TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. It’s a wonderful gathering where great minds present and exchange ideas. The talks given are always full of fascinating bits of information. The number of excellent TED Talks are simply too many to showcase here, but here are just a few that I enjoyed not too long ago.

Kary Mullis’ next-gen cure for killer infection

Drug-resistant bacteria kills, even in top hospitals. But now tough infections like staph and anthrax may be in for a surprise. Nobel-winning chemist Kary Mullis, who watched a friend die when powerful antibiotics failed, unveils a radical new cure that shows extraordinary promise.

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.

Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes

Elaine Morgan is a tenacious proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis: the idea that humans evolved from primate ancestors who dwelt in watery habitats. Hear her spirited defense of the idea — and her theory on why mainstream science doesn’t take it seriously.

Nina Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color

Nina Jablonski says that differing skin colors are simply our bodies’ adaptation to varied climates and levels of UV exposure. Charles Darwin disagreed with this theory, but she explains, that’s because he did not have access to NASA.

Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds

Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome -when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon.

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness

Feeling like the world is becoming less friendly? Social theorist Jonathan Zittrain begs to difffer. The Internet, he suggests, is made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust.

Arthur Benjamin: Lightning calculation and other “Mathemagic”

In a lively show, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares, solves another massive mental equation and guesses a few birthdays. How does he do it? Hell tell you.