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Stewart Gault

TEDCRED 30+

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What is the most awe inspiring fact you know?

Quite self explanatory really, To say one I love the idea that the carbon atoms in my fingers could have been part of a T-Rex at some point :)

Topics: awe inspiration knowledge
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    Gaurav Gupta 500+

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    TED AttendeeTED TranslatorTEDx OrganizerLanguage Coordinator
    Jun 16 2012: I just figured that a billionaire who had 30 Billion dollars had more money than 39 of the poorest countries put together.

    Also, he had more money than the whole nation of Democratic Republic of Congo earns in an year, and Congo has 72 Million people!!
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    Bjorn Mol

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    Jun 14 2012: This fact are more inspiring to not go to the dentist. Because in the teeths it is Mercury and mercury is what you get cancer of easiest. In fact when you drill in a teeth the meassured mercury levels where up to 3 times higher than the limit before they close down atomic reactors or lab etc.. And this they put in peoples moouth ++ Stupid..

  • Xiao Zhi

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    Jun 13 2012: The fact of my daughter's birth and existence, which totally changed the way I view the world and life.
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    Farhan Mohamed

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    Jun 12 2012: The most awe inspiring fact I know is that there are 6.6 billion mobile phones and only 4 billion toothbrushes.
    Weird, it always makes me wonder; what do people think is more important in life?
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    dean crawford

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    Jun 12 2012: Death has no conceren for a mans wealth or social statis he treats us the same.
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    E G 10+

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    Jun 12 2012: That the most people are idiots .

    • John Penn

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      Jun 13 2012: I like what Scott Adams says in "The Dilbert Principle", about idiocy :

      "It's a condition that everyone slips into many times a day. Life is just too complicated to be smart all the time."

      It makes me think that maybe I should try to be kind to the idiots around me, so that they're not too hard on me when it's my turn.
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    Devon Gisbert

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    Jun 12 2012: The Peanut, is valuable for over 300 purposes
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    Loren Trimble

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    Jun 12 2012: 90% of people think they are above average in attractivenss.

    • Xiao Zhi

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      Jun 13 2012: I really doubt that statistic, sounds like an anecdotal round number to me.
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    Kevin Jacobson

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    Jun 11 2012: The most amazing fact I have ever learned is that quantum mechanics and the physics of black holes prove that universes can indeed appear straight out of nothing, essentially ruling out the role of "God" as an all mighty creator. This may also mean that an infinite number of universes may appear and die out every second!

  • Tachuela Villa

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    Jun 10 2012: The very many more times that babies smile compared to older children and adults. Probably babies are truly free beings, with no fear of some kind of God and/or social rules.

    • Mike Robinson

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      Jun 13 2012: Smiles show a willingness to be pleasant and cooperative, they express a sense of joy and well-being, they are a great way of relaxing oneself, and are a great way to flood the body with endorphins. Some adults think they are a sign of submissive behaviour, but that sounds like the theory of a joyless priest or CEO.

  • Greg McEachern

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    Jun 10 2012: If you walk along a roadside and come upon a swamp with reeds, wind blowing along the top of the reed will create a sound. It will have the impression of a single note, but within that sound is a whole series of other 'harmonic' notes. This is called 'the harmonic overtone series'. Simple folk music uses elements of music theory based on the lower portions of the overtone series. Jazz uses elements of the lower and upper pitches of the harmonics ( 9,#11, b13etc.). Learning about this fact gave me various realizations. 1)Jazz became natural and then I began to accept it more. 2)Man is tuned into nature and resonates on some instinctive level, otherwise music wouldn't have been created. I believe that if we studied the harmonic overtone series and it's patterns we will possibly learn more about physics. I think we could apply what we know or learn about sound to understand light. If we break the sound barrier there is a sonic boom. Therefore if we go faster than the speed of light, there will be an 'explosion' of light. Sound = light. You get what I mean?
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      Brian Cox 20+

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      Jun 12 2012: I liked the evolution-based insight into music. Never thought harmonics that way.

      Only thing is your extrapolation: light and sound are two different waveforms. No physicist, but I don't think you can mirror the two events.

      • Greg McEachern

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        Jun 13 2012: The harmonic overtone series is real. It was demonstrated to me on a piano utilizing one of the pedals. The harmonics rang caused by sympathetic vibration. Some people have the gift of perfect pitch. I met a guy in music college that would hear a note and he would perceive it as a colour and then he could name the note's pitch. If you go to 'You tube' and look up 'perfect pitch dog' you will see a German lady training her dogs to play the piano. The dogs appear to have perfect pitch. There was a video called 'Enertanz' where in the middle of it the two dogs played 'The Bird Dance' together as a duet. This is a very creative lady that thinks outside of the box because as we all know, dogs can't play the piano right? But they can. The sound = light concept is a hypothesis. I also use it to draw inspiration about sound mixing and composing as arranging could relate to oil painting. It could generate fresh ideas that are outside the box, for instance you need dark in order to show light and vice versa.
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          Stewart Gault 30+

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          Jun 13 2012: the condition you describe there is called synesthesia, seeing colour when hearing a sound

  • robert diiorio

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    Jun 10 2012: Why has mankind for all recorded history blamed God" for every percieved "evil" that has been experienced?

