When self-identity can change: Q&A with Charles LimbThis morning’s TED Talk from Andrew Solomon asks a deep question about parents and children. Inspired by his own upbringing, Solomon wondered how parents form bonds with extraordinary children — or, in his words, when the “vertical culture” passed from parent to child is different from the “horizontal culture” of the child’s own self-identity. As […]
9 old drugs that learned new tricks: The head of the National Institutes of Health shares medicines that turned out to have multiple usesWhen you pop a pill, do you know how it works? Most modern drugs target specific molecules, interacting with disease at the molecular level. But while we know the molecular causes of roughly 4,000 diseases, a very slim 6 percent of those diseases have a safe and effective drug to treat them. Why? Because of […]
More incredible talks from TEDMEDToday’s talk, “Francis Collins: We need better drugs—now,” comes from TEDMED—our partner conference which gives doctors, surgeons, healthcare experts, medical researchers and people with a passion for health a place to share ideas worth spreading. Both TED and TEDMED were started by Richard Saul Wurman, and while TEDMED is now independently organized by Jay Walker […]
7 talks on monkeys, and 7 talks on mind controlMiguel Nicolelis begins today’s talk by showing you what a brainstorm looks and sounds like. “This is 100 brain cells firing,” says Nicolelis. “Everything that defines what human nature is comes from these storms that roll over the hills and valleys of our brains and define our memories, our beliefs, our feelings, our plans for […]
Two small steps forward in the fight for open medical dataIn his recent TEDTalk, “What doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe,” Ben Goldacre sounded a warning about the vast numbers of pharmaceutical studies that go unpublished. “Positive findings are about twice as likely to be published as negative findings,” said Goldacre, noting that this is a big problem because it means doctors are […]
Music, the mind, and medicine: A Q&A with Robert GuptaCan music be a medical instrument? In a moving talk from TEDMed, Robert Gupta reveals that it certainly can be. He gives as an example the work of neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug, one of the pioneers of melodic intonation therapy. Schlaug noticed that, while stroke victims with aphasia could not utter a sentence, they could still […]
5 prescription drugs doctors had no idea could hurt their patientsAs a doctor, Ben Goldacre likes to have all the available facts about a prescription drug before he even thinks about prescribing it. However, when it comes to medicines, it’s nearly impossible to find all the existing data. As Goldacre described in this impassioned talk given at TEDMed 2012, there is a bias in medicine […]
3 talks about pushing our bodies to the limit — to send a messageThis past Monday, swimmer Diana Nyad made her fourth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. Though this attempt ended when weather and jellyfish conditions took a turn for the worse, we can look back at her talk from TEDMED 2011 to understand how she — and all of us — found “grace in the face […]
6 great things microbes do for usThe 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 […]
An elite team of volunteers to fix health care: Q&A with Rebecca OnieAt TEDMED 2012, Rebecca Onie stunned the audience with her blockbuster talk on a new vision for health care. She is the founder of Health Leads, an organization that brings an elite, competitive team of college volunteers into hospitals and clinics — a team that connects patients to services that help provide food, housing, life […]
How to talk about science (in 12 minutes): Diane Kelly’s thoughts on speaking at TEDMEDFrom Science Made Cool: On her blog, anatomist Diane Kelly explores her thought process as she prepares to give a serious talk about science — in 12 minutes. The key? Careful editing and a good story. From the piece: Classes and department seminars usually take about 45 minutes. The TEDMED limit? 12 minutes. Obviously, as […]
Extreme swimming with the world’s most dangerous jellyfish: Diana Nyad on TED.comIn the 1970s, Diana Nyad set long-distance swim records that are still unbroken. Thirty years later, at 60, she attempted her longest swim yet, from Cuba to Florida. In this funny, powerful talk at TEDMED, she talks about how to prepare mentally to achieve an extreme dream, and asks: What will YOU do with your […]
