Contributors > Ben Lillie

Ben Lillie

New York, NY, United States
The Story Collider
Co-founder and Director

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The Story Collider
Personal Blog

I'm the director of The Story Collider, where people tell true, personal stories about science in their lives. I'm also a Contributing Editor for TED.com, a Moth StorySLAM champion and an ex-High Energy Particle Physicist.

Stories by Ben Lillie:

Deep and faint in the night sky: Andrew Connolly at TED2014

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Deep and faint in the night sky: Andrew Connolly at TED2014

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Astronomer Andrew Connolly begins by telling us that in 1781, English composer, technologist and composer  Sir William Herschel noticed something unusual, a little bit of data that was wrong. This was the discovery of a new planet, Uranus. (“A name that has entertained countelss generations of children.”) Just last week NASA announced 517 new planets, almost doubled []

The hard problem of consciousness: David Chalmers at TED2014

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The hard problem of consciousness: David Chalmers at TED2014

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“Right now you have a movie playing inside your head,” says philosopher David Chalmers. It’s an amazing movie, with 3D, smell, taste, touch, a sense of body, pain, hunger, emotions, memories, and a constant voice-over narrative. “At the heart of this movie is you, experiencing this, directly. This movie is your stream of consciousness, experience []

The brain is a Swiss Army knife: Nancy Kanwisher at TED2014

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The brain is a Swiss Army knife: Nancy Kanwisher at TED2014

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Watch this talk on TED.com Onstage at TED, Nancy Kanwisher starts by telling us one of the most surprising results from recent neuroscience discoveries: The brain is not a general-purpose processor, but a collection of specialized components, “collectively building up who we are as human beings and thinkers.” Imagine, she says, walking into a daycare center and []

Public spaces have power: Amanda Burden at TED2014

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Public spaces have power: Amanda Burden at TED2014

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When we think of cities, we think of buildings and skyscrapers and stray cats. For Amanda Burden, who spent 12 years as New York City’s director of urban planning, they’re primarily about people. They’re about where people go and where they meet — that’s the core of how cities work. And for the people, even more important than the []