Here, your weekly recap of TED-related news: Science writer John Bohannon (watch his TED talk) runs the annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest. This year’s winners must be seen to be believed. In the video above: a dance that explains sperm cell competition in chickens. Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a brilliant, troubling cover story on the drowning […]
The few days before a holiday are brutal. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of work on your plate or have midterms to study for — your mind just wants to be distracted from it all. And so, we bring you the best TED Talks for procrastinating, so you don’t have to feel […]
Invented here. There. And, well, everywhere. This year’s TEDWomen is dedicated to out-of-the-box thinking from women around the globe. TEDWomen 2013 will take place on December 4th through 6th in San Francisco — but the whole world will be watching. There are 220 TEDxWomen events being held in 58 countries, each tuning into the webcast of the […]
Béatrice Coron doesn’t so much tell stories, as cut them. At TED2011, the French-born artist shared how she creates intricate, fantastical worlds by slashing paper into beautiful silhouettes. During a party at TED, held in the rotunda of Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific, Coron ran into James Stewart, the Canadian film director who pioneered digital […]
Experiences we have all had: walking into a room with a tremendous sense of purpose, only to realize that you have completely forgotten what the purpose was. Talking to someone in a restaurant and losing the thread of your conversation because you’re distracted by the juicier one at the table next door. Slowing down as […]
By Krystian Aparta, as told to Kate Torgovnick Silesian is a Slavic language spoken by about 500,000 people in a region of Poland known as Silesia. Because the region had been home to a large German population until World War II, and because it neighbors the Czech Republic, it consists largely of German and Czech […]
In 1998, aircraft designer Paul MacCready gave a live demo of his two-ounce unmanned surveillance drone on the TED stage in Monterey. “You see what it sees. Imagine you’re a fly,” he told the assembled audience, who watched the drone’s footage projected onto the screen in front of them. (The moment is captured in the […]
Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of TED-related news items in the ether. Here, some highlights: J. Craig Venter (watch his talks on creating “synthetic life” and sampling the ocean’s DNA) has come up with what The New York Times describes as “a biological fax machine.” Huh? In brief, Venter wants to detect life […]
TEDYouth 2013 was a blast. In session 1, Suzanne Simard taught us about the familial relationships of trees. In session 2, Maya Penn shared how she launched a business at 8 years old. And in session 3, Ashton Kutcher thrilled the crowd with a surprise talk on what it means to be a “magnificent failure.” […]
“I am a magnificent failure,” Ashton Kutcher announced on the TEDYouth stage in New Orleans earlier today. “I screw up so much it hurts.” The star of television show Two and a Half Men said this not to be self-deprecating or to beat up on himself, but to drive home the point that failure is […]
By Thu-Huong Ha and Kate Torgovnick The morning session of TEDYouth “The Spark” was incredible. But in many ways it was just an appetizer. In the afternoon, Sessions 2 and 3 delivered talks on topics ranging from how to make an Easy Bake Oven gender-neutral to the mathematics of Pixar animation to the familial structures of […]
By Kate Torgovnick and Thu-Huong Ha TEDYouth is like a typical TED Conference — with its hair let down. The talks are shorter, less formal and, well, a whole lot of fun. This year’s conference was held in New Orleans and was themed around the concept, “The Spark.” Here’s a look at what happened in the […]
What conference, besides TEDYouth, could bring together an elephant communication expert, the head of research at Pixar, a professional storm chaser, and a 16-year-old DJ? TEDYouth 2013, “The Spark,” happens tomorrow, November 16, at 11am CST in New Orleans, Louisiana. And you can watch along via the live webcast, which will be available in English, […]
In a classroom in Ontario, a class of 9th graders learned the book Siddhartha, not by listening to lectures from their teacher, but by asking questions like, “How do you know when you’ve reached enlightenment?” Meanwhile, a group of 3rd through 5th graders in rural Georgia was posed a question in Spanish, even though they […]
Four hundred middle and high school students will fill the TEDYouth auditorium this Saturday — and many of them will be put straight to work. Students who’ve expressed interest in cinematography will shadow our video production team, students who want to be event planners will hang out with our producers, and those interested in journalism will […]
Could unemployment be a factor that leads to terrorism? In today’s talk, peace strategist Mohamed Ali (not to be confused with the boxer) introduces us to the youth of Mogadishu, Somalia — 70 percent of whom are unable to find jobs. In this talk, Ali highlights just how appealing the messages of terrorist organizations and […]