Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way

Reggie Watts’ beats defy boxes. Unplug your logic board and watch as he blends poetry and crosses musical genres in this larger-than-life performance.

Reggie Watts creates unpredictably brilliant performances on the spot using his voice, looping pedals and his giant brain.

David MacKay: A reality check on renewables

How much land mass would renewables need to power a nation like the UK? An entire country's worth. In this pragmatic talk from TEDxWarwick, David MacKay tours the basic mathematics that show worrying limitations on our sustainable energy options and explains why we should pursue them anyway.

As an information theorist and computer scientist, David MacKay uses hard math to assess our renewable energy options.

Ken Goldberg: 4 lessons from robots about being human

The more that robots ingrain themselves into our everyday lives, the more we're forced to examine ourselves as people. At TEDxBerkeley, Ken Goldberg shares four very human lessons that he's learned from working with robots.

Ken Goldberg works reflect the intersection of robotics, social media, and art.

William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes

How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the Archimedes palimpsest, a Byzantine prayer book containing previously-unknown original writings from ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and others.

William Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet.

Dalia Mogahed: The attitudes that sparked Arab Spring

Pollster Dalia Mogahed shares surprising data on Egyptian people's attitudes and hopes before the Arab Spring -- with a special focus on the role of women in sparking change.

Dalia Mogahed is the director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

Sebastian Deterding: What your designs say about you

What does your chair say about what you value? Designer Sebastian Deterding shows how our visions of morality and what the good life is are reflected in the design of objects around us.

Sebastian Deterding is an interface designer who thinks deeply about persuasive and gameful design.

Quixotic Fusion: Dancing with light

Quixotic Fusion is an ensemble of artists that brings together aerial acrobatics, dance, theater, film, music and visual fx. Watch as they perform three transporting dance pieces at TED2012.

Anthony Magliano and Mica Thomas are the founder and artistic directors of Quixotic, a mixed-media theater/performance/aerialist company.

Seth Shostak: ET is (probably) out there -- get ready

SETI researcher Seth Shostak bets that we will find extraterrestrial life in the next twenty-four years, or he'll buy you a cup of coffee. At TEDxSanJoseCA, he explains why new technologies and the laws of probability make the breakthrough so likely -- and forecasts how the discovery of civilizations far more advanced than ours might affect us here on Earth.

Seth Shostak is an astronomer, alien hunter and bulwark of good, exciting science.

David Birch: Identity without a name

Bartenders needs to know your age, retailers need your PIN, but almost no-one needs your name -- except for identity thieves. At TEDxSussexUniversity, David Birch proposes a safer, fractured and conditional approach to personal identification that would almost never require your real name.

David Birch is an digital money and ID consultant paving the way for a 21st-century identity.

Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species?

Throughout human evolution, multiple versions of humans co-existed. Could we be mid-upgrade now? At TEDxSummit, 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.

Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about profound changes that genomics will bring in business, technology, and society. His TED Book, "Homo Evolutis," explores those changes.

Diane Kelly: What we didn’t know about penis anatomy

We’re not done with anatomy. We know a tremendous amount about genomics, proteomics and cell biology, but as Diane Kelly makes clear at TEDMED, there are basic facts about the human body we’re still learning. Case in point: How does the mammalian erection work?

Diane Kelly studies vertebrate anatomy, in particular the connection between the design and function of reproductive organs.

Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?

Why is 'x' the symbol for an unknown? In this short and funny talk, Terry Moore gives the surprising answer.

Terry Moore is the director of the Radius Foundation, a forum for exploring and gaining insight from different worldviews.

Damian Palin: Mining minerals from seawater

The world needs clean water, and more and more, we're pulling it from the oceans, desalinating it, and drinking it. But what to do with the salty brine left behind? In this intriguing short talk, TED Fellow Damian Palin proposes an idea: Mine it for other minerals we need, with the help of some collaborative metal-munching bacteria.

Damian Palin is developing a way to use bacteria to biologically "mine" minerals from water -- specifically, out of the brine left over from the desalinization process.

John Hodgman: Design, explained.

John Hodgman, comedian and resident expert, "explains" the design of three iconic modern objects. (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)

John Hodgman is a writer, humorist, geek celebrity, former professional literary agent and expert on all world knowledge. He was the bumbling PC in Apple's long-running "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ad campaign.

Ami Klin: A new way to diagnose autism

Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder can improve the lives of everyone affected, but the complex network of causes make it incredibly difficult to predict. At TEDxPeachtree, Ami Klin describes a new early detection method that uses eye-tracking technologies to gauge babies' social engagement skills and reliably measure their risk of developing autism.

Ami Klin is an award winning autism spectrum disorder researcher finding new avenues for early diagnosis.