Ever want to play with genes? Synthetic biologist Oliver Medvedik thinks anyone should be able to access a biology lab and tinker with the stuff of life. That’s why he co-founded Genspace, the world’s first fully equipped community biolab, where citizen scientists of all stripes meet to explore, experiment and learn about genetic engineering. What […]
[ted id=1527 width=560 height=315] What made Wayne McGregor want to become a choreographer? Onstage at TEDGlobal 2012, he revealed his two childhood inspirations—John Travolta’s moves in Saturday Night Fever and a forward-thinking dance teacher who encouraged him to invent his own dances. “I’m obsessed with technology of the body,” says McGregor, founder of the company […]
[ted id=1562] Will the next generation think about diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes the way we think about polio and the whooping cough? Susan Solomon, the co-founder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), certainly hopes so. In this fascinating talk from TEDGlobal 2012, Solomon delves into the foundation’s work on research with stem […]
[ted id=1559 width=560 height=315] Big cities across the globe will soon be getting much, much bigger. As architect Kent Larson shares in this future-focused talk from TEDxBoston, 90 percent of the world’s population growth is expected to happen in cities. But while newly established cities tend to sprawl to accommodate growth, Larson envisions that the […]
Shyam Sankar isn’t satisfied with the current state of data analysis. In his recent TEDTalk, “The rise of human-computer cooperation,” Sankar explained why we have a responsibility to create computer programs that drive human-centered decisions, rather than trying to supplant them with computer-centered data processing. In his talk, Sankar — the Director of Forward Deployed Engineering at […]
[ted id=1554 width=560 height=315] It’s hard not to get a lump in your throat when you read about the grueling conditions in Chinese factories. It’s hard not to feel guilt about those working 70 hours a week in Foxconn factories where iPhones and iPads are assembled, or to feel shocked at revelations that workers in toy […]
[ted id=1557 width=560 height=315] Getting treatment for a mental illness when you live in the developing world is hardly as easy as making an appointment with a therapist or psychiatrist. Mental illness is often not treated with the same sense of urgency as physical illness, and resources to provide care are simply not available in […]
When it came time to name her new book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brené harkened back to a speech that Teddy Roosevelt gave in 1910. In it, Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out […]
Last year at TED, Steve Rosenbaum shared this look inside the yet-to-open 9/11 Museum, filled with artifacts and stories from the people in the Twin Towers — the tower workers, the rescue teams, steelworkers, first responders, clean-up crews. The museum will be a powerful way to tell the stories from the attacks, and answer questions […]
Enjoy these fascinating reads from across the internet: This weekend, a New York Times cover story revealed how drug cartels are crafting “diesel-powered submarines that would be the envy of all but a few nations.” It’s a fact that Navy Admiral James Stavridis shared with us at TEDGlobal 2012, in his talk “A Navy Admiral’s […]
Bill Moggridge, director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, has died. He was 69. Moggridge, who designed the first laptop computer and was the co-founder of the design firm IDEO, was an enormously influential figure in the worlds of design and technology, beloved by all who knew him. In fact, what’s most noticeable about […]
[ted id=1560 width=560 height=315] In courtrooms, eyewitness testimony is considered extremely powerful. But should it be? At TEDxUSC, forensic psychologist Scott Fraser explains why, even when witnesses feel sure they are telling a true story, or making the right identification, their minds could be playing tricks on them — filling in blanks in traumatic memories […]
When art historian and scholar of Arabic script Bahia Shehab was asked to create a piece commemorating the centenary of the first exhibition on Islamic art in Europe, little did she know that the Egyptian revolution would ultimately transform her into a street artist and activist with a powerful and subtle voice of protest. How […]
[ted id=1551 width=560 height=315] Traditional Greek sculptors took a hunk of marble and, by chipping away at it, crafted the human form. Antony Gormley, the British sculptor who gave this thought-provoking talk at TEDGlobal 2012, takes a very different approach, creating works that explore the interior space we feel within our own bodies and the […]
[ted id=1556]“Man versus machine” is not an idea that Shyam Sankar believes in. In today’s fascinating talk, given at TEDGlobal 2012, Sankar urged us to think about how human ingenuity can combine with computers’ ability to parse data to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. His point: Technology should make use of human […]
How many detectable alien civilizations are out there in our galaxy? In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake developed an equation to estimate the number. Now data journalist David McCandless, who gave the talk “The beauty of data visualization” at TEDGlobal 2010, has created an information graphic for the BBC calculating the Drake Equation — with a […]