Why do we find it easier to trust some concepts and ideas over others? Professor Adam Kucharski delves into the science of uncertainty and why the need for clear explanations about how things work is becoming more important. In his work, Adam has found a lack of explainability enables more disinformation and conspiracy theories as people attempt to fill the gaps in their knowledge. This matters, because increasingly we’re going to have to navigate a world that most of us will struggle to fully understand. As a consequence, Adam argues, we must find better ways to trust things that we can’t explain and better ways to explain the things that we don’t trust.Adam is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and bestselling author of The Rules of Contagion, which was Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian and Financial Times. A mathematician by training, his work on global outbreaks has included Ebola, Zika and COVID, and he has advised multiple governments and health agencies. His new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, will be published in March 2025.This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx