Science News

Can we use our brains to directly control machines -- without requiring a body as the middleman? Miguel Nicolelis talks through an astonishing experiment, in which a clever monkey in the US learns to control a monkey avatar, and then a robot arm in Japan, purely with its thoughts. The research has big implications for quadraplegic people -- and maybe for all of us. (Filmed at TEDMED 2012.)

Allan Jones joined the Allen Institute in 2003 to help start up the organization as one of its first employees. Bringing extensive expertise in project leade...

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 w...

Laura Overdeck is the founder of Bedtime Math, a nonprofit that hopes to put math on equal footing with the beloved bedtime story. By positioning math as a fun, recreational activity, Bedtime Math hopes to raise a new generation that never feels math anxiety. In her TEDx talk, Overdeck explores math anxiety among women and girls, and shows how the American culture conspires to convince young women that they are incapable of math, through stereotypes held by parents, teachers, retailers, and other women. It's so pervasive that women who are asked their gender at the start of a math quiz score *worse* than women who weren't reminded that they are female. Overdeck, who majored in astrophysics in college, then describes how these forces can be overcome through culture change, with a call to action for all of us to embrace math and be positive role models for all kids in the next generation, and particularly for the girls.

A dung beetle has a brain the size of a grain of rice, and yet shows a tremendous amount of intelligence when it comes to rolling its food source -- animal excrement -- home. How? It all comes down to a dance.

How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Step into the lab with cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier to hear surprising news about how video games, even action-packed shooter games, can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask.

When photographed under a 3D microscope, grains of sand appear like colorful pieces of candy and the stamens in a flower become like fantastical spires at an amusement park. Gary Greenberg reveals the thrilling details of the microworld. (Filmed at TEDxMaui.)

Map designer Aris Venetikidis is fascinated by the maps we draw in our minds as we move around a city -- less like street maps, more like schematics or wiring diagrams, abstract images of relationships between places. How can we learn from these mental maps to make better real ones? As a test case, he remakes the notorious Dublin bus map. (Filmed at TEDxDublin)

Deb will share a unique analysis of altruistic behavior that encompasses two seemingly dissimilar examples: The Underground Railroad and the Wiki (crowd-sourced information) movement.

Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves.

What can economists learn from linguists? Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept for the future -- "It rain tomorrow," instead of "It will rain tomorrow" -- correlate strongly with high savings rates.

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-bacteria-talk-bonnie-bassler Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical l...

Lewis Mitchell is a a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics and climate. Broadly, he is interested in the messy interface between the "real" world and the more abstract world of mathematics. More specifically, his research is focused in the areas of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and data assimilation, which use techniques from many areas of applied mathematics.

Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.

Brains are ubiquitous in modern marketing: Headlines proclaim cheese sandwiches help with decision-making, while a "neuro" drink claims to reduce stress. There's just one problem, says neuroscientist Molly Crockett: The benefits of these "neuro-enhancements" are not proven scientifically. In this to-the-point talk, Crockett explains the limits of interpreting neuroscientific data, and why we should all be aware of them.

When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We're often happiest when we're lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be. (Filmed at TEDxCambridge.)

John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers a funny and charming talk that spans a lifetime of work in art, design and technology, concluding with a picture of creative leadership in the future. Watch for demos of Maeda's earliest work -- and even a computer made of people.

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how "power posing" -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.