TED Blog » Matthew Trost

Silk, the ancient material of the future: Fiorenzo Omenetto on TED.com

Matthew Trost — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:50:22 +0000

Fiorenzo Omenetto shares 20+ astonishing new uses for silk, one of nature’s most elegant materials — in transmitting light, improving sustainability, adding strength and making medical leaps and bounds. On stage, he shows a few intriguing items made of the versatile stuff. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 9:41)

Watch Fiorenzo Omenetto’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 900+ TEDTalks.

The World Peace Game: John Hunter on TED.com

Matthew Trost — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:51:27 +0000

John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4′x5′ plywood board — and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches — spontaneous, and always surprising — go further than classroom lectures can. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 20:28)

Watch John Hunter’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 900+ TEDTalks.

Big history: David Christian on TED.com

Matthew Trost — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:07:52 +0000

Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 17:40)

Watch David Christian’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 900+ TEDTalks.

The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist: Mick Ebeling on TED.com

Matthew Trost — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:26:17 +0000

The nerve disease ALS left graffiti artist TEMPT paralyzed from head to toe, forced to communicate blink by blink. In a remarkable talk at TEDActive, entrepreneur Mick Ebeling shares how he and a team of collaborators built an open-source invention that gave the artist — and gives others in his circumstance — the means to make art again. (Recorded at TEDActive 2011, March 2011, in Palm Springs, CA. Duration: 7:50)

Watch Mick Ebeling’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 900+ TEDTalks.

Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon: Ralph Langner on TED.com

Matthew Trost — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:48:59 +0000

When first discovered in 2010, the Stuxnet computer worm posed a baffling puzzle. Beyond its unusually high level of sophistication loomed a more troubling mystery: its purpose. Ralph Langner and team helped crack the code that revealed this digital warhead’s final target — and its covert origins. In a fascinating look inside cyber-forensics, he explains how. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 10:41)

Watch Ralph Langner’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 900+ TEDTalks.

WEF announces 2011 Young Global Leaders

Matthew Trost — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:58:29 +0000

The World Economic Forum has announced the selections of their 2011 Young Global Leaders. Young Global Leaders “represent the future of leadership, coming from all regions of the world and representing business, government, civil society, arts and culture, academia and media, as well as social enterpreneurs.” Among them, you’ll find several TED speakers and TED Fellows:

Inventor Saul Griffith
Development economist and TED Fellow Sophal Ear
Social entrepreneur Shaffi Mather
Activist Ory Okolloh
Founder of Carolina for Kibera and TED Fellow Rye Barcott
Author and TED Prize winner Dave Eggers
Kiva.org co-founder Jessica Jackley
Game designer and author Jane McGonigal

See the complete list [PDF] »

Listen to the TEDActive 2011 “Entry Mix”

Matthew Trost — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:47:13 +0000

DJs frosty and Turquoise Widsom of dublab.com put together the mix of tunes that played before and after each speaker session at TEDActive 2011. They called it the Entry Mix, and it’s well worth a listen. (It’s available in streaming audio or for download.)

Listen here »

TED2011 Report – Session 9: Threads of Discovery

Matthew Trost — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:01:35 +0000

Janet Echelman reshapes urban airspace with monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces.

Daniel Tammet is a high-functioning autistic savant, has synesthesia, and has an astonishing brain. “Personal perceptions are at the heart of how we acquire knowledge.”

Fiorenzo Omenetto has found game-changing uses for silk: “The answer to whatever you want to do may be in a thread of silk.”

Ed Boyden describes the process of creating light-activated cells by installing molecules in neurons.

Christina Lampe-Onnerud: Wouldn’t it be lovely if we were able to create a building block of energy?

Steve Gullans: In the future, the leading cause of death will be accidents.

Anthony Atala shows a kidney that was printed earlier in the day.

The LA Samba School closes out Session 9.

Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson

TEDActive 2011: Day three

Matthew Trost — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:42:06 +0000

A video roundup of the third day of TEDActive 2011:

TED2011 Report – Session 8: Invention and Consequence

Matthew Trost — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:35:30 +0000

Edward Tenner, historian of technology and culture, shares the intrigue of unintended consequences: “I didn’t always love unintended consequences, but I have learned to appreciate them.”

Eythor Bender brings out Amanda Boxtel, a wheelchair user wearing an astonishing new exoskeleton. She is walking.

Eli Pariser reveals some frightening data about our online identities: “I call it the “filter bubble.” Personalized data that is all you see. You don’t even know what you don’t see.”

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei says: “I’m living in a society where freedom of speech is not allowed … I’m trying to involve my art with society, to build possibility.”

Ralph Langner is a security consultant with a big job: “The idea behind the Stuxnet worm is quite simple: We don’t want Iran to get the bomb.”

Googler Sebastian Thrun talks about the new Google car. “Our work has focused on building cars that can drive themselves. Anywhere, on any street.”

How can you build a car for the blind? Roboticist Dennis Hong shows us how: laser range finders and scanners, GPS, cameras feeding into a driving computer.

Philip Zimbardo presents a problem: ”The Demise of Guys.” Girls now outperform guys at all levels of school from elementary to grad school. Why? He leaves the solution up to us.