TED Talks Science and Medicine
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TED Talks Science and Medicine
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136 þættirAre life-saving medicines hiding in the world's coldest places? | Normand Voyer
Could the next wonder drug be somewhere in Canada's snowy north? Take a trip to this beautiful, frigid landscape as chemist Normand Voyer explores the...
What to do when there's a polar bear in your backyard | Alysa McCall
As Arctic ice melts, polar bears are being forced on land -- and they're hungry. With the apex predators frequently turning to human junkyards for a s...
The fantastically weird world of photosynthetic sea slugs | Michael Middlebrooks
Meet the fantastically colorful and astonishingly adaptable sea slugs that found a way to photosynthesize (or create energy from sunlight) like plants...
Where does your sense of self come from? A scientific look | Anil Ananthaswamy
Our memories and bodies give us clues about who we are, but what happens when this guidance shifts? In this mind-bending talk, science writer Anil Ana...
Can we feed ourselves without devouring the planet? | George Monbiot
Farming is the worst thing humanity has ever done to the planet, says journalist George Monbiot. What's more: the global food system could be heading...
How to harness the ancient partnership between forests and fungi | Colin Averill
If we want to better understand the environment and combat climate change, we need to look deep underground, where diverse microscopic fungal networks...
The wheat field that could change the world | Guntur V. Subbarao
Crop physiologist Guntur V. Subbarao and his team have developed an antibiotic-infused strain of wheat that naturally combats harmful, fertilizer-eati...
A virus-resistant organism -- and what it could mean for the future | Jason W. Chin
What if we could use the power of DNA to create a sustainable, circular economy? In a talk about breakthrough science, synthetic biologist Jason W. Ch...
How green hydrogen could end the fossil fuel era | Vaitea Cowan
As climate change accelerates, finding clean alternatives to fossil fuels is more urgent than ever. Social entrepreneur Vaitea Cowan believes green hy...
A giant Jurassic sea dragon, unearthed | Dean R. Lomax
Among the dinosaurs, giant sea dragons roamed the ancient ocean. Millions of years later, paleontologist Dean R. Lomax and his team freed the remains...
How we're reverse engineering the human brain in the lab | Sergiu P. Pasca
Neuroscientist Sergiu P. Pasca has made it his life's work to understand how the human brain builds itself -- and what makes it susceptible to disease...
The future of fashion -- made from mushrooms | Dan Widmaier
Your closet is likely full of all kinds of materials -- leather, cotton, nylon and polyester, to name a few -- that contribute to fashion's sustainabi...
The search for the invisible matter that shapes the universe | Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
The universe that we know, with its luminous stars and orbiting planets, is largely made up of elements we can't actually see -- like dark energy and...
The brain science (and benefits) of ASMR | Craig Richard
A curious, quiet revolution of sound has taken over the internet. Physiologist Craig Richard explains the soothing brain science of Autonomous Sensory...
Humanity's search for cosmic truth and poetic beauty | Maria Popova
Linking together the histories of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Edwin Hubble and Tracy K. Smith, poet and thinker Maria Popova crafts an astonishing story o...
How mRNA medicine will change the world | Melissa J. Moore
The secret behind medicine that uses messenger RNA (or mRNA) is that it "teaches" our bodies how to fight diseases on our own, leading to groundbreaki...
We can make COVID-19 the last pandemic | Bill Gates
Building a pandemic-free future won't be easy, but Bill Gates believes that we have the tools and strategies to make it possible -- now we just have t...
5 promising factors propelling climate action | Gabriel Kra
Given the scale of the challenge, the conversation around climate change is often tinged with doom and gloom. But climate tech investor Gabriel Kra th...
The deep sea's medicinal secrets | Sam Afoullouss
Under the sea, untold wonders await in the form of untapped medicinal potential. Chemist Sam Afoullouss dives into the science behind natural remedies...
What seaweed and cow burps have to do with climate change | Ermias Kebreab
Scientists have long known that cows are a huge source of the greenhouse gas methane, contributing up to four percent of emissions globally. But could...
