At TEDGlobal2012, Ramesh Raskar demonstrated his remarkable femtosecond camera, which can image a light-pulse as it travels through an object, or potentially see around corners. But Raskar’s projects go far beyond even that. After the talk, in a brief Q&A with host Bruno Giussani (above) he introduced NETRA, a simple attachment for a smartphone that […]
The Opening Ceremony for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi takes place today, which means that — over the next few weeks — we’ll all be watching a steady diet of hockey, skiing and figure skating. To get you in the Olympic spirit, watch these powerful TED and TEDx Talks from Olympians and Paralympians. We […]
Enjoy these fascinating reads from across the internet: Scientists have discovered a geologic feature in Antarctica … that is the size of the Grand Canyon. [Atlantic Wire] . At TEDGlobal 2009, economist Paul Romer shared his vision of “charter cities.” As the first one is being debated and planned in Honduras, the fourth-poorest country in […]
Some teenagers spend their free time playing video games. Others dedicate their after-school hours to a job, scooping ice cream or taking movie tickets. Still others play a sport, or are star members of a debate team. And still others spend their free time in a lab, working on ways to prevent, diagnose and treat […]
Tracy Chevalier, the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), first saw the Johannes Vermeer painting that inspired her novel when she was 19-years-old. Struck by the colors, as well as the expression on said girl’s face, Chevalier stood in front of the painting for hours and bought a poster of it on her […]
Here, some great finds from across the internet, for your reading pleasure: Others may dream of the beach this summer, but we secretly wish we were at Rare Book School, a five-week long camp that brings together librarians and antiquarian enthusiasts at the University of Virginia. The school has been taught by William Noel, who […]
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York is strained for cash. And so they announced last week that they would be offering advertising space on the back of MetroCards, which New Yorkers swipe (often, multiple times) to enter a train station. It’ll cost companies $25,500 to advertise on 50K cards and $450K to advertise on […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQCUXNo5GI&w=530&h=298] . “An intellectual challenge presents itself ? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph,” high-wire artist Philippe Petit writes in his new TED ebook, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist. “Even before I address a challenge, invariably a rainbow of out-of focus solutions hovers […]
“Walls don’t work,” James Stavridis declared at TEDGlobal 2012. A highly accomplished Navy Admiral, Stavridis recalls 20th-century phenomena like trench warfare and the Berlin Wall. “Instead of building walls for security, we need to build bridges.” In his brass-tacks talk, Stavridis lays down a vision of “open-source security,” which he defines as “connecting the international, […]
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/45446852 w=530&h=298] . LittleBits are Tinkertoys, gone electronic. Some circuits, some lights, some buzzers and some buttons, these brightly colored pieces snap together with magnets, allowing for creation of projects that do things, rather than just sit there. The brainchild of TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir — who explained the littleBits in a talk at […]
Mentored from childhood by Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, Andrew Nemr has tap-danced his way through life. Now, with the Tap Legacy Foundation, he’s using new technology to augment oral tradition, passing on the craft he learned at the knees of the old masters. Tell us about your life as a dancer. I grew up […]
“I feel like a cyborg,” Neil Harbisson declares in a fascinating talk from TEDGlobal 2012. Born color-blind, Harbisson lived in a “grayscale world,” he says — until 2003, when he began working with computer scientist Adam Montandon on an electronic eye that renders color as sound. Always attached to him, the appliance allows Harbisson to […]
We have all been there: standing in aisle five of the supermarket trying to decide which jar of mustard to buy. Do we go organic, or for the brand with whole mustard seeds? Or do we simply pick the one in the brightest yellow bottle? In a fascinating talk at TEDxStanford, “Sometimes it’s good to […]
It would cost you a minimum of $37,000 to enroll for a year at one of the top 10 schools in the United States, according to the U.S. News & World Report. However, anyone with a computer will now be able to take courses from half of those schools … for free. At TEDGlobal 2012, […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32PSzvYwlLE&w=530&h=298] . And … action! From artists to open-source engineers, research scientists to political activists, documentary filmmakers, inventors, social entrepreneurs and beyond, TED Fellows are an extraordinary group of innovators and iconoclasts. Today we’re launching Fellows in the Field, a series of videos that will let us look in on the world of individual Fellows, shedding light […]
When it comes to setting grand worldwide goals for development, it’s easy to imagine global leaders in suits, wheeling and dealing in the backrooms of a UN summit, without actually accomplishing much. But Jamie Drummond — the executive director of ONE, which fights poverty and disease by supporting smart policies — says that when world […]