In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.

''Can we create new life out of our digital universe?'' asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into ''fourth-generation fuels'' -- biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock. His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital ...