TEDBlog October, 2011 Archive
31 October 2011
FBI, here I am! Hasan Elahi on TED.com
After he ended up on a watch list by accident, artist Hasan Elahi was advised by his local FBI agents to let them know when he was traveling. He did that and more … much more. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 14:31.)
Watch Hasan Elahi’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
28 October 2011
@TEDMED: Catching up with A.J. Jacobs, the “healthiest person alive”
At the TEDMED conference, TED’s own Nafissa Yakubova caught up with writer AJ Jacobs, whose TEDTalk describes his “year of living biblically” …
What are the new projects you’ve been working on since your latest TEDtalk?
I just finished my book Drop Dead Healthy, about my quest to be the healthiest person alive. Also continuing to write for Esquire magazine. I recently wrote an article about one of my misadventures in Hollywood.
What are the challenges of living healthy? Would you like to continue with this healthy lifestyle even after you finish your project and publish your book?
One of the biggest challenges is finding time to fit in all the healthy activities you’re supposed to do. If you follow all the experts’ advice, it’s a 24-hour-a-day job. You have to exercise, prepare meals of whole foods, chew each bite 30 times, meditate, pet dogs (lowers the blood pressure), have sex (good for preventing heart disease), stretch, wash your hands thoroughly, floss, put on sunscreen (a shot glassful every four hours), nap (good for brain and heart) and on and on.
I’m not keeping all of my healthy habits, but I’m definitely keeping a whole bunch. For instance, I now try to move more. I walk, I climb stairs. I write and send emails at my treadmill desk. In fact, I find it hard to work at a regular desk nowadays.
Do you like a different person/different writer because you feel different? more healthy? :)
I’m definitely healthier. I lost 20 pounds. My wife no longer asks if I’m pregnant, which is nice. I’m also fitter (though admittedly, that’s not saying a lot, since I used to get out of breath while putting away the groceries).
Can you reveal what’s your next project to be?
I actually haven’t decided yet. A lot of readers suggest that I do all the positions in the Kama Sutra. But that won’t happen for a whole variety of reasons, including my wife and my back. So stay tuned.
28 October 2011
@TEDMED: Catching up with Paul Stamets, mushroom innovator
Yesterday at TEDMED, TEDTalks favorite Paul Stamets gave an emotional talk about new medical uses for mushrooms — including a variety that, he says, helped treat his mother’s cancer. Stamets spoke about powerful medical uses for mushrooms and their extracts, from anti-tuberculosis effects (Agarikon) to Cordyceps, a treasure trove of potential medicines, such as cyclosporine, which prevents organ rejection in transplant patients, and the recently FDA-approved drug Gilenya, from Novartis, for treating multiple sclerosis (MS). He can even use mushroom compounds to steer the migration of insects across the landscapes and control diseases carried by insects and animals. The most heartfelt moment of his talk, though, was when he brought his mother to the stage and told how he was able to help her to go from stage 4 breast cancer to tumor-free.
Afterward, the TED Blog sat with Paul and his mother and asked for more of the story.
Paul, you talked about treating your mother who had stage 4 breast cancer with mushrooms. Could you tell us your personal story behind that?
Being able to help your parent is a great feeling. They gave life to me, and as the youngest child, being able to help one of them feels good. I could have helped my father too, years ago, but it didn’t happen. He was terminally ill, and in a coma at that point, and we were standing in the circle of doctors. I brought all the references, and they said: If you want to give this to your dad, we’ll give it to him through his feeding tube. We had a meeting with my brother and sisters, and they all said, Yes, we agree; let him try. But my father had remarried, and my stepmom said no. It was like: “I am coming back to rescue my dad, I can do this!” I had all the mushrooms with me and the references, and the doctors had been convinced. But my stepmother had the right to stop it. And I felt tremendously defeated, and it brought me sorrow for a long time.
When my mother ended up having cancer, I could do something, and I could help. It was like a balance; I could help one of them, you know. That makes me feel very good. And my family feels good. My mother had stage 4 breast cancer and now she is tumor-free.
What mushrooms did you use? and how do they work?
In my mother’s case, I used Turkey Tail mushroom (Trametes versicolor) [in combination with conventional medicines, including taxol and herceptin]. The Turkey Tail product we make is available at Whole Foods under the Host Defense label. Their use supports immunity.
I saw the picture of me and my mother standing on stage later on, and it still brings tears to my eyes.
28 October 2011
Stories cut from paper: Béatrice Coron on TED.com
With scissors and paper, artist Béatrice Coron creates intricate worlds, cities and countries, heavens and hells. Striding onstage in a glorious cape cut from Tyvek, she describes her creative process and the way her stories develop from snips and slices. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 18:16.)
Watch Béatrice Coron’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
28 October 2011
Fellows Friday with Kaustuv De Biswas
Join the conversation by answering Fellows’ weekly questions via TED Conversations. This week, Kaustuv asks:
Despite the controversy over patents, what is a progressive take on authorship in the collaborative world?
Respond here!
In your TEDtalk, you tell us about the Sunglass Project, the latest software from your company dplay. What is the goal of the Sunglass Project?
