2016年4月30日 星期六

What does your DNA do? It builds a human being

Reading the Human Code ... Open in your browser
TED
This week on TED.com
April 30, 2016

Riccardo Sabatini: What does your DNA do? It builds a human being

15:28 minutes · Filmed Feb 2016 · Posted Apr 2016 · TED2016

Think of it as the Human Code: Your genome, made of DNA, is the complete set of genetic instructions needed to build a human being. Now, as Riccardo Sabatini shows us, we have the power to read this complex code, predicting things like height, eye color, age and even facial structure from a vial of blood. In this talk, share a powerful explanation of what your DNA does ... and learn what's coming next as we learn more and more about how the human genome works.

Playlist of the week

Talks to watch (or listen to) at breakfast

Illuminating, funny and awe-inspiring talks to start off your day. Watch »

7 TED Talks • Total run time 1:05:41

More TED Talks

R. Luke DuBois makes unique portraits of presidents, cities and even Britney Spears using data. In this talk, he shares nine projects -- including a funny, poignant map of the United States made of information from online dating profiles. But rather than reducing humanity to simple data points, his work shows how our data can form a rich, human portrait of who we are. Watch »

When Ameera Harouda hears the sounds of bombs or shells, she heads straight towards them. "I want to be there first because these stories should be told," says Gaza's first female "fixer," a role that allows her to guide journalists into chaotic war zone scenarios in her beloved country. Find out what motivates Harouda to give a voice to human suffering in this brave, unforgettable talk. Watch »

Is our climate "too big to fail"? If so, Michael Metcalfe suggests, let's do what we did back in 2008 after the global financial crisis: print money to save it. Back then, governments adopted a "whatever it takes" commitment to economic recovery and issued $250 billion worth of international currency to stem the collapse. In this delightfully wonky talk, Metcalfe walks us through how we could use that very same unconventional monetary tool to fund a green future. Watch »

Trust: How do you earn it? Banks use credit scores to determine if you're trustworthy, but there are about 2.5 billion people around the world who don't have a credit score to begin with -- and who can't get a loan to start a business, buy a home, pay school fees. TED Fellow Shivani Siroya is changing that with InVenture, which uses an unexpected source of data to create a financial identity. "With something as simple as a credit score," she says, "we're giving people the power to build their own futures." Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com

Working: The 7 secrets of people who've found the work they were meant to do »
You don't "find your calling" -- you fight for it

Quote of the Week

Why study the ancient past? Because it gives us perspective and humility. There are an infinite number of histories that we could've had. We only get one, and wow, did we ever get a good one."

Kenneth Lacovara
Hunting for dinosaurs

TED Talks audio on itunes

Subscribe to our audio podcast on iTunes, to hear the best of TED Talks wherever you go. TED Talks audio podcast on iTunes »

 

 

2016年4月23日 星期六

We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely

"This is the single most exciting adventure humans have ever been on" Open in your browser
TED
This week on TED.com
April 23, 2016

Juan Enriquez: We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely

14:49 minutes · Filmed Nov 2015 · Posted Apr 2016 · TED Talks Live

For four billion years, what lived and died on Earth depended on two principles: natural selection and random mutation. Then humans came along and changed everything — hybridizing plants, breeding animals, altering the environment and even purposefully evolving ourselves. Juan Enriquez provides five guidelines for a future where this ability to program life rapidly accelerates. "This is the single most exciting adventure human beings have been on," Enriquez says. "This is the single greatest superpower humans have ever had."

Playlist of the week

Talks to make you feel good about getting older

Along with the extra candles on the birthday cake, you might notice a little extra wisdom. Remind yourself of the benefits that come with age. Watch »

6 TED Talks • Total run time 1:07:47

More from this week's TED Talks

As different as we humans are from one another, we all age along the same great sequence, and the shared patterns of our lives pass into the pages of the books we love. In this moving talk, journalist Joshua Prager explores the stages of life through quotations from Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Trevor and other great writers, set to visualizations by graphic designer Milton Glaser. "Books tell us who we've been, who we are, who we will be, too," Prager says. Watch »

What would you do if your job was to save the planet? When Christiana Figueres was tapped by the UN to lead the Paris climate conference (COP 21) in December 2015, she reacted the way many people would: she thought it would be impossible to bring the leaders of 195 countries into agreement on how to slow climate change. Find out how she turned her skepticism into optimism -- and helped the world achieve the most important climate agreement in history. Watch »

