Sherwin Nuland, the surgeon and author, talks about the development of electroshock therapy as a cure for severe, life-threatening depression. Midway through, his story turns personal. It’s a moving and deeply felt talk about relief, redemption, second chances. (Recorded February 2001 in Monterey, California. Duration: 22:30.) [ted id=189] Watch Sherwin Nuland’s talk on TED.com, where […]
What’s the relationship between our happiness and the choices we make? TEDTalks from Barry Schwartz and Daniel Gilbert point out some paradoxes of this relationship, and the complex emotions involved in choice. Now, some new research from Yale sheds light on how toddlers and monkeys make choices. From the BPS Research Digest Blog: Forty 4-year-olds […]
News.com’s blog reports on how much oil we have left, in the estimate of Chevron CTO Don Paul: About 1 trillion gallons that we can extract, and another trillion that, for now, we can’t. In a hallway conversation with a News.com reporter, Chevron’s Paul estimated that we will have consumed half of all the oil […]
Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world’s largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket. “There is no place in the world and no time in history that small farmers have had […]
Brain researcher Vilayanur Ramachandran talks about how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He discusses three specific syndromes: phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and […]
Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase investigates the ways we interact with technology — a quest that has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. Along the way, he’s made some unexpected discoveries: about the ways illiterate people use their mobile phones, the new roles the mobile can play in global […]
Some familiar TED faces and themes turn up in Popular Mechanics‘ 2007 Breakthrough Awards, published in the magazine’s November issue. Jeff Han‘s multitouch wall (watch his 2006 TEDTalk) and Hod Lipson‘s print-anything printer (related to his work on robots) are named as two of the awards’ “8 Bold Ideas” for 2007. If you were moved […]
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons celebrates its diamond anniversary this week by releasing a new collection of images, movies and maps. If you could not get enough of Carolyn Porco‘s images from her talk at TED2007, head over to the CICLOPS site for new and just-posted archival images, as well as a […]
Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work — from her New Yorker covers to her children’s books to her newest book for grownups, The Principles of Uncertainty. And yes, in person, she is as wonderful, as wise, and as deliciously off-kilter as her work. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: […]
Game designer Will Wright (watch his TEDTalk) will become a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) this month — one of only 67 ever named, and the first video game designer, reports Variety. A few other BAFTA Fellows: Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Elizabeth Taylor … Since 2006, BAFTA — essentially […]
Gore gets it! – the prize, and the crisis. Deeply rooted in science, Al Gore has established climate crisis as a moral and spiritual imperative. Now we must act with speed on an unprecedented scale. Speed and scale. — John Doerr I have seen the VP’s passion since my early days photographing him in Washington […]
As a collaborator on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), professor Michael Oppenheimer is honored by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC, and shared with Al Gore, for its work in understanding the climate change crisis and pointing the way forward to solving it. At the 2007 TEDSalon, “Hot Science: Radical […]
Two days of sitting next to Al, with some intense ongoing conversation, proved to me that he was wholly focused on substance rather than form, and graced by a biting sense of humor, the real stuff of which leaders should be made! — Janet M. Baker Al Gore takes climate change personally — at TED, […]
As congratulations for Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, pour in from the TED community, we asked people who saw Gore’s TED2006 presentations to talk about the impact his talks had on them. This is the second in the series. When I facilitate a gathering of wild tiger experts next month in India, Al […]
Here is Jack Oswald’s story of Al Gore’s impact: Prior to seeing Al Gore’s Climate Crisis presentation, I had always thought that he was a good person. He had always appeared bright, capable and well-meaning. On the night of the presentation, Al Gore was “on fire.” His true personality really came through, and I was […]
As congratulations for Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, pour in from the TED community, we asked people who saw Gore’s TED2006 presentations to talk about the impact his talks had on them. This is the first in a series, to be posted throughout the day. Al Gore’s talk at TED 2006 was a […]