Contributors > Karen Frances Eng

Karen Frances Eng

Cambridge, United Kingdom
TED
Fellows Writer

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Karen Frances Eng is an independent writer, editor and communications consultant and a longtime contributing writer for TED. She is based in the UK.

Stories by Karen Frances Eng:

The secret life of plant music

Live from TED2019

The secret life of plant music

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Barreling through the high-visibility, high-tech exhibits on the TED2019 circuit, you’d be forgiven for mistaking The Data Garden for just another chillout zone, with its oasis of potted houseplants and people lying draped, spaced out, across bean bags. Yet an arresting sound beckons from this unassuming island – a soothing patter of gently percussive gongs, like []

Imagine the future of ourselves: Notes from TED Fellows Session 1 at TED2017

Live from TED2017

Imagine the future of ourselves: Notes from TED Fellows Session 1 at TED2017

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This morning, we kick off TED2017 in the new Community Theater with a program of fresh ideas, music and dance from the TED2017 Fellows and Senior Fellows. These Fellows are change-makers from many fields — design, tech, education, business, science and many more — offering a peek at the future us. Stanford Thompson opens the TED Fellows sessions, performing the Shaker []

The neuro-revolution is coming: Greg Gage’s neuroscience kits put research in the hands of the curious

Fellows Friday

The neuro-revolution is coming: Greg Gage’s neuroscience kits put research in the hands of the curious

on

Greg Gage is a reliable source of both shock and awe at TED. Onstage over the years, this TED Fellow has demonstrated his low-cost DIY teaching kits by amputating a cockroach leg to show how neurons fire, remote-controlling a cyborg cockroach to demonstrate how electrical stimulation guides behavior, and taking away an audience member’s free will to show how one person’s brain can control the arm movements of []

Astronomer, actor, role model: TED Fellow Aomawa Shields looks for life on other planets

Fellows Friday

Astronomer, actor, role model: TED Fellow Aomawa Shields looks for life on other planets

on

Aomawa Shields is a woman of “contradictions.” An astronomer and astrobiologist, she searches for exoplanets where life might exist by using computer models to calculate the kind of atmosphere they’d need to support it. And she’s also a classically trained actor, who — through her organization Rising Stargirls — teaches astronomy to middle school girls of color using theater, writing and visual art to []

Avoiding the hunger season: How a TED Fellow is working to save African cassava from whiteflies

Fellows Friday

Avoiding the hunger season: How a TED Fellow is working to save African cassava from whiteflies

on

For decades, the farmers of East Africa have battled the African whitefly, a tiny insect that infests the cassava crop. Cassava, also called manioc, arrowroot or tapioca, is an important food all over the world — more than half a billion people (yes, billion with a b) rely on cassava for their daily meals. For East African farmers, a whitefly infestation can completely destroy the year’s []

TED Fellow Tal Danino programs bacteria to detect and treat cancer – and make art

Fellows Friday

TED Fellow Tal Danino programs bacteria to detect and treat cancer – and make art

on

Did you know that bacteria can be programmed as though they were computers? Bioengineer and artist Tal Danino is working out how to instruct bacteria to enter cancerous tumors — where it can detect and treat the disease noninvasively. And when Danino isn’t tinkering with bacteria’s healing potential, he makes artwork with it. With Danino’s TED talk posted just yesterday, he []

Straw into gold: A TED Fellow cultivates mushrooms to fight climate change

Fellows Friday

Straw into gold: A TED Fellow cultivates mushrooms to fight climate change

on

In agricultural entrepreneur Trang Tran’s native Vietnam, farmers traditionally burn the straw and husks that remain after the rice harvest. This practice happens at least twice a year for two months at a time, releasing noxious smoke and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Tran’s solution: using rice straw to cultivate mushrooms. Her social enterprise Fargreen is []

Tradition or travesty? A TED Fellow’s documentary investigates the complexities of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands

Fellows Friday

Tradition or travesty? A TED Fellow’s documentary investigates the complexities of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands

on

For the 50,000 people of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark, hunting long-finned pilot whales — a dark gray species found in their waters — is a tradition that stretches back centuries. These whales are a food source, and hunting them is considered an important part of Faroese culture. Today, []