Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of fascinating TED-related news items. Here, some highlights. Jeff Bezos, the co-founder of Amazon (watch his TED Talk), made waves on Monday when it was announced that he will buy The Washington Post for $250 million. “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to […]
Inspired by the theme of TEDWomen 2013, “Invented Here,” we’ve created a killer playlist with songs about women who’ve innovated, made a difference, taken a stand and changed history in the process. Our mixtape of tunes include: a Swedish dance-pop tribute to Marie Curie’s research on radioactivity, Jane Birkin’s ode to the work and ideals […]
The old saying goes: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Folded into this truism is a nugget of wisdom: that women so often are the ones driving innovation, the creative powerhouses surfacing new concepts, and the active force crystalizing change in communities near and far. This is the spirit that TEDWomen 2013 will celebrate with […]
Yesterday, the first lab-grown hamburger was cooked. And eaten! And according to The Week, it didn’t taste too bad. This lab-grown patty took two years and $325,000 to produce. And as sources revealed, the money came from Google co-founder and TED speaker Sergey Brin. (Watch his talk on Google Glass, or his talk with Larry Page on the genesis of Google.) […]
TED Talks are available in 102 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our volunteer translators. So far, more than 10,000 volunteers have created upwards of 44,000 talk translations — and today, the TED Blog brings you a Q&A with one of them. Here, meet German translator Katja Tongucer. 1. Where […]
This week, during a computer security conference in Las Vegas, researchers Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller demonstrated how easily they could hack into the systems of moving cars using just a laptop computer. Illustrating that modern devices are worryingly vulnerable to hacking, Valasek and Miller showed their ability to jerk seatbelts, turn wheels and influence […]
What is possible with the human voice? Beardyman asks in today’s talk. He demonstrates with at least fifty manipulations of his voice – from a dog barking to the two-tone singing of a monk. “I was always trying to extend my repertoire of noises to be the very maximum it can be,” he says. On his quest to […]
Designer Max Schmidt’s Breathing Clock is a fascinating object. It doesn’t have hands — rather it inflates and deflates to show the progression of time. Schmidt tells PSFK that it’s an homage to the idea that time is relative. This invention reminds us of Scott Thrift, who spoke at last year’s TED@NYC about his seasonal […]
[ted id=1119] In his TED Talk, Dave Meslin wondered: What would happen if Nike advertised sneakers in the same way local governments announced important information — with long, bland, black-and-white newspaper ads filled with jargon? “Apathy as we think we know it doesn’t actually exist,” said Meslin, a local organizer in Toronto. “People do care, […]
Chrystia Freeland, TEDGlobal 2013 speaker and the author of the book Plutocrats (read more about her talk), has announced her plan to run for political office in Toronto. She tells the Globe and Mail, “In my writing, my reporting and my thinking, I have come to feel that there is a really great challenge that […]
It is the dawn of the era of 3D printing. From artificial prosthetics to very real human kidneys to filigree skull sculptures — the number and variety of applications for this technology are growing, layer by printed layer. Combine this with the decreasing cost of owning a printer, as well as the cheaper cost of manufacturing […]
Does listening to music generate colors in your mind? Do bright, lively songs sound yellow or orange while darker, more somber ones sound dark blue and grey? Well, for artist Neil Harbisson, this happens the other way around. Colorblind since birth, Harbisson has sported an electronic eye since 2004 that fits over the top of […]
This week TEDx celebrated the birthday of Rosalind Franklin, the pioneering scientist who helped our fundamental understanding of the structure of DNA strands. Sixty years after her famous Photo 51, Czech designer Vit Zemcik created a video to showcase his own understanding of the geometry of life. Zemcik explains his video, which showed at TEDxHradecKralove […]
“By inspiring ourselves, we inspire others.” These are the words of tightrope walker Philippe Petit in this week’s TED Radio Hour from NPR, “To the Edge.” hosted by Guy Raz. The episode overflows with speakers who have gone to the edge in some way: rowing across oceans; exploring caves as deep as Mount Everest is […]
Did you go outside and smile for the camera last Friday, like Carolyn Porco (watch her talk) asked you to, while the Cassini probe snapped a photo of Jupiter with Earth in the background? In this hyper-detailed post from Diary of Numbers, the author calculates the odds that one of your photons is in the […]
Reading fiction is an escape, something transportative that pulls you out of everyday life. But don’t we also read fiction to learn more about ourselves — to see our hopes, aspirations and fears reflected in the pages, to gain insight into the confusing mechanics and meaning of love, family and community? On Thursday night, we […]