Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other surprising sea creatures

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This week on TED.com January 30, 2016

Talk of the week David Gruber: Glow-in-the-dark sharks and other surprising sea creatures 13:54 minutes · Filmed Oct 2015 · Posted Jan 2016 · Mission Blue II Just a few meters below the waves, marine biologist and explorer-photographer David Gruber discovered something amazing -- a surprising new range of sea creatures that glow in many colors in the ocean's dim blue light. Join his journey in search of biofluorescent sharks, seahorses, sea turtles and more, and learn how these light-up creatures could illuminate a new understanding of our own brains. Watch now »

Playlist of the week New tech, new morals Along with every tech advance comes new ethical questions. In these eye-opening talks, learn about life-altering feats of science ... and ask: How could we mess this up? Watch » 8 TED Talks • Total run time 2:14:22

More TED Talks Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? Economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today but not be in power -- because real power now belongs to those who control the economy. He believes that the mega-rich and corporations are cannibalizing the political sphere, causing financial crisis. Hear his dream for a world in which capital and labor no longer struggle against each other, "one that is simultaneously libertarian, Marxist and Keynesian." Watch » A decade ago, US law said human genes were patentable -- which meant patent holders had the right to stop anyone from sequencing, testing or even looking at a patented gene. Troubled by the way this law both harmed patients and created a barrier to biomedical innovation, Tania Simoncelli and her colleagues at the ACLU challenged it. In this riveting talk, hear the story of how they took a case everybody told them they would lose all the way to the Supreme Court. Watch » Roboticist Auke Ijspeert designs biorobots, machines modeled after real animals -- like salamanders and cats -- that would appear at home in the pages of a sci-fi novel. His team is studying how animals move to create better robots that walk, jump and even swim. And these robots don't just mimic the natural world -- they help us understand our own biology better, unlocking previously unknown secrets of the spinal cord. Watch » Plastic bags are essentially indestructible, yet they're used and thrown away with reckless abandon. Most end up in the ocean, where they pollute the water and harm marine life; the rest are burned in garbage piles, where they release harmful dioxins into the atmosphere. Melati and Isabel Wijsen are on a mission to stop plastic bags from suffocating their beautiful island home of Bali. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're too young or you won't understand," Isabel says to other aspiring activists. "We're not telling you it's going to be easy. We're telling you it's going to be worth it." Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Food: Want to eat smarter? Forget about willpower » We know surprisingly little about what we want to eat, and why Art: When the Sistine Chapel was almost painted over » Michelangelo's masterpiece was a public relations nightmare Book list: Big ideas from TED2016 speakers » We're about to hold TED's annual conference -- which means more free TED Talks coming to you throughout the year. Get a sneak peek via this reading list from speakers you'll soon get to know.

Quote of the Week “ We've gone beyond the capacity of the single human mind to an extraordinary degree. IQ ... is completely irrelevant. What's relevant to a society is how well people are communicating their ideas, and how well they're cooperating." Matt Ridley When ideas have sex

TED conference opening night in cinemas Gather a group of friends and watch the dramatic opening night of the TED2016 conference in your local movie theater! It's two hours of never-before-seen TED Talks, performance and ideas, in an evening-long program sure to spark great discussions. Click through for dates and locations of theaters near you, and experience TED on the big screen.

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