The enduring ideas, discoveries and observations that define and expand life as we know it.

How did music transform into what it is today? A brief journey through time, sound and rhythm.

How does evolution really work? Actually, not how some of our common evolutionary metaphors would have us believe. For instance, it's species, not individual organisms, that adapt to produce evolution, and genes don't "want" to be passed on -- a gene can't want anything at all! Alex Gendler sets the record straight on the finer points of evoluti...

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. in What Makes Us Human?, TED speakers tackle humanity’s oldest and deepest questions by playing with primates, excavating ancient remains, and DNA-mapping family trees. E...

You love sports stats and rewatch classic games for the nuance. These talks on the math, science and evolution of sports are for you.

Robert Wright uses evolutionary biology and game theory to explain why we appreciate the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..."), why we sometimes ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the near future, we might all have the compassion to follow it.

Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally -- or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make ourselves smarter, faster, better. Neo-evolution is within our grasp. What will we do with it?

What makes a book a book? Is it just anything that stores and communicates information? Or does it have to do with paper, binding, font, ink, its weight in your hands, the smell of the pages? To answer these questions, Julie Dreyfuss goes back to the start of the book as we know it to show how these elements came together to make something more ...

Think we're winning the battle against HIV? Maybe not, as the next wave of drug-resistant viruses arrives. In an eye-opening talk, TED Fellow Edsel Salvana describes the aggressive HIV subtype AE that's currently plaguing his home of the Philippines -- and warns us about what might become a global epidemic.

Genitals are the fastest-evolving organs in the animal kingdom. But why is this so? And what's the point of having decorative private parts? Menno Schilthuizen explains how the evolutionary biology of nature's nether regions uncovers a hidden world of seduction, conflict, and rivalry. [Directed by Mette Ilene Holmriis, narrated by Adrian Dannatt...

The human eye is an amazing mechanism, able to detect anywhere from a few photons to a few quadrillion, or switch focus from the screen in front of you to the distant horizon in a third of a second. How did these complex structures evolve? Joshua Harvey details the 500 million year story of the human eye. [Directed by Artrake Studio, narrated Ad...

What if robots could build and optimize themselves -- with little to no help from humans? Computer scientist Emma Hart is working on a new technology that could make "artificial evolution" possible. She explains how the three ingredients of biological evolution can be replicated digitally to build robots that can self-assemble and adapt to any e...

Did humans evolve from monkeys or from fish? In this enlightening talk, ichthyologist and TED Fellow Prosanta Chakrabarty dispels some hardwired myths about evolution, encouraging us to remember that we're a small part of a complex, four-billion-year process -- and not the end of the line. "We're not the goal of evolution," Chakrabarty says. "Th...

To look at the evolution of modern bird feathers, we must start a long time ago, with the dinosaurs from whence they came. We see early incarnations of feathers on dinosaur fossils, and remnants of dinosaurs in a bird's wish bone. Carl Zimmer explores the stages of evolution and how even the reasons for feathers have evolved over millions of yea...

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.

Author A.J. Jacobs shows how the coffee cup lid was perfectly designed to give you a full sensory experience while drinking. This video was inspired by the original work of Louise Harpman and Scott Specht and their book "Coffee Lids: Peel, Pinch, Pucker, Puncture."

In this talk from RSA Animate, bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways it has shaped human development and society.

Debbie Millman talks to therapist and author Esther Perel about marriage, polyamory and adultery. Listen and subscribe to Design Matters with Debbie Millman and more podcasts from the TED Audio Collective at audiocollective.ted.com.

In the past 3,000 years, many populations have evolved genetic adaptations to their local environments. People in Siberia and the high arctic are uniquely adapted to survive extreme cold. The Bajau people can dive 70 meters and stay underwater for almost 15 minutes. So what are other recent changes? And will our technological innovations impact ...

Christoph Adami works on the nature of life and evolution, trying to define life in a way that is as free as possible from our preconceptions.

At the Royal Institution in 1991, Richard Dawkins asks us to look at our universe with new eyes. Packed with big questions and illuminating visuals, this memorable journey through the history of life magnifies the splendor of evolution and our place in it.

Fascinating talks about humanity's beginnings and evolution's journey.

Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? Juan Enriquez sweeps across time and space to bring us to the present moment -- and shows how technology is revealing evidence that suggests rapid evolution may be under way.

Suzana Herculano-Houzel shrunk the human brain by 14 billion neurons -- by developing a new way to count them.

Try on these talks about the traits that make you who you are.

Using biological evolution as a template, Mark Pagel wonders how languages evolve.

Birds, a perennial human fascination, entertained medieval homes long before science took them for serious study. "Wisdom of Birds" author Tim Birkhead tours some intriguing birdwatcher lore (dug up in old field journals) -- and talks about the role it plays in ornithology today.

Tech enthusiast Kevin Kelly asks "What does technology want?" and discovers that its movement toward ubiquity and complexity is much like the evolution of life.

Christina Warinner is a researcher at the University of Zurich, where she studies how humans have co-evolved with environments, diets and disease.

Author Robert Wright explains "non-zero-sumness" -- the network of linked fortunes and cooperation that has guided our evolution to this point -- and how we can use it to help save humanity today.