Did you know that you — as in, anyone — can nominate a visionary leader for this year’s TED Prize? Do you have a mentor with an incredible track record? A former teacher with a big idea for change? A colleague doing incredible work that could reach new heights if given more resources? A friend […]
In yesterday’s TEDTalk, Max Little explained how a 30-second phone call could soon be a diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease, thanks to 7,500 people who’ve placed calls from around the world to ensure the technology’s accuracy. (See how you can get involved at ParkinsonsVoice.org.) This brings up an interesting question — what other medical tests […]
Enjoy these fascinating reads from across the internet: In this podcast about the spread of Argentine ants — which hitchhike between continents and fight any ant not a part of their clan — evolutionary biologist Neil Tsutsui makes the interesting statement that his work is like a Rorschach test. He explains, “We’ve had people say, […]
[ted id=1534] In today’s TEDTalk, Max Little tells you about a test — now in trials — that could help diagnose Parkinson’s disease with a 30-second phone call. But the first challenge: He and his team needed to record 10,000 voices from across the world to make sure that the technique is accurate and scientifically […]
New York’s Times Square regularly fills up for great public events, the crowd chanting and cheering. Rarely, however, do they chant, “Science! Science! Science!” as they did last night. An extraordinary number of people came out at 1:31am to watch the landing of Curiosity, NASA’s new Mars rover. The TED Blog decided it would be […]
It’s hard to get one’s brain started on a Monday (especially if you stayed up to watch Curiosity last night). To get synapses firing, here are three killer spoken-word performances from last month’s TEDxBoston. Kemi Alabi: Unlovelies in the Key of C Major Boston University student and slam poet Kemi Alabi takes us to the world […]
Rob Manning did everything in his power to screw up the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars last night. Manning not only cut radio signals to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s control room, but also simulated a hole being poked in the rover’s fuel system and solar flares flying toward the spacecraft. Why would he do this? […]
Tonight at 10:31:30 pm PDT, the rover Curiosity will land on Mars. And if you haven’t yet watched the astonishing way it’ll get down to the surface, just watch this: Why go to Mars? In 2008, Charles Elachi, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, asked that question at the Serious Play conference — and answered […]
Marc Goodman studies how to prevent future crimes — not in the Minority Report sense, but by thinking about the ways that current and imagined technologies could be used to commit crimes. At TEDGlobal 2012 he gave a talk on some of the ways this could play out — showing examples of how drug cartels […]
Fueled by personal conviction and in response to family tragedy, emergency physician Ola Orekunrin — one of the UK’s youngest qualifying doctors — takes to the skies to provide West Africa with its first air ambulance service. How did you end up running an air ambulance in Nigeria? I’ve been very interested in emergency trauma […]
Composer Mark Applebaum is bored by the standard rules of music. In a madcap talk given at TEDxStanford, the associate professor of composition shares how he began thinking far outside the box — as well as outside of the violin and piano — when writing music. But explaining Applebaum’s pieces in words won’t make very […]
Photo retouchers don’t have the best of reputations. As Becci Manson put it in a moving talk at TEDGlobal 2012, “We’re pale gray creatures who hide in dark windowless rooms and generally avoid light. We make skinny models skinnier and perfect skin more perfect.” But sometimes, a retoucher’s work is far beyond skin deep. In […]
Check out these fascinating finds from across the internet: Tavi Gevinson gave an inspired talk at TEDxTeen, “Just trying to figure it out.” This week, Gevinson — the founder of the online magazine Rookie— has been on a media blitz. First, Gevinson was heralded as the “Oracle of Girl World” in the Sunday New York […]
Much ado has been made in recent years over the quickly rising cost of healthcare in the United States. But the cost of college tuition and fees has skyrocketed at nearly twice that rate. Going to college today will cost a student 559% more than it did in 1985, on average. In an exciting talk […]
Enjoy these fascinating reads from across the internet: A great profile on TED Fellow Sanga Moses, who quit his job as an accountant in Uganda and set out to develop an eco-friendly cooking fuel. Why? So that girls in his country — for example, his young sister — wouldn’t have to spend all their time […]
Young musicians Yaruu Egshiglen get an A+ for their singing, dancing and costuming during this performance at TEDxUlaanbaatarChange 2012, held in Mongolia in April.