Articles from Best of the Best (trending on the web)

Jim Simons: A rare interview with the mathematician who cracked Wall Street

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Jim Simons was a mathematician and cryptographer who realized: the complex math he used to break codes could help explain patterns in the world of finance. Billions later, he’s working to support the next generation of math teachers and scholars. TED’s Chris Anderson sits down with Simons to talk about his extraordinary life in numbers.

Elizabeth Nyamayaro: An invitation to men who want a better world for women

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Around the world, women still struggle for equality in basic matters like the right to drive and to marry when they choose. But how to enlist everyone, men and women, as allies for change? Meet Elizabeth Nyamayaro, the inventor of the #HeForShe Twitter campaign, which created 1.2 billion conversations about a more equal world. She invites us all to join in as allies in our shared humanity.

Wendy Freedman: This new telescope might show us the beginning of the universe

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When and how did the universe begin? A global group of astronomers wants to answer that question by peering as far back in time as a large new telescope will let us see. Wendy Freedman headed the creation of the Giant Magellan Telescope, under construction in South America; at TEDGlobal in Rio, she shares a bold vision of the discoveries about our universe that the GMT could make possible.

Yves Morieux: How too many rules at work keep you from getting things done

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Modern work -- from waiting tables to crunching numbers to dreaming up new products -- is about solving brand-new problems every day, flexibly, in brand-new ways. But as Yves Morieux shows in this insightful talk, too often, an overload of processes and sign-offs and internal metrics keeps us from doing our best. He offers a new way to think of work -- as a collaboration, not a competition.

Robin Murphy: These robots come to the rescue after a disaster

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When disaster strikes, who's first on the scene? More and more, it’s a robot. In her lab, Robin Murphy builds robots that fly, tunnel, swim and crawl through disaster scenes, helping firefighters and rescue workers save more lives safely -- and help communities return to normal up to three years faster.

Seth Berkley: The troubling reason why vaccines are made too late ... if they’re made at all

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It seems like we wait for a disastrous disease outbreak before we get serious about making a vaccine for it. Seth Berkley lays out the market realities and unbalanced risks behind why we aren't making vaccines for the world's biggest diseases.

Jim Al-Khalili: How quantum biology might explain life’s biggest questions

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How does a robin know to fly south? The answer might be weirder than you think: Quantum physics may be involved. Jim Al-Khalili rounds up the extremely new, extremely strange world of quantum biology, where something Einstein once called “spooky action at a distance” helps birds navigate, and quantum effects might explain the origin of life itself.

Dustin Yellin: A journey through the mind of an artist

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Dustin Yellin makes mesmerizing artwork that tells complex, myth-inspired stories. How did he develop his style? In this disarming talk, he shares the journey of an artist -- starting from age 8 -- and his idiosyncratic way of thinking and seeing. Follow the path that leads him up to his latest major work (or two).

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