Bosons, bicycles and big data: 7 things I learned from TEDxCERNThere’s a place in Switzerland where scientists travel on bicycles through tunnels filled with atom-smashing tubes, where the first webpage was born, and where a giant wooden globe watches over researchers replicating the very beginnings of our universe. That place is CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, and last Friday, it held its first […]
The courage to believe change is possible: A Q&A with Melinda GatesCan a person change a world rife with problems — villages without basic healthcare, girls turned away from schools, hospitals unable to get life-saving vaccines to the people who need them? For three years, TEDxChange, a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the TEDx program, has said yes, by spotlighting people who […]
Does your hometown make you disease-prone? 6 talks on how location impacts healthIf you look at mortality data across the United Kingdom, a striking correlation materializes: the higher the latitude, the greater the relative risk of death. This is true even when controlling for risk factors like smoking cigarettes and eating bad food. So, what’s going on? The answer may lie in sunlight—there’s more in the south […]
TEDx speaker killed in bombingYesterday, two bomb blasts ripped through a snooker hall in the town of Quetta in Pakistan, killing 81 people. We were very saddened to hear that TEDx speaker Irfan Ali, who spoke briefly at TEDxRawalLake just weeks ago, was among those killed. The organizers of the event shared their sadness with us, through Facebook. “Irfan […]
TEDxYouthDay teens answer the question: What’s a dream you commit to making real?At TED, we’re constantly impressed by the accomplishments of young innovators. With talks like Adora Svitak’s “What adults can learn from kids,” 12-year-old Amy O’Toole assisting Beau Lotto in “Science is for everyone: kids included,” and Thomas Suarez, who was developing apps before he could drive, we can’t help but be hopeful for the future. That […]
Playlist: 9 talks that give a new view of natureMost people rarely feel compelled to stare at grains of sand. But when those same grains are magnified hundreds of times and rendered in three dimensions, they appear like individual pieces of colored glass crafted by a skilled artist — no two pieces the same. In today’s TEDTalk, photographer turned microbiologist turned inventor Gary Greenberg […]
TEDx in prison: 3 great talks from TEDxMarionCorrectionalLast month, we told you all about the TEDx events held in correctional facilities around the world, staged by people committed to changing the culture of incarceration. One of these distinctive TEDx events took place in Marion, Ohio, on September 16. TEDxMarionCorrectional brought together speakers from both inside and outside the prison walls, including members […]
The latest on Salvatore Iaconesi: the continued momentum of open-sourcing cancer cures“This is my brain cancer. It isn’t nice,” says Salvatore Iaconesi, the engineer, artist and TED Fellow who recently opened up his medical files to the world, crowdsourcing cures of the medical type as well as those for the soul. In this just-released talk from TEDxTransmedia, Iaconesi explains why he made the decision to release […]
Deploying veterans for disaster relief: A Q&A with Jake Wood of Team RubiconTeam Rubicon’s latest mission is called Operation: Greased Lightning. What does that mean, you ask? In today’s powerful talk, given at TEDxSanDiego in 2011, Jake Wood shares his experience co-founding Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization that uses veterans to do the difficult work of search and rescue, supply disbursement and debris cleanup, helping those […]
The power of daydreams: 4 studies on the surprising science of mind-wanderingWhat makes us happy? It’s one of the most complicated puzzles of human existence — and one that, so far, 87 speakers have explored in TEDTalks. In today’s talk, Matt Killingsworth (who studied under Dan Gilbert at Harvard) shares a novel approach to the study of happiness — an app, Track Your Happiness, which allows people to […]
TED staffers growing moustaches for MovemberMost charities begin with a cause. That is not, however, the case for Movember, the global non-profit that asks men to grow moustaches for the month of November and, in the process, raise awareness for men’s health. As Movember co-founder Adam Garone explained at TEDxToronto, his charity began with a random idea in a bar […]
From a treehouse to a Titanic replica: The best TEDx venuesNow 5,000+ events and 20,000+ talks strong, TEDx’s “x” has made its way to some marvelously unexpected places. From the staircase of a full-size reproduction of the Titanic to a base camp in Antarctica, TEDx venues are far from ordinary. Below, nine of our favorite venues from TEDx events past. What would a great wonder of […]
TEDxSummit attendees (and Chris Anderson) meditate on what x means to them in this short video collage: “What is x? Idea sex.” “X to me means exponential. 2 people make it 4, 4 make it 16, and they make it countless. In the matter of no time, the entire world will be knowing about the […]
Our photographer James Duncan Davidson shares this beautiful video: If you’ve been following along my blog, you’ve seen a lot of mentions of scouting locations and a lot of photo for a project I’ve been working on. This short video is the next evolution of that project. It’s not done yet, but this is a […]
TEDxChange: The Big PictureWhat is your role in solving the world’s biggest problems? Climate change, global poverty, the AIDS/HIV crisis — solving these problems will demand big thinking and unprecedented international cooperation. That’s where TEDxChange comes in. TEDxChange 2012 is a platform for sharing game-changing ideas — and the world is invited to join the conversation. Solving big […]
