pratik Shah is working on a clever system to do just that. Using an unorthodox AI approach, Shah has developed a technology that requires as few as 50 images to develop a working algorithm -- and can even use photos taken on doctors' cell phones to provide a diagnosis. Learn more about how this new way to analyze medical information could lead to earlier detection of life-threatening illnesses and bring AI-assisted diagnosis to more health care settings worldwide.

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Boy Girl Banjo: "Dead Romance"

TEDNYC

Boy Girl Banjo: "Dead Romance"
304,716 views

Acoustic duo Anielle Reid and Matthew Brookshire (playing together as Boy Girl Banjo) take the TED stage to perform their original song "Dead Romance," weaving together the sounds of Americana folk music and modern pop.

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Mikhail Zygar: What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media

TED2018

Mikhail Zygar: What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media
1,432,185 views

History is written by the victors, as the saying goes -- but what would it look like if it was written by everyone? Journalist and TED Fellow Mikhail Zygar is on a mission to show us with Project1917, a "social network for dead people" that posts the real diaries and letters of more than 3,000 people who lived during the Russian Revolution. By showing the daily thoughts of the likes of Lenin, Trotsky and many less celebrated figures, the project sheds new light on history as it once was -- and as it could have been. Learn more about this digital retelling of the past as well as Zygar's latest project about the transformative year of 1968.

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Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu: What your smart devices know (and share) about you

TED2018

Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu: What your smart devices know (and share) about you
2,030,169 views

Once your smart devices can talk to you, who else are they talking to? Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu wanted to find out -- so they outfitted Hill's apartment with 18 different internet-connected devices and built a special router to track how often they contacted their servers and see what they were reporting back. The results were surprising -- and more than a little bit creepy. Learn more about what the data from your smart devices reveals about your sleep schedule, TV binges and even your tooth-brushing habits -- and how tech companies could use it to target and profile you. (This talk contains mature language.)

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Elizabeth White: An honest look at the personal finance crisis

TEDxVCU

Elizabeth White: An honest look at the personal finance crisis
1,800,039 views

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 Elizabeth White opens up an honest conversation about financial trouble and offers practical advice for how to live a richly textured life on a limited income.

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Dina Katabi: A new way to monitor vital signs (that can see through walls)

TED2018

Dina Katabi: A new way to monitor vital signs (that can see through walls)
1,513,020 views

At MIT, Dina Katabi and her team are working on a bold new way to monitor patients' vital signs in a hospital (or even at home), without wearables or bulky, beeping devices. Bonus: it can see through walls. In a mind-blowing talk and demo, Katabi previews a system that captures the reflections of signals like Wi-Fi as they bounce off people, creating a reliable record of vitals for healthcare workers and patients. And in a brief Q&A with TED curator Helen Walters, Katabi discusses safeguards being put in place to prevent people from using this tech to monitor somebody without their consent.

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Rebecca Brachman: A new class of drug that could prevent depression and PTSD

TED2017

Rebecca Brachman: A new class of drug that could prevent depression and PTSD
2,091,035 views

Current treatments for depression and PTSD only suppress symptoms, if they work at all. What if we could prevent these diseases from developing altogether? Neuroscientist and TED Fellow Rebecca Brachman shares the story of her team's accidental discovery of a new class of drug that, for the first time ever, could prevent the negative effects of stress -- and boost a person's ability to recover and grow. Learn how these resilience-enhancing drugs could change the way we treat mental illness.

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Jennifer Wilcox: A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere

TED2018

Jennifer Wilcox: A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere
3,117,805 views

Our planet has a carbon problem -- if we don't start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, we'll grow hotter, faster. Chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox previews some amazing technology to scrub carbon from the air, using chemical reactions that capture and reuse CO2 in much the same way trees do ... but at a vast scale. This detailed talk reviews both the promise and the pitfalls.