The Sunglass Project is a web-based design platform that really democratizes design. It gives access to high-end design tools to people all across the world.
Thirty or 40 years ago, when computer-aided design (CAD) was pioneered, it was done by the manufacturing industry. Architects started using it in the 1970s, and now there’s practically no design that happens without a bit of computation. So some of these metaphors or ways of thinking have remained, while the context has completely changed: we now live in a networked, mobile world, and design itself has become more and more collaborative. But the design systems we use were not developed with this in mind.
So at dplay we wanted to develop a system that responds to this change in context. We thought, “What kind of a system would allow collaborative cooperatation in this networked world?” Immediately we went to a web-based delivery system. You don’t need to download or buy any software: you can get it from the web browser. Sunglass is a drag-and-drop design platform that you can use to share and build 3-D content. We are already working with universities, building up design and analysis tools on the browser, so the moment it is launched, everybody across the world will be able to use these tools. We want to make this a truly democratic space where everybody can join in design. We are planning our first launch for March 2012.
For us, success will be if a student in Bangladesh or India, using their $100 laptop, can access a high-end design tool developed somewhere in Stanford or Princeton.
27 October 2011
@TEDMED: Catching up with Catherine Mohr, robotic surgery expert
Our content partner conference, TEDMED, is happening now in California. (Look for TEDMED video fresh from stage in the coming weeks!) TED’s own Nafissa Yakubova, is reporting from the conference; she caught a few minutes with TEDTalks star Catherine Mohr, who brings us up to date on robotic surgical innovations and her very green house … and what it means to have two talks on TED.com. As she told us:
Having been on the TED stage, it’s like introductions precede you. People know about you before meeting you in a way I have not experienced before. People say, “I’ve seen your TEDTlk!” Oh, OK then, I don’t have to introduce myself! People already know answers to the first questions, so that we can move right on to the important things that we want to talk about.
What have you been doing since your first TEDTalk? What’s new?
My 2009 TEDTalk on surgery was primarily about abdominal surgery and making it better. Since then, we have been going from hair follicles to toenails, looking at all the different places in the body where we can bring robotic surgery. It is a really interesting and fun thought process, and it led to my current thinking, which is what I tried to articulate in my TEDMED talk yesterday: Places where we are looking for a gap between what we can do currently with our existing technologies and what we’d like to be able to do for the patients IF ONLY — if only we had better diagnostic tools, if only we had better therapeutics, better drugs. Putting everything into that framework allows you to really make a decision on where technology like robotics could make a real difference in patients’ lives.
You were an engineer for a while and then you went to medical school — was it a complete change? And are you looking forward to moving on and taking the next stage, and if so what is it?
I would actually not say that it was so much of a complete change, because I took my engineering knowledge with me to med school, and I applied it. One of the things I talked about in my TEDMED talk yesterday was how experts gather a lot of expertise and they get a worldview that is very, very good at filtering between what they do and what they see as irrelevant. And once you’ve build up that filter for a while, you also get very good at filtering out disruptive technologies, things that don’t currently fit the way you think treatment should happen. Thinking about that, eventually I will be stale in what I am doing. I will be too highly trained to be able to be responsive to new things that will happen. So I will need to retrain in some way. I don’t know what it will be. I still feel like I am on a steep part of a learning curve, and you know, in medicine, there is always more to learn.
What’s happening with your green house, which you gave a TED U talk about?
We moved in! We’re doing a lot of stuff in permaculture and landscape gardening, and finally had our rainwater caching system, and the greywater wetlands, so everything is up and running. We’ve been in the house for almost a year now; at a year, I am going to analyze all the data on the house for the first year, and I’ll update the blog at that point with: ‘Well, I had these assumptions on what the house was going to be like, and what is it now compared to the assumptions.’ It will be really interesting to do analysis after a year and project what the house is going to be like. Will I get the payback that I calculated in my talk?
One of the interesting things for me is, I saw all kinds of projections and analysis, but nobody ever closed the loop and actually said how much did it really save you compared to what you had estimated.
How does it feel to live in that house? :)
It’s lovely. It certainly has something to do with sustainability and the feel-good aspect of it. And it is the space we’ve created for our family and it is designed the way we like to live.
27 October 2011
@TEDMED: Catching up with Charles Limb, hip-hop creativity researcher
The TED team is eagerly watching our content partner conference, TEDMED, happening now in California. (Look for TEDMED video fresh from stage in the coming weeks!) TED’s own Nafissa Yakubova, is reporting from the conference; this morning, she caught a few minutes with TEDTalks favorite Charles Limb, who studies what creativity looks like in the brains of jazz improvisers and freestyle rappers …
What have you been up to since your talk (from TEDxMidAtlantic) went onto TED.com?
Over the past year, I have spent a lot of time acquiring more data on two main lines of experimental inquiry. The first is the neural mechanisms that underlie spontaneous creativity in musicians, and the second is the study of how deaf individuals who receive cochlear implants perceive music. Both of these areas of inquiry are deeply compelling to me. In terms of specific followup, we have completed functional brain image acquisition on jazz musicians who are having musical “conversations,” showing that traditional language areas of the brain are critical for this type of activity. Also, we have finished brain studies of freestyle rappers who are improvising, which will add further crucial insights into the neurobiology of creativity. We are now actively working on manuscript preparation in hopes to publish these exciting studies.