The incredible cancer-detecting potential of photoacoustic imaging | Lei Li
Could we use the energy from light and sound to detect disease? TED Fellow Lei Li shares the exciting promise of photoacoustic imaging: an affordable,...
Could we treat Alzheimer's with light and sound? | Li-Huei Tsai
What if we could use brain waves to treat Alzheimer's? Professor and neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai details a promising new approach to artificially stim...
How biochar removes CO2 from the air -- and helps farmers thrive | Axel Reinaud
Biochar is a kind of charcoal that removes CO2 from the atmosphere, helping yield healthy crops and even producing abundant renewable energy in the fo...
A king cobra bite -- and a scientific discovery | Gowri Shankar
A king cobra has enough venom to kill 10 people in a single bite. Recounting his near-death experience after being bitten by one of these majestic yet...
The science of extreme weather — and how to reduce the harm | Al Roker, Al Gore, David Biello and Latif Nasser
Floods, droughts, heat waves and cold blasts -- why is the weather becoming more extreme? Environmentalist and "America's weatherman" Al Roker discuss...
The problem of vaccine spoilage -- and a smart sensor to help | Nithya Ramanathan
Refrigerators do much more than store your groceries -- they're also vital to preserving and distributing vaccines. Illustrating the realities of (and...
How we could eat real meat without harming animals | Isha Datar
What if you could eat chicken nuggets without harming a chicken? It's possible through "cellular agriculture," says Isha Datar. In a talk about cuttin...
The brain science of obesity | Mads Tang-Christensen
Your belly and your brain speak to each other, says obesity researcher Mads Tang-Christensen. Offering scientific proof that obesity is a disease infl...
Planet City -- a sci-fi vision of an astonishing regenerative future | Liam Young
Get transported on a stunningly rendered, sci-fi safari through Planet City: an imaginary metropolis of 10 billion people, from the brain of director...
A sci-fi vision of life in 2041 | Chen Qiufan
Sci-fi writer Chen Qiufan doesn't fear a dystopian future. Instead, he believes developments in artificial intelligence will make all of our lives bet...
Meet the scientist couple driving an mRNA vaccine revolution | Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci
As COVID-19 spread, BioNTech cofounders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci had one goal: to make a safe, effective vaccine faster than ever before. In this i...
The missing 96 percent of the universe | Claire Malone
We've misplaced the building blocks of the cosmos -- and particle physicists like Claire Malone are on a mission to find them. Despite scientists hitt...
The death of the universe -- and what it means for life | Katie Mack
The universe started with a bang -- but how will it end? With astonishing visuals, cosmologist and TED Fellow Katie Mack takes us to the theoretical e...
The search for microscopic aliens | Sarah Rugheimer
Astrophysicist and TED Fellow Sarah Rugheimer searches for aliens -- but not the cartoony green kind. She's looking for extraterrestrial microbes by s...
How COVID-19 transformed the future of medicine | Daniel Kraft
The pandemic forced the world to work together like never before and, with unprecedented speed, bore a new age of health and medical innovation. Physi...
How your memory works -- and why forgetting is totally OK | Lisa Genova
Have you ever misplaced something you were just holding? Completely blanked on a famous actor's name? Walked into a room and immediately forgot why? N...
The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life | Michael Levin
DNA isn't the only builder in the biological world -- there's also a mysterious bioelectric layer directing cells to work together to grow organs, sys...
The hidden history found in your teeth | Carolyn Freiwald
Your teeth carry secrets: centuries of history about your ancestors, from where they lived to what they ate and where they traveled. Bioarchaeologist...
The promise of quantum computers | Matt Langione
What if tiny microparticles could help us solve the world's biggest problems in a matter of minutes? That's the promise -- and magic -- of quantum com...
A stellar history of modern astronomy | Emily Levesque
Astronomers once gazed upon the night sky and counted every star in the galaxy by hand. The process has evolved since then, but the thirst for celesti...