For the next two weeks, we’re presenting some of our favorite TEDTalks from among the 270+ talks and performances we’ve posted since June 2006. Look for brand-new TEDTalks starting August 18. Until then, enjoy these gems — and suggest your own by writing to contact@ted.com or joining the conversation on TED.com. In the TED tradition […]
Lonesome George, the giant Galapagos tortoise that the Guinness Book of World Records called the “rarest living creature,” can now add a notch to the scalesia tree. The tortoise, thought to be the sole surviving member of its species, Geochelone nigra abingdoni, has been famous for obstinately ignoring conservationists’ attempts to mate him with similar […]
For the next two weeks, we’re presenting some of our favorite TEDTalks from among the 270+ talks and performances we’ve posted since June 2006. Look for brand-new TEDTalks starting August 18. Until then, enjoy these gems — and suggest your own by writing to contact@ted.com or joining the conversation on TED.com. Ghanaian economist George Ayittey […]
For the next two weeks, we’re presenting some of our favorite TEDTalks from among the 270+ talks and performances we’ve posted since June 2006. Look for brand-new TEDTalks starting August 18. Until then, enjoy these gems — and suggest your own by writing to contact@ted.com or joining the conversation on TED.com. Given $50 billion to […]
Bored with Earthly beach destinations this summer? Does the word “Carribbean” not ring exactly, well, “exotic” these days? With this week’s news that (highly acidic) water has been tasted on Mars and an ethane lake has been discovered on Saturn’s moon Titan, perhaps it’s time to investigate otherworldly destinations for fun in the surf. Grab […]
Brian Cox is not the only rock star at CERN: CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo. Read more about it here >> PLUS: The LHC just keeps on inspiring art. Check out this new collection of astonishing photos of the LHC >>
TED.com commenter David Smith points us to this new interview with Ashraf Ghani, available as a podcast from the BBC World Service. Ghani (watch his TEDTalk) is the co-author of the new book Fixing Failed States — a subject he learned firsthand as a reformer in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Interviewer Peter Day of the program Global […]
Via the TED Prize blog, over on TEDPrize.org: If you’d like to lead an incredible drive to build math and science academies all over Africa — and help find the next Einstein — take a look at this want ad: The Next Einstein Initiative (NEI) is building a network of postgraduate centres of excellence for […]
Each year I donate a percentage of my income to Lightsaber Research and I encourage all my peers to do the same. A similarly futuristic technology, albeit one of marginally lesser interest to anyone with anger management issues, is the Jetpack. Today, a couple stories surfaced in the blogs and the papers about the unveiling […]
Via Gizmodo: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a preview of Microsoft’s prototype spherical multi-touch screen, Surface Sphere. It’s an exploration of ideas (not a real product) (yet), but it’s sure fun to watch:
The New York Times has a thoughtful piece today on Model T hacking — which kicked off the modern sport of customizing, bending, modding and otherwise repurposing a commercial item for unintended-by-the-manufacturer uses. As Steve Lohr writes: The early Model T hackers were really pioneers in a realm of creative activity that academics call “user […]
Via LiveScience.com: Researchers at MIT have found valuable insight into body armor by studying the African fish Polypterus senegalus. A living fossil, the fish is largely unchanged since the Cretaceous period — when its ancestors faced an ocean full of large, toothy predators. In its defense, it developed a bite-resistant “armored” skin, whose scales are […]
Nonpartisan science advice in the US Congress? A newly opened online archive shows that it was possible — and stimulates a call to re-open the Office of Technology Assessment as an advisor to Congress. The OTA’s archive of 700+ scientific reports on topics ranging from addiction to terrorism to “personal rapid transit” spans the lifetime […]
As Jacqueline Novogratz says in her 2005 TEDTalk: “You can’t talk about poverty today without talking about malaria bednets.” Yesterday, the Guardian UK reported on a massive new study of malaria prevention — which found several alarming gaps in the global drive to wipe out this disease, especially in the poorest countries. Read the study’s […]
Linking two TEDTalks fascinations — language and fish — is this report from today’s Science. While studying midshipman fish that grunt and hum, two neurobiologists have found the basic brain wiring that, they think, evolved into human speech. It points to a common ancestor among all of us vertebrates who vocalize. From Science Now: Andrew […]
Stew‘s brilliant musical Passing Strange closes this weekend on Broadway — and Spike Lee will film the final Saturday shows. On July 19, cameras will follow the matinee and evening performance; the show will also be filmed later without an audience. Read Stew’s thoughts about this — and the whole Broadway/Tony Awards/The View experience — […]