I have always been a huge fan of TED talks and have been watching since it started becoming available on youtube a few years back. Some late comers have asked me recently if I could give them a shortlist of some of the best talks I have seen. Below a short compilation of the jaw-droppers, the inspiring and the amazing talks I have seen.

First. the ones that started it all for me…

Jill Bolte Taylor – Stroke of insight
JJ Abrams – Mystery box

Science

Vilayanur Ramachandran – Your mind
V. Ramachandran – The neurons that shaped civilization
Beau Lotto – Optical illusions show how we see
Richard Dawkins – Our queer universe
David Deutsch – A new way to explain explanation
Dan Denett – Cute, sexy, sweet and funny
Dan Denett – Our consciousness
Dan Denett – Dangerous memes
Garrett Lisi – Theory of everything
Brian Greene – String Theory
Jeff Hawkins – How brain science will change computing
Henry Markram – Supercomputing the brains secrets
Craig Venter – Unveils synthetic life
Lee Cronin – Making matter come alive
Daniel Wolpert – The real reason for brains

Jaw-dropping

Jack Horner – Building a dinosaur from a chicken
Theo Jansen – Creating new creatures out of bottles and pipes
Robot flies like a bird
Todd Kuiken – A prosthetic arm that feels
Johnny Lee – Wii remote hacks
Jeff Han – Breakthrough touchscreen
David Bolinsky – Animating the cell
Marco Tempest – Magic of truth and lies on ipods
Terry Moore – How to tie your shoes
Daniel Tammet – Different ways of knowing

Other

Michael Shermer – Believing strange things
Michael Shermer – The pattern behind self deception
Jason Fried – Why work doesn’t happen at work
Aubrey de Grey – We can avoid aging
David Mcandless – The beauty of data visualizations

These are just a short list of items I thought were worth sharing. If I had more time to go through the videos again, I am sure I would find double the items. These however stood out from memory and I hope you enjoy!