Tim O'Reilly: 9 talks that stretched my mind

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9 talks (Curated by Tim O'Reilly)

1.

Willie Smits: How to restore a rainforest
20:42
"I loved the deep systems thinking in Willie Smits' talk. If we want to get 'there,' we need to start here ..."

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By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits believes he has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans -- and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems. UPDATE: December 2012: The core content of this talk has been challenged on a number of grounds. For details, and for Willie Smits' response to these criticisms, please see this page.

TED2009, Filmed Feb 2009, Posted Mar 2009

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2.

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government
12:11
"‘Are we just a crowd of voices, or are we a crowd of hands?’ Jen Pahlka puts the notion of government participation in a new and powerful context."

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Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can -- and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and their neighbors.

TED2012, Filmed Feb 2012, Posted Mar 2012

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3.

Bonnie Bassler: How bacteria "talk"
18:14
"I found the insights in this talk fascinating; it completely changed my mental model of how illness comes about."

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Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.

TED2009, Filmed Feb 2009, Posted Apr 2009

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4.

Benjamin Zander: The transformative power of classical music
20:43
"Ben Zander gives a bravura performance and a mind-deepening talk about how passion drives interest and creativity. My favorite TEDTalk ever."

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Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

TED2008, Filmed Feb 2008, Posted Jun 2008

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5.

Kary Mullis' next-gen cure for killer infections
04:35
"I loved the way Kary combines his personal experience, folksy delivery, and clear teaching about a really important problem. And he gets across that Nobel Prize winners don't always come from the background you expect."

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Drug-resistant bacteria kills, even in top hospitals. But now tough infections like staph and anthrax may be in for a surprise. Nobel-winning chemist Kary Mullis, who watched a friend die when powerful antibiotics failed, unveils a radical new cure that shows extraordinary promise.

TED2009, Filmed Feb 2009, Posted Jul 2009

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6.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
19:24
"Anyone who has kids will resonate with this talk. Our schools so often let down our children, and we let them do it. Sir Ken Robinson inspires us to do better."

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

TED2006, Filmed Feb 2006, Posted Jun 2006

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7.

Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy
15:15
"This should be a model for all TEDTalks. Donald Sadoway is tackling an important problem, but he's also a master teacher, so we aren't just ‘wowed’ (as is so often the case), we come away having learned something new."

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What's the key to using alternative energy, like solar and wind? Storage -- so we can have power on tap even when the sun's not out and the wind's not blowing. In this accessible, inspiring talk, Donald Sadoway takes to the blackboard to show us the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy. As he says: "We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap."

TED2012, Filmed Mar 2012, Posted Mar 2012

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8.

Hans Rosling: Stats that reshape your worldview
19:50
"Now that everyone is into data visualization, it's difficult to imagine just how amazing this talk was when it first was given. Hans has a unique ability to make numbers talk."

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You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world."

TED2006, Filmed Feb 2006, Posted Jun 2006

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9.

Jeff Han demos his breakthrough touchscreen
08:47
"It's easy to forget that there was a time before multi-touch displays. Here Jeff Han demonstrates the power of multi-touch when the iPhone was still nearly a year and a half away. It's a great illustration of William Gibson's dictum that ‘The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet.’"

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Jeff Han shows off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen interface that may spell the end of point-and-click.

TED2006, Filmed Feb 2006, Posted Aug 2006

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Total run time 2:19:41

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