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X marks the spot: TEDx on Mount Everest, for the second time

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TEDxEverest2Call it TEDx from the mountaintop: This photo is brought to you by TEDxEverest, which was organized by Nate Mook and Eiso Vaandrager on the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first hike up the mountain. These ambitious organizers brought bold ideas to an audience of sherpas and climbers at an Advanced Basecamp, elevation 21,000 feet — for the second time. This is the devotion of TEDx organizers — literally climbing Everest to spread ideas.

This week, from events held across the world, we’ve handpicked four TEDx Talks that encapsulate this diverse venture. Ranging from bringing the mammoth back to a game that helps neuroscientists map the human brain — all of these talks are brought to you by our vast TEDx community. Below, find this week’s talks.

What are wild animals up to?: Nick Whitney at TEDxSarasota
If you want to study true animal behavior, you ultimately have to watch them where they live, which can be difficult underwater. By strapping accelerometers to wild sharks, sturgeon, snakes — and even his own children — zoologist Nick Whitney found a clever and inexpensive way to monitor the activities of these animals in the wild. At TEDxSarasota, he shows how we can discover amazing things about the animal kingdom using ubiquitous technologies. (Filmed at TEDxSarasota.)

A game to map the brain: Amy Robinson at TEDxNijmegen 2013
The next great leap in neuroscience may require a full, detailed map of the human brain. But it can take a researcher up to 50 hours to map just one neuron — and there are around 80 billion neurons in every brain. The solution? The crowd. In this exciting talk, Amy Robinson demos EyeWire, a game that gives ordinary people the chance to participate in this new kind of cartography. (Filmed at TEDxNijmegen.)

How to bring a mammoth back to life: Beth Shapiro at TEDxDeExtinction
Complete mammoth genetic sequences are deteriorating over time, complicating any efforts at cloning the species. But Beth Shapiro and her team may have found a solution. She reveals the novel approaches that she and her colleagues are taking to revive ancient mammoths. (Filmed at TEDxDeExtinction.)

Do others feel the same as you do?: Makio Kashino at TEDxKeioSFC
What makes our minds different? Makio Kashino has spent a lifetime trying to quantify the distinct mental worlds that we experience. At TEDxKeioSFC, he explains that the best strategy for progress is communication — “minding the gap” between our different perceptions to find common ground. (Filmed at TEDxKeioSFC.)

And highlights from the TEDx blog this past week: