18:03 In this very personal talk at TED, J.J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery – a passion that’s evident in his films and TV shows – back to its magical beginnings.

05:07 Using three iPods as magical props synchronizing videos across multiple screens, Marco Tempest spins a clever, surprisingly heartfelt meditation on truth and lies, art and emotion.

20:27 In this extraordinary talk interwoven with videos, Salman Khan tells how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, which offers a carefully structured series of educational videos providing complete curricula in math and other subjects.

17:30 The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) electrify the TED stage with an emerging global street-dance culture and their acrobatic superpowers.

14:35 Composer Eric Whitacre shares the story behind his ‘Virtual Choir’ project which brought together singers from around the world as well as the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube – and he unveils the first 2 minutes of Sleep, performed with a video choir of 2,052.

04:07 This video blends a superb talk by Steven Johnson on creativity, incubation, and innovation as the source of good ideas with well-conceived information graphics.

21:20 Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong and our ‘psychological immune system’ lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

18:56 Csikszentmihalyi is best known for his pioneering work in understanding happiness, creativity, human fulfillment, and flow – all of which he weaves into this TED talk on what makes a life worth living. Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of ‘flow’ – his word for heightened focus and immersion.

14:12 Why do people see the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich or hear demonic lyrics in Stairway to Heaven? In his TED talk skeptic Michael Shermer uses video and music to show how we convince ourselves to believe – and overlook the facts.

19:50 TED talk by magician Keith Barry showing how easy it is to manipulate minds once you know how – via a hypnotic trick employing telekinesis or second sight. He involves the audience in some astounding feats of brain magic.

18:07 Geek humorist John Hodgman rambles through a story about aliens, physics, time, space, and the way all of these somehow contribute to a sweet, perfect memory of falling in love.

23:59 In this illuminating talk about biomimicry Janine Benyus illustrates fascinating examples of ways nature influences the products and systems we build.

19:29 In this funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses – and shares the radical idea that instead of the rare person ‘being’ a genius all of us ‘have’  genius.

18:37 A spirited examination told through compelling stories, showing how traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think.

19:07 In this vibrant talk string theorist Brian Greene explains how our understanding of the universe has evolved from Einstein’s notions of gravity and space-time to superstring theory, where minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.