Exploring hidden parts of the world

By Helen Walters, Editorial director at TED

"Believe it or not, swimming around sinkholes full of dead things and caves full of bat poop isn't the smartest thing you could be doing with your life." With this deadpan understatement, Prosanta Chakrabarty did two things: he reminded me once again of the incredible lengths that scientists will go to for their work, and he made me fall in love with blind cavefish ... something I didn't even know existed before I heard his short, sparky, hilarious talk.

In his talk, "Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish," Prosanta shares fascinating cavefish factoids (describing how they actually help us to get a better understanding of geology). He describes how the genetic architecture of fishy blindness might help us to understand more about our own vision. And he underscores that scientists are often extreme athletes who will stop at nothing to do their work. (Just check out the footage of him inside a teeny tiny cave. Incredible!) It's funny, it's fascinating, it's only five minutes long. What are you waiting for?