    Here is a question if agreement is the fundamental of reality what could we have agreed with originally for its exisence to come about?


    May I suggest the reading of Abbotts book "flatland", he was a mathemetician in the late 1800's.
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    robert richards

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    Jun 10 2012: That all I know could be corrupted data fed by imperfect sensors.

  • Pedro Rodriguez

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    Jun 10 2012: We experience a model of reality.
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    natasha nikulina 50+

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    TED Translator
    Jun 9 2012: Center is everywhere !
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    Adam MacGowan

    • +10
    Jun 9 2012: I think it is awe inspiring that we are all here together, right now, at this moment in time and space.
    The probability of a sun and "goldilocks" planet like ours ever forming seems to be really... well, rather small. That Earth has all the right geological and chemical conditions for life to begin also seem to be pretty darned lucky. The odds that self aware forms of life like us could ever evolve seems to be almost (but not quite) miraculous. Yet, here we are. Of course, in a century (or 2 perhaps :) everyone that we know and love will be dead and gone forever. Everyone you every loved, everyone that shaped who you are, or moved you to tears. In several billion years our planet will no longer support life, but the universe will stretch on continually for unimaginable epics.
    When we look around at other people on the street we are looking at the culmination of a truly unimaginable set of circumstances. If we could ever truly understand how awe inspiring this is I imagine we would just drop everything and embrace eachother in the streets... clinging together like life rafts on a vast and endless ocean...
    Knowing all this, it is still nearly impossible for me to chat to the stranger next to me on the bus.
    :)

    • Barry Palmer 50+

      • +3
      Jun 10 2012: Wow! Print this out and take it with you when you ride the bus. When you are on the bus, read it, and pretend a stranger wrote it. Then you will realize what a precious moment you are sharing with that stranger sitting next to you. You might show them the paper, and just tell them look what someone wrote. Life is too short. Make the most of every opportunity.
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      Lee Walls

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      Jun 12 2012: Adam, this is a wonderful view on life, i think we should all print it off and take it on the bus with us
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    Stewart Gault 30+

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    Jun 8 2012: spontaneous combustion is actually possible
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    Robert Mayer 20+

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    TED Live member
    Jun 8 2012: That there are the same amount of numbers between 0 and 1 as there are between 0 and 2

  • Thomas Rogers

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    Jun 8 2012: the most awe inspiring fact i know is that e^2=m^2c^4+p^2c^2 is the correct equation and that it actually accounts for momentum.
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    Mark Hurych

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    Jun 8 2012: We are now at 396 ppm CO2.
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    Erik Richardson 500+

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    TEDx Organizer
    Jun 8 2012: That we are in this together. I would not trade that for all of the other things combined. :-D

  • John Penn

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    Jun 8 2012: Fun question!

    One thing that awe's me is that the structure and functionality of a human being can ultimately be derived from the structure and functionality of only about 30 atomic elements. And that functionality includes the ability to think about it! Those atoms, they're pretty useful!
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    Brian Cox 20+

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    Jun 7 2012: Loving all the posts thus far...couple of my favorites:

    1. Humankind has experienced 0.004% of the Earth's total history.
    2. The presence of dark matter suggests there may be a multiverse.
    3. We've only explored 5% of the ocean.
    4. Tesla. Was. Awesome.

  • Philip Crume

    • +3
    Jun 7 2012: Hydrogen formed shortly after the formation of the universe. What began as little imperfections while the universe was small, later created extra areas of density that later evolved into strings of galaxies each of which contain billions (I mean BULLIONS!) of stars.

    Every star goes through a life cycle where through fusion new elements are created, form in their cores, then themselves become the fuel of still denser elements, until we get to iron. At the end of its life, the star has shells of iron, silicon, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, helium, and hydrogen. Shortly thereafter the balance between heat and gravity swings wiildly until the star dies and explodes. The energy released in the final explosion outshines the rest of the galaxy and simultaneously creates all of the rest of the elements in the periodic table (the supernova elements!).

    But from our perspective, here's where the story gets interesting. The shells explode through one another and mix together. Also the denser elements at the core of the star don't travel as far as the lighter elements. This explain why the inner planets have iron cores and why the Oort Cloud has so many comets that contain water. Somehow the giant gas cloud collapses back into itself again and we get our Sun. While the gas cloud is forming it flattens into a disc. Heavier elements create pockets of density that eventually become gravitational distortions. These distortions spin more slowly than the rest of the disc and eddy forces build up until they spin in opposite direction of the disc. Then one day the center of the new gas cloud becomes dense that gravity implodes it into a new star. Then the shockwaves explode outward clearing out the planetary disc leaving planets made of heavier elements.

    All of the elements the Earth and we are made of were first forged in a previous star. We are literally star dust!

  • Richard Horowitz

    • +3
    Jun 7 2012: A generation is about 30 years. A line of people 67 generations long stretch back to the time of Christ. Not a very long line.
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