It's true: talking about menstruation makes many people uncomfortable. And that taboo has consequences: in India, three out of every 10 girls don't even know what menstruation is at the time of their first period, and restrictive customs related to periods inflict psychological damage on young girls. Growing up with this taboo herself, Aditi Gupta knew she wanted to help girls, parents and teachers talk about periods comfortably and without shame. She shares how she did it. Watch »

What happens when you discover a dinosaur? Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara details his unearthing of Dreadnoughtus -- a 77-million-year-old sauropod that was as tall as a two-story house and as heavy as a jumbo jet -- and considers how amazingly improbable it is that a tiny mammal living in the cracks of the dinosaur world could evolve into a sentient being capable of understanding these magnificent creatures. Join him in a celebration of the Earth's geological history and contemplate our place in deep time. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com

Design: Why a great logo sometimes makes you think twice »
Wisdom from graphic designer Milton Glaser

Biology: A newly drawn Tree of Life has a whole new branch »
Explore this dramatic reshaping of life on Earth

Secrets: Do you have a great story you can't tell anyone? »
Be part of a pilot for TED's new audio podcast: "Sincerely, X"
 

A very special TED Talk from our own Chris Anderson

TED's secret to great public speaking
There's no single formula for a great talk, but there is a secret ingredient that all the best ones have in common. TED Curator Chris Anderson shares this secret — along with four ways to make it work for you. Do you have what it takes to share an idea worth spreading? Watch »

TED's secret to great public speaking
 

Quote of the Week

We've been doing this for thousands of years: breeding, changing, mixing, matching all kinds of life-forms. This is not something new. The humble mustard weed has been modified so that if you change it in one way, you get broccoli. And if you change it in a second way, you get kale. And if you change it in a third way, you get cauliflower. So when you go to these all-natural, organic markets, you're really going to a place where people have been changing the lifecode of plants for a long time."

Juan Enriquez
We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely

beyond tolerance

Most of us were raised to believe that tolerance is a good thing, but is it enough? TED speakers Arthur Brooks, Vernā Myers, Aspen Baker and Aziz Abu Sara talk about how to move beyond tolerance to a place of deeper understanding, on the newest TED Radio Hour »

 

 

2016年4月16日 星期六

Meet the Comma Queen

The art of making writers look good. Open in your browser
TED
This week on TED.com
April 16, 2016

Mary Norris: Meet the New Yorker's Comma Queen

09:49 minutes · Filmed Feb 2016 · Posted Apr 2016 · TED2016

"Copy editing for The New Yorker is like playing shortstop for a Major League Baseball team -- every little movement gets picked over by the critics," says Mary Norris, who has played the position for more than thirty years. In that time, she's gotten a reputation for sternness and for being a "comma maniac," but this is unfounded, she says. Above all, her work is aimed at one thing: making writers look good. Explore The New Yorker's distinctive language with the person who knows it best in this charming, informative and funny talk.

Playlist of the week

Talks for when you want to start a business

Ever dreamed of starting your own business? These talks can help get your idea off the ground. Watch »

10 TED Talks • Total run time 2:03:13

More TED Talks

It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. In this provocative talk, Petranek makes the case that humans will become a spacefaring species and describes in fascinating detail how we'll make Mars our next home. "Humans will survive no matter what happens on Earth," Petranek says. "We will never be the last of our kind." Watch »

Cancer is a very clever, adaptable disease. To defeat it, says medical researcher Paula Hammond, we need a new and powerful mode of attack. With her colleagues at MIT, Hammond engineered a nanoparticle one-hundredth the size of a human hair that can treat the most aggressive, drug-resistant cancers. Learn more about this molecular superweapon and join Hammond's quest to fight a disease that affects us all. Watch »

"Great dreams aren't just visions," says Astro Teller: "They're visions coupled to strategies for making them real." The head of X (formerly Google X), Teller takes us inside the "moonshot factory," where his team seeks to solve the world's biggest problems through experimental projects -- like balloon-powered Internet. Find out X's secret to creating an organization where people feel comfortable working on big, risky projects and exploring audacious ideas. Watch »

Hugh Evans started a movement that mobilizes "global citizens," people who self-identify first and foremost not as members of a state, nation or tribe but as members of the human race. In this uplifting and personal talk, learn more about how this new understanding of our place in the world is galvanizing people to take action in the fights against extreme poverty, climate change, gender inequality and more. "These are ultimately global issues," Evans says, "and they can only be solved by global citizens demanding global solutions from their leaders." Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com

Space: The 4 big questions humanity needs to ask itself about Mars »
Sure, it's fun to think about moving there, but let's ask ourselves these 4 questions first

Code: Work and life wisdom from Linux' Linus Torvalds »
A master engineer on the value of a really, really quiet office

Writing: Talking about the future -- and the present -- with science fiction writer William Gibson »
"The technocrats have taken over, but it's not going very well..."

