TEDTalks
grrlscientist | March 23, 2010tags: Science CAN Answer Moral Questions, philosophy, morality, ethics, behavior, brain, neurobiology, religion, culture, well-being, human rights, human values, Sam Harris, TEDTalks, streaming video
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.
Adored by secularists, feared by the pious, Sam Harris' best-selling books argue that religion is ruinous and, worse, stupid -- and that questioning…
grrlscientist | March 16, 2010tags: perception, The Magic of the Placebo, placebos, medicine, magic, Eric Mead, TEDTalks, streaming video
Sugar pills, injections of nothing -- studies show that, more often than you'd expect, placebos really work. At TEDMED, magician Eric Mead does a trick to prove that, even when you know something's not real, you can still react as powerfully as if it is. (Warning: This talk is not suitable for viewers who are disturbed by needles or blood.)
What's your opinion? It looked rather contrived to me: The placebo discussion was only remotely related, and seemed only an excuse to perform someï…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2010tags: fish farming, aquaculture, piscivory, bird sanctuary, foodie, ethical eating, permaculture, agriculture, poverty, hunger, Dan Barber, TEDTalks, streaming video
Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie's honeymoon he's enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain. My one complaint about this video is that the speaker never once identifies either of…
grrlscientist | March 3, 2010tags: neuroscience, happiness, experience, memory, colonoscopy, vacation, well-being, income, Daniel Kahneman, TEDTalks, streaming video
Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2010tags: neuroscience, health, medicine, health care, blindness, poverty, India, Pawan Sinha, TEDTalks, streaming video
Pawan Sinha details his groundbreaking research into how the brain's visual system develops. Dr Sinha and his team provide free vision-restoring treatment to children born blind, and then study how their brains learn to interpret visual data. The work offers insights into neuroscience, engineering and even autism.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their…
grrlscientist | February 14, 2010tags: food, health, healthy eating, healthy food, cooking, portion size, obesity, overweight, Jamie Oliver, TEDTalks, streaming video
In this affecting video, TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver shares powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., and makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.
Jamie Oliver is transforming the way we feed ourselves, and our children. Jamie Oliver has been drawn to the kitchen since he was a child working in his father's pub-restaurant. He showed not only a precocious culinary talent but also a passion for creating (and…
grrlscientist | February 12, 2010tags: employment, creative thinking, motivation, career, rewards, inspiration, science, psychology, Daniel Pink, TEDTalks, streaming video
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. If you think about it, the rewards described in this video are the very things that motivate blog writer to provide their content for free.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2010tags: art, sculpture, paintings, science, nature, Tom Shannon, TEDTalks, streaming video
John Hockenberry visits artist Tom Shannon in his Manhattan studio for an intimate look at his science-inspired art. An eye-opening, personal conversation reveals how nature's forces -- and the onset of Parkinson's tremors -- interact in his life and craft.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: x-ray art, photography, nature, Nick+Veasey, TEDTalks, streaming video
Nick Veasey shows outsized X-ray images that reveal the otherworldly inner workings of familiar objects -- from the geometry of a wildflower to the anatomy of a Boeing 747. Producing these photos is dangerous and painstaking, but the reward is a superpower: looking at what the human eye can't see.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: environment, education, conservation,animal welfare, dancing bears, India, sloth bear, Kartick Satyanarayan, TEDTalks, streaming video
Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…
grrlscientist | February 3, 2010tags: health, medicine, health care, diagnostics, poverty, technology, George Whitesides, TEDTalks, streaming video
Traditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for regions that are most in need. George Whitesides' ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost.
In his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from…
grrlscientist | January 27, 2010tags: health, medicine, TEDMED,health care, medical records, GPS, geography, geomedicine, Bill Davenhall, TEDTalks, streaming video
Where you live: It impacts your health as much as diet and genes do, but it's not part of your medical records. At TEDMED, Bill Davenhall shows how overlooked government geo-data (from local heart-attack rates to toxic dumpsite info) can mesh with mobile GPS apps to keep doctors in the loop. Call it "geo-medicine."
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the…
grrlscientist | January 22, 2010tags: Growing Organs, medicine, TEDMED,regeneration, stem cells, organ, tissue, Anthony Atala, TEDTalks, streaming video
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18…
grrlscientist | January 19, 2010tags: neurobiology, The Neurons that Shaped Civilization, mirror neurons, Ghandi neurons, social behavior, Lamarkian evolution, Darwinian evolution, VS Ramachandran, TEDTalks, streaming video
Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of…
grrlscientist | January 13, 2010tags: conservation, reptiles, King Cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, water pollution, Romulus+Whitaker, TEDTalks, streaming video
The gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, and king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, are two of India's most iconic reptiles, and they're endangered because of polluted waterways. Conservationist Romulus Whitaker shows rare footage of these magnificent animals and urges us to save the rivers that sustain their lives and our own.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: TEDTalks, laptops, future success, Nicholas Negroponte, streaming video
(TED follows Nicholas Negroponte to Colombia as he delivers laptops inside territory once controlled by guerrillas. His partner? Colombia's Defense Department, who see One Laptop per Child as an investment in the region. This project will have a bigger and more lasting effect on the damages created by poverty, destitution, crime and violence in the world than any other single thing I can think of -- how about you? [6:31]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,…
grrlscientist | August 12, 2009tags: TEDTalks, marshmallow experiment, future success, Joachim de Posada, streaming video
This video is a short talk where Joachim de Posada shares a landmark experiment on delayed gratification -- and how it can predict future success. With priceless video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow [7:14]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
grrlscientist | August 7, 2009tags: TEDTalks, biomimicry, technology, Janine Benyus, streaming video
Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you'll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results.. [20:15]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
grrlscientist | July 29, 2009tags: TEDTalks, politics, society, Why Societies Collapse, Jared Diamond, streaming video
Why do societies fail? In this video, Jared Diamond uses lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana to talk about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it [22:42]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
grrlscientist | July 26, 2009tags: philosophy, thinking the improbable, middle world, atoms, atheism, physics, Richard Dawkins, streaming video
In this video, Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe [22:42]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.