This TED Talk features cognitive neuroscientist on John Chatterjee, recorded live at TEDMed 2016.

It's 1878.

Sir Francis Galton gives a remarkable talk.

He's speaking to the Anthropologic Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Known for his pioneering work in human intelligence,

Galton is a brilliant polymath.

He's an explorer, an anthropologist, a sociologist, a psychologist, and a statistician.

He's also a eugenist.

In this talk, he presents a new technique by which he can combine photographs and produce composite portraits.

This technique could be used to characterize different types of people.

Galton thinks that if he combines photographs of violent criminals,

he will discover the face of criminality.

But to his surprise, the composite portrait that he produces is beautiful.

Galton's surprising finding raises deep questions.

What is beauty?

Why do certain configurations of line and color and form excite us so?

For most of human history, these questions have been approached

using logic and speculation.

But in the last few decades, scientists have addressed the question of beauty using ideas from evolutionary psychology and tools of neuroscience.

We're beginning to glimpse the why and the how of beauty, at least in terms of what it means for the human face and form.

And in the process, we're stumbling upon some surprises.

When it comes to seeing beauty in each other,

...