Gallery: What can you learn about the world from a toothbrush? »
Surprisingly fascinating: How the world brushes its teeth

Toothbrushes in the Philippines

Quote of the Week

Every time somebody has said to me, "I don't really worry about invasions of privacy because I don't have anything to hide," I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide.

Not a single person has taken me up on that offer."

Glenn Greenwald
Why privacy matters

solve for x

Math intimidates a lot of us, but it can deliver surprising answers to life's pressing questions.TED speakers discuss the elegant simplicity, and giddy complexity, of solving for x, on this week's TED Radio Hour »

 

 

2016年4月9日 星期六

"I am not a visionary ... I'm an engineer"

A genuinely charming look at how Linus Torvalds works and thinks. Open in your browser
TED
This week on TED.com
April 9, 2016

Linus Torvalds: A rare interview with the mind behind Linux

21:30 minutes · Filmed Feb 2016 · Posted Apr 2016 · TED2016

Linus Torvalds transformed technology twice -- first with Linux, which helps power the Internet, and again with Git, the source code management system used by coders worldwide. In a rare interview with TED's curator, Chris Anderson, Torvalds discusses with remarkable openness the personality traits that prompted his unique philosophy of work, engineering and life. "I am not a visionary, I'm an engineer," Torvalds says. "I'm perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds ... but I'm looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that's right in front of me before I fall in."

Playlist of the week

Secret realities

Delve into talks that explore the hidden communities and unseen places that exist just off the beaten path of our everyday lives. Watch »

8 TED Talks • Total run time 2:08:36

More TED Talks

Danielle Feinberg, Pixar's director of photography, creates stories with soul and wonder using math, science and code. Go behind the scenes of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Brave, WALL-E and more, and discover how Pixar interweaves art and science to create fantastic worlds where the things you imagine can become real. Watch »

"I want you to reimagine how life is organized on earth," says global strategist Parag Khanna. As our expanding cities grow more connected through communications networks, we are evolving past our tradirional geographical boundaries. Khanna asks us to embrace a new maxim for the future: "Connectivity is destiny." Watch »

Haley Van Dyck is transforming the way America delivers critical services to everyday people. At the United States Digital Service, Van Dyck and her team are using lessons learned by Silicon Valley and the private sector to improve services for veterans, immigrants, disabled people -- and all citizens. "We don't care about politics," she says. "We care about making government work better, because it's the only one we've got." Watch »

Something massive, with roughly 1,000 times the area of Earth, is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852, and nobody is quite sure what it is. As astronomer Tabetha Boyajian investigated this perplexing celestial object, a colleague suggested something unusual: Could it be an alien-built megastructure? Such an extraordinary idea would require extraordinary evidence. In this talk, Boyajian gives us a look at how scientists search for and test hypotheses when faced with the unknown. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com

Universe: We talk more with Tabby Boyajian about her mysterious star »
"We’re just broadening the list of prospective scenarios."
 
Humans: A gorgeous gallery of humans in all colors »
Angélica Dass celebrates the beauty of our skin
 
Minds: A powerful talk on adults with autism »
Different, but not less ...
 
Archeology: Inside the search for a fabled Norse site in North America »
With the help of satellites

 

A special TED Talk: Insight on the Panama Papers

It's the largest data leak in history: the "Panama Papers" have exposed rich and powerful people hiding vast amounts of money in offshore accounts and shell companies. But what does it all mean? We called Robert Palmer of Global Witness to find out, in this short, insightful talk. Watch »

Robert Palmer TED Talk

Quote of the Week

We have taken on such enormous debts since the financial crisis, but have we invested them in inclusive growth? No, not yet. Only when we build sufficient, affordable housing, when we invest in robust transportation networks to allow people to connect to each other both physically and digitally, that's when our divided cities and societies will come to feel whole again."

Parag Khanna
How megacities are changing the map of the world
Chris Anderson's TED Talks book