What are the projects you are currently working on that you’d like to share with the TED.com community
I am currently trying to work on a few studies — one is to see how mechanisms of creativity in jazz or rap generalize to other forms of spontaneous improvisation, such as in drawing. We are also trying to examine how these mechanisms differ in amateur vs. expert musicians, and children vs. adults. It is probably fairer to say that I am trying to work on getting funding for these studies, since they are in the conceptual stages at this point …”
What are your five favorite records?
My five favorite records? Tough question! How about five of my favorite pieces or songs:
1. Gustav Mahler, “Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen” (recording with Janet Baker)
2. Astor Piazzolla, “Milonga del Angel” (from Tango: Zero Hour)
3. John Coltrane, “Lush Life” (with Donald Byrd on trumpet, no vocals; from album of the same title)
4. Miles Davis, “In Your Own Sweet Way” (with John Coltrane on saxophone)
5. Prince, “Adore” (from Sign o’ the Times)
27 October 2011
Open-source cancer research: Jay Bradner on TED.com
How does cancer know it’s cancer? At Jay Bradner’s lab, they found a molecule that might hold the answer, JQ1 — and instead of patenting JQ1, they published their findings and mailed samples to 40 other labs to work on. An inspiring look at the open-source future of medical research. (Recorded at TEDxBoston, June 2011, in Boston, Massachusetts. Duration: 12:48.)
Watch Jay Bradner’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
26 October 2011
“We quite suddenly realized that we were looking at a general pattern”: Q&A with Richard Wilkinson
In 2009, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published the book The Spirit Level, making a bold case that economic inequality within a society, the size of the gap between rich and poor, has corrosive effects from the bottom of society right up to the top. Wilkinson spoke about their book and research this summer at TEDGlobal (watch his TEDTalk); earlier this week, he talked to the TED Blog about how he and Pickett came to this insight … and what Occupy Wall Street might mean for the future of fairness.
When did your research start heading in this direction? What made you look at broad inequality within societies?
I’ve been involved in research on health inequalities — the huge social class differences in death rates — for more than 30 years. And the work I talked about at TED really came out of that. I began to work on the contribution that income might make in the differences in health between rich and poor, and then started wondering whether more equal societies, with smaller differences between rich and poor, would have smaller differences in death rates and maybe better health overall. There were things about the nature of the relationship that made me think that more equal societies would be healthier.
I worked on that for quite a long time, before discovering that criminologists had shown that violence was also more common in more unequal societies. And then, in trying to think of the mechanisms that led from greater equality to better overall population health, I began to think about social cohesion, levels of trust and things like that. I may say, the more-equal societies had very much better health than I had expected. I found the correlation was much larger than I had expected. That’s why I started to think it couldn’t just be a matter of the direct effects of individual income, but that there must be wider social processes, maybe involving social relationships, social cohesion, things like that.
But still, it was quite a few more years before I realized that actually, the pattern I was looking at was common to many other social problems. In fact, problems which, like ill health, are more common at the bottom of society, all these sorts of problems seem more common in more unequal societies.
So you started from a perspective of health …
Yes, and then discovering this work on violence showing the same patterns. We also had measures of trust, such as Robert Putnam’s early study on the Italian regions. His measures of social capital were strongly related to income inequality in the regions of Italy. And I also had some qualitative evidence that more equal societies were more cohesive.
In a way it’s obvious. People have had an intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive for a very long time, and seeing the data on trust and social capital really confirmed that. But still, I didn’t look at things like mental illness, obesity, child wellbeing, proportion of the population in prison, drug problems, teenage birthrates — all that has come in the last five years or so while Kate Pickett and I have been working together. We quite suddenly realized that what we were looking at was a general pattern.
Something that doesn’t come up in your talk, and I’d love to explore for our audience, is what you did once this data started becoming clear to you. At what point did you and your colleagues set up the The Equality Trust?
I think writing the book really made us aware of how coherent the picture was. Taking the same group of countries, the same measures of inequality, whether amongst the American states or internationally, we found one problem after another was more common in more unequal societies — and that was true comparing rich countries or the 50 states of the USA.
And although I’d had doubts about whether I’d got things basically right about 10 years ago, I think that writing the book made us absolutely clear that the basic structure, the basic picture we’re putting together, must be right — and at the same time hugely important. If inequality does affect so many health and social problems, you can’t just leave it in an academic journal that nobody reads and forget about it. (more…)
26 October 2011
The beauty of small things: Extraordinary satellite time-lapse titles for TEDxDubai
This spectacular satellite time-lapse sequence shows the growth of Dubai over the past 10 years (while introducing the speakers at last weekend’s TEDxDubai event). Producers METAphrenie took 3 months to produce the clip using imagery from Space Imaging Middle East and DigitalGlobe. As they note:
The titles, together with the event, remind everyone that small things can have a huge impact … and that Dubai’s present grandeur sits on a multitude of tiny grains of sand.
Music by Reiner Erlings.
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