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TED Theme: Tales of Invention

TED has always loved a good creation story. No matter the scale -- kitchen, continent, or solar system -- invention grants us access to the frontiers of our understanding. Legendary designer Philippe Starck's lively ruminations on his own creative process suggest how the patterns of ...

TED has always loved a good creation story. No matter the scale -- kitchen, continent, or solar system -- invention grants us access to the frontiers of our understanding. Legendary designer Philippe Starck's lively ruminations on his own creative process suggest how the patterns of a civilization might affect, say, the design of a citrus juicer. Jan Chipchase investigates the worldwide impact of mobile phones -- and the impact of culture on next-generation mobile technology. Explorer and adventurer Bill Stone, meanwhile, fires up a rapt audience with his ambitious plan to harvest energy from the moon. Copyright lawyer Larry Lessig gives a brief history of creative freedom and copyright, and talks about how contemporary copyright law could strangle future artistic invention and interpretation. William Kamkwamba tells how he built a windmill from scrap metal when he was 14 years old. And Amy Smith shares her transformative low-tech tools for saving life in the developing world.

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    Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic

    Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared ...

    Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared to almost 90% of metals -- because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic.

    Oct 6, 2011 Read more
  • HD

    Edward Tenner: Unintended consequences

    Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both ...

    Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

    Sep 6, 2011 Read more
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    Markus Fischer: A robot that flies like a bird

    Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly ...

    Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.

    Jul 22, 2011 Read more
  • HD

    Tim Harford: Trial, error and the God complex

    Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds ...

    Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. In this sparkling talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he asks us to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes.

    Jul 15, 2011 Read more
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    Rajesh Rao: A Rosetta Stone for a lost language

    Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword ...

    Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles": how to decipher the 4000-year-old Indus script. He's enlisting modern computation to try to read this lost language, the key to understanding this ancient civilization.

    Jun 28, 2011 Read more
  • HD

    Bill Ford: A future beyond traffic gridlock

    Bill Ford is a car guy -- his great-grandfather was ...

    Bill Ford is a car guy -- his great-grandfather was Henry Ford, and he grew up inside the massive Ford Motor Co. So when he worries about cars' impact on the environment, and about our growing global gridlock problem, it's worth a listen. His vision for the future of mobility includes "smart roads," even smarter public transport and going green like never before.

    Jun 20, 2011 Read more
  • HD

    Onyx Ashanti: This is beatjazz

    Musician and inventor Onyx Ashanti demonstrates "beatjazz" -- his music ...

    Musician and inventor Onyx Ashanti demonstrates "beatjazz" -- his music created with two handheld controllers, an iPhone and a mouthpiece, and played with the entire body. At TED's Full Spectrum Auditions, after locking in his beats and loops, he plays a 3-minute song that shares his vision for the future of music.

    Jun 17, 2011 Read more
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    Shea Hembrey: How I became 100 artists

    How do you stage an international art show with work ...

    How do you stage an international art show with work from 100 different artists? If you're Shea Hembrey, you invent all of the artists and artwork yourself -- from large-scale outdoor installations to tiny paintings drawn with a single-haired brush. Watch this funny, mind-bending talk to see the explosion of creativity and diversity of skills a single artist is capable of.

    Jun 14, 2011 Read more
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    Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness

    Using simple, delightful illustrations, designer Stefan Sagmeister shares his latest ...

    Using simple, delightful illustrations, designer Stefan Sagmeister shares his latest thinking on happiness -- both the conscious and unconscious kind. His seven rules for life and design happiness can (with some customizations) apply to everyone seeking more joy.

    Jun 1, 2011 Read more
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    Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral

    A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent ...

    A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station ... And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.

    May 17, 2011 Read more
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