Robert Lang is a pioneer of modern origami — using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:59.) Watch Robert Lang’s 2008 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other […]
TED.com commenter David Smith points us to this new interview with Ashraf Ghani, available as a podcast from the BBC World Service. Ghani (watch his TEDTalk) is the co-author of the new book Fixing Failed States — a subject he learned firsthand as a reformer in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Interviewer Peter Day of the program Global […]
Via the TED Prize blog, over on TEDPrize.org: If you’d like to lead an incredible drive to build math and science academies all over Africa — and help find the next Einstein — take a look at this want ad: The Next Einstein Initiative (NEI) is building a network of postgraduate centres of excellence for […]
Stanford researcher Kwabena Boahen is looking for ways to mimic the brain’s supercomputing powers in silicon — because the messy, redundant processes inside our heads actually make for a small, light, superfast computer. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 16:21.) Watch Kwabena Boahen’s 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate […]
Each year I donate a percentage of my income to Lightsaber Research and I encourage all my peers to do the same. A similarly futuristic technology, albeit one of marginally lesser interest to anyone with anger management issues, is the Jetpack. Today, a couple stories surfaced in the blogs and the papers about the unveiling […]
Via Gizmodo: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a preview of Microsoft’s prototype spherical multi-touch screen, Surface Sphere. It’s an exploration of ideas (not a real product) (yet), but it’s sure fun to watch:
At the 2007 EG conference, Kevin Kelly shares a fun stat: The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. Now, he asks, how can we predict what’s coming in the next 5,000 days? (Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 19:33.) Watch Kevin Kelly’s 2007 talk on TED.com, […]
Reed Kroloff gives us a new lens for judging new architecture: is it technocratic, or is it romantic? Look for glorious images from two leading practices — and a blistering critique of the 9/11 planning process. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:21.) Watch Reed Kroloff’s 2003 talk on TED.com, where you can […]
The New York Times has a thoughtful piece today on Model T hacking — which kicked off the modern sport of customizing, bending, modding and otherwise repurposing a commercial item for unintended-by-the-manufacturer uses. As Steve Lohr writes: The early Model T hackers were really pioneers in a realm of creative activity that academics call “user […]
Via LiveScience.com: Researchers at MIT have found valuable insight into body armor by studying the African fish Polypterus senegalus. A living fossil, the fish is largely unchanged since the Cretaceous period — when its ancestors faced an ocean full of large, toothy predators. In its defense, it developed a bite-resistant “armored” skin, whose scales are […]
Nonpartisan science advice in the US Congress? A newly opened online archive shows that it was possible — and stimulates a call to re-open the Office of Technology Assessment as an advisor to Congress. The OTA’s archive of 700+ scientific reports on topics ranging from addiction to terrorism to “personal rapid transit” spans the lifetime […]
In this short, image-packed talk, Marisa Fick-Jordan talks about how a village of traditional South African wire weavers built a worldwide market for their dazzling work. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 2:33.) Watch Marisa Fick-Jordan’s 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other […]
At the EG conference in December 2007, artist Jonathan Harris discusses his latest projects, which involve collecting stories: his own, strangers’, and stories collected from the Internet, including his amazing “We Feel Fine.”(Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 20:29.) Watch Jonathan Harris’s 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate […]
As Jacqueline Novogratz says in her 2005 TEDTalk: “You can’t talk about poverty today without talking about malaria bednets.” Yesterday, the Guardian UK reported on a massive new study of malaria prevention — which found several alarming gaps in the global drive to wipe out this disease, especially in the poorest countries. Read the study’s […]
Louise Leakey asks, “Who are we?” The question takes her to the Rift Valley in Eastern Africa, where she digs for the evolutionary origins of humankind — and suggests a stunning new vision of our competing ancestors. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:35.) Watch Louise Leakey’s 2008 talk on TED.com, where you […]
Chris Abani tells stories of people: People standing up to soldiers. People being compassionate. People being human and reclaiming their humanity. It’s “ubuntu,” he says: the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:14.) Watch Chris Abani’s […]