Stories for "biology"
In 1995, Kees Moeliker heard a loud bang coming from the Natural History Museum Rotterdam’s new wing. He knew exactly what it was. A curator at the museum, Moeliker had gotten used to the sound of birds hitting the glass exterior of the new wing, and had even taken to stuffing the dead birds for […]
In the days leading up to TED2013, we at the TED Blog revealed the best props at TEDs past and showed you the speakers who’d brought animals on stage with them. Little did we know that, on the day two of the conference, we’d meet a speaker who’d combine both. In today’s talk, given at […]
In 1995, the Natural History Museum Rotterdam got a new wing made of glass. It was beautiful for humans — but not so much for birds. Many of them lost their lives flying into the invisible walls. “I developed an ear for identifying birds just by the sound of the bang they made on the glass,” says Kees […]
Artist Julie Freeman uses data as a source material to make biologically inspired artworks — giving musicality to the movement of fish and expressing city lights in the quiver of moths’ wings. Now she’s finding ways to translate data so that we may gain new perspectives on what it’s trying to tell us. What do […]
What is DNA barcoding, you ask? It’s a far more precise way of identifying plant species. In this video, Ellen Jorgensen — who gave today’s TED Talk “Biohacking, you can do it too” – heads to a remote region of Alaska to collect the fragile plants found there and bring them back to her DIY biotech lab for […]
“It’s a great time to be a molecular biologist,” Ellen Jorgensen says in today’s TED Talk, given at TEDGlobal 2012. The realm of biotechnology is growing fast, she says, and advances are coming down the pipeline at a rapid clip. And yet, scientists aren’t so good at communicating to the public what is going on […]
When biologist E.O. Wilson won the TED Prize in 2007, he wished that we all “work together to help create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth’s biodiversity.” With that, the Encyclopedia of Life began the outrageous task of cataloguing all of the Earth’s known species. Cynthia Parr spoke at TED2012 to give updates on […]
The mad rush of the holidays can stress out the sunniest soul, and yet somehow, beneath it all, we remain cheerfully optimistic. We look ahead, make New Year’s resolutions and generally believe next year will be better than this one and the year before. Why? Tali Sharot, who spoke at TED2012, says we homo sapiens are […]
TED playlists are collections of talks around a topic, built specially for you in a thoughtful sequence to illuminate ideas in context. This weekend, two new playlists are available: Animals that amaze and The end of oil? Animals that amaze At TED there’s a certain species of speaker who is absolutely devoted to all kinds […]
“I have a brain cancer.” Data artist and TED Fellow Salvatore Iaconesi posted these words this morning, along with a video of himself speaking. With his long ponytail reduced to a scruffy mohawk, he shares this story: Yesterday I went to get my digital medical records: I have to show them to many doctors. Sadly […]
The Encyclopaedia Britannica may have ceased printing earlier this year, ending a 244-year run. But the Encyclopedia of Life is just getting started. An ambitious initiative to catalogue all the known species on planet Earth, the Encyclopedia of Life was inaugurated by famed biologist E.O. Wilson when he won the TED Prize in 2007 and […]
The word ‘microbe’ sounds scary — we associate them with the flu, ebola, flesh-eating disease, you name it. But microbiologist Dr. Jonathan Eisen has given an illuminating TEDTalk that will make you put down the hand sanitizer. As Eisen explains, “We are covered in a cloud of microbes and these microbes actually do us good […]
When artist and scientist Angelo Vermeulen (watch his TED Talk) first started weaving together biological and technological systems in his artwork, little did he know he’d someday be asked to consider how to create living ecosystems for future space habitation… Do you consider yourself an artist or scientist first? I usually describe myself as an […]
Throughout today, we’ll be sharing incredible video from our new TED-Ed channel. In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean — from the deepest trenches to the remains of Titanic — marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder […]
Socio-environmental artist Colleen Flanigan creates large, undulating metal forms and installs them in damaged coral ecosystems to help regenerate marine life — living sea sculptures that inspire awe and protection for our underwater world. What is the coral crisis about? We are at a critical stage in coral endangerment. Some predict that most corals will […]
Not just for April Fools’ Day: 8 winners of the Ig Nobel Prize, whose scientific works sounds funny but is actually perfectly serious, mostly