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Dan Gibson: How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the internet

TED2018

Dan Gibson: How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the internet
1,461,746 views

Biologist Dan Gibson edits and programs DNA, just like coders program a computer. But his "code" creates life, giving scientists the power to convert digital information into biological material like proteins and vaccines. Now he's on to a new project: "biological transportation," which holds the promise of beaming new medicines across the globe over the internet. Learn more about how this technology could change the way we respond to disease outbreaks and enable us to download personalized prescriptions in our homes.

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Lindsay Malloy: Why teens confess to crimes they didn't commit

TEDxFIU

Lindsay Malloy: Why teens confess to crimes they didn't commit
1,461,536 views

Why do juveniles falsely confess to crimes? What makes them more vulnerable than adults to this shocking, counterintuitive phenomenon? Through the lens of Brendan Dassey's interrogation and confession (as featured in Netflix's "Making a Murderer" documentary), developmental psychology professor and researcher Lindsay Malloy breaks down the science underlying false confessions and calls for change in the way kids are treated by a legal system designed for adults.

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Dan Knights: How we study the microbes living in your gut

TEDMED 2017

Dan Knights: How we study the microbes living in your gut
1,441,842 views

There are about a hundred trillion microbes living inside your gut -- protecting you from infection, aiding digestion and regulating your immune system. As our bodies have adapted to life in modern society, we've started to lose some of our normal microbes; at the same time, diseases linked to a loss of diversity in microbiome are skyrocketing in developed nations. Computational microbiologist Dan Knights shares some intriguing discoveries about the differences in the microbiomes of people in developing countries compared to the US, and how they might affect our health. Learn more about the world of microbes living inside you -- and the work being done to create tools to restore and replenish them.

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Penny Chisholm: The tiny creature that secretly powers the planet

TED2018

Penny Chisholm: The tiny creature that secretly powers the planet
1,463,084 views

Oceanographer Penny Chisholm introduces us to an amazing little being: Prochlorococcus, the most abundant photosynthetic species on the planet. A marine microbe that has existed for millions of years, Prochlorococcus wasn't discovered until the mid-1980s -- but its ancient genetic code may hold clues to how we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

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Gary Liu: The rapid growth of the Chinese internet -- and where it's headed

TED2018

Gary Liu: The rapid growth of the Chinese internet -- and where it's headed
1,818,242 views

The Chinese internet has grown at a staggering pace -- it now has more users than the combined populations of the US, UK, Russia, Germany, France and Canada. Even with its imperfections, the lives of once-forgotten populations have been irrevocably elevated because of it, says South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu. In a fascinating talk, Liu details how the tech industry in China has developed -- from the innovative, like AI-optimized train travel, to the dystopian, like a social credit rating that both rewards and restricts citizens.

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Paul Rucker: The symbols of systemic racism -- and how to take away their power

TED2018

Paul Rucker: The symbols of systemic racism -- and how to take away their power
1,451,941 views

Multidisciplinary artist and TED Fellow Paul Rucker is unstitching the legacy of systemic racism in the United States. A collector of artifacts connected to the history of slavery -- from branding irons and shackles to postcards depicting lynchings -- Rucker couldn't find an undamaged Ku Klux Klan robe for his collection, so he began making his own. The result: striking garments in non-traditional fabrics like kente cloth, camouflage and silk that confront the normalization of systemic racism in the US. "If we as a people collectively look at these objects and realize that they are part of our history, we can find a way to where they have no more power over us," Rucker says. (This talk contains graphic images.)

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Steve Boyes: How we're saving one of Earth's last wild places

TED2018

Steve Boyes: How we're saving one of Earth's last wild places
1,400,416 views

Navigating territorial hippos and active minefields, TED Fellow Steve Boyes and a team of scientists have been traveling through the Okavango Delta, Africa's largest remaining wetland wilderness, to explore and protect this near-pristine habitat against the rising threat of development. In this awe-inspiring talk packed with images, he shares his work doing detailed scientific surveys in the hopes of protecting this enormous, fragile wilderness.

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