16 December 2008

Exploring the frontiers of happiness: Dan Gilbert on TED.com

Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 33:38.)

Watch Dan Gilbert's talk from TEDGlobal 2005 at Oxford on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 350+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about happiness.

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01 July 2008

Beyond the Top 10 TEDTalks: user favorites

Last week, TEDTalks celebrated our 50 millionth view by counting down the Top 10 TEDTalks of all time (so far) -- and inviting people to share their own favorites. Here are a few:

My favorite is still Susan Savage-Rumbaugh and those bonobo apes.
-- S.F., Boynton Beach, Florida

Stamets (mushrooms), Isabel Allende (passion), Dave Eggers (schools), and Ballard (ocean) -- not to be missed.
-- Marian Angele

Majora Carter's talk on her environmental work in the Bronx.
-- lydia chadwick

Majora Carter's is my absolute favorite!
-- Ariel, a TED fan

I am dropping a line to say how much I enjoyed Aubrey de Grey's speech on aging.
-- Diana Pasley

I think Malcom Gladwell is that hidden gem.
-- +Jono

I nominate Theo Jansen's talk on creating new creatures as one of the "Hidden Gems."
-- Paul

If your own favorite TEDTalks aren't on the Top 10 list yet -- or you'd like to share your own hidden gems -- write to us at contact@ted.com or post a comment.

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20 June 2008

Discussing Aging At UCLA

The Methuselah Foundation and TED speaker Aubrey de Grey (watch his TEDGLOBAL 2005 speech) will host next week in Los Angeles "Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications", a symposium featuring world-renowned scientists and advocates of stem cell and regenerative medicine research.

The symposium will highlight the scientific prospects for using regenerative medicine to eliminate age-related disease, disability, suffering and death, as well as discuss public policy and legislation as it pertains to relevant scientific research (California plays a leading role in this, notably after the passing of Prop 71 that allocated $3 billion to fund stem cell research).

The symposium will be held on Friday 27 June at UCLA (Detailed info here). Attendance is free, but advance registration is required.

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15 February 2008

Aubrey de Grey on "The Colbert Report"

Earlier this week, TEDTalks favorite Aubrey de Grey visited Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to promote his new book, Ending Aging. His controversial 2005 TEDTalk, in which he argued that we could one day extend the human lifespan by hundreds of years, continues to spur debate.

Stephen Colbert on de Grey's nonprofit Methuselah Foundation: "If McCain gets into office, he should definitely fund you guys." -- Matthew Trost

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02 January 2008

Edge question 2008: What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Many TEDTalks speakers have answered the 2008 Edge Foundation question: What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Among the more than 160 essays from leading thinkers -- scientists, philosophers, artists -- look for Wired's Chris Anderson, Nick Bostrom, Stewart Brand, Richard Dawkins, Aubrey de Grey, Juan Enriquez, Helen Fisher, Neil Gershenfeld, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Goleman, Kevin Kelly, Steven Pinker, Carolyn Porco, Martin Rees, Michael Shermer and Craig Venter. Block out some time to sample these -- it's an addictive read.

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09 July 2007

Defeating aging: Aubrey de Grey's handbook

British biogerontologist, computer scientist and twice TED speaker Aubrey de Grey has just finished a book, "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime", where he details his controversial claim that "we could defeat aging".

Cheat sheet: Aubrey went on stage at TEDGLOBAL05 (video) and then at TED06 saying (I'm oversimplifying) that aging, like a disease, can be cured; that it is essentially a set of accumulating molecular and cellular transformations in our bodies, caused by metabolism, that eventually lead to pathology and kill us. Therefore, it could be approached "as an engineering problem": identify all the components of the variety of processes that cause tissues to age, and design remedies for each of them. He calls the approach "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" (SENS).

The book, co-written with his assistant Michael Rae, will be released September 4 by St Martin's Press. We e-mailed with Aubrey last week.

Aubrey, are you feeling older than last year?

Not really -- and that's despite the fact that my schedule has become even more punishing.  I think the fulfilment I derive from spearheading the push to save so many lives somehow gives me the vitality to cope.

How has your research progressed since your TEDGLOBAL05 and TED06 speeches?

The Methuselah Foundation has gone from strength to strength. The biggest development, among other donations, was the pledge of $3.5m from TEDster and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, which resulted from a dialogue that began at TED. Most of his pledge ($3m of it) is a 1:2 challenge, so our current goal is to obtain $6m from elsewhere to match that pledge in full.

OK, that's about the funding. But how's the research going?

It's been going really well too. We are currently sponsoring research by three  teams (in Phoenix, Houston and Cambridge UK) on two of the most important SENS strands -- LysoSENS, the identification and exploitation of microbial enzymes to break down molecules that we cannot naturally degrade, and MitoSENS, the incorporation of modified copies of the mitochondrial DNA into the chromosomal DNA so that mitochondrial mutations will  have no effect. Both these projects are going really well, results coming out of the LysoSENS project have already been presented at two meetings and a paper has been submitted for publication in a prominent journal.

What should readers expect to learn from the book?

They will learn all about the detailed science of SENS. The book is written (largely by my splendid research assistant Michael Rae) very much for a non-scientist audience, but without dumbing down the science at all.

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13 October 2005

The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists

When Tom Rielly pointed out the prevalence of hirsute speakers at TEDGlobal (with a wink toward Steven Pinker and Aubrey DeGrey), we didn’t realize there was an organized movement behind it ...

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