TED Community » Elizabeth Berry

More About Me

I'm passionate about

New music (indie), Art (surrealism/dadaism/minimalism), Design, Environmental Conservation

Talk to me about

Science, ethics, anything

People don't know that I'm good at

Cooking, knitting, crocheting, procrastinating

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Why aren't hybrid cars well integrated in our urban environment?

  Feb 29 2012: 1) Hybrid cars aren't that sexy, in terms of design.
  2) We lack the infrastructure. We only have petrol stations at the moment. But if petrol stations also included charging ports, I'm pretty sure that would jack up the number of people who wouldn't mind driving them.
  3) Humans are pack animals. We follow the hype. The hype has yet to surround hybrids.
  4) Most people are scared of by the relatively more expensive buying price. We tend to think about what hurts in the pocket now, rather than in the future.

• A comment on Conversation: Aspartme or sugar - which is healthier?

  Feb 29 2012: Sugar, no doubt

• A comment on Conversation: Is 'polite conversation' a relic from the past-a lost art, or have we outgrown its use and concern, or does it still exist?

  Feb 29 2012: I don't think there is as large an emphasis on phatic language as there was in the 20th century, but it's still present. I just think social barriers have been reduced somewhat, therefore the number of situations that require 'polite conversation' are reduced.

• A comment on Conversation: Guys do you think it is possible to get energy out of typing on the keyboard?

  Feb 29 2012: They managed to make a phone charging bra that runs on the energy produced by friction up there.... So I'm pretty sure it's possible. Particularly if you consider how hard some people type
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: Do you think Genetically Modified food (GM) is morally justifiable? How about the "Industrialisation" of food production?

  Feb 29 2012: As the population of the world increases and we face increasing threats from climate change, I can definitely see the benefits of genetically modifying food to our benefit. Crops are modified for advantageous agronomic features, like hardier corn with the ability to resist droughts, weeds and pests, thus reducing chemicals and resources needed to grow them. Others are altered to produce nutrients, such as golden rice. IMO, these are huge benefits that must not be underestimated, particularly as we enter a new era of unprecedented consumption.
  
  That being said, genetic modification has been plagued by a plethora of controversy. Firstly, there is the threat it poses on biodiversity. A worry with the GM agricultural industry is that the modified crops and animals will impinge on flora and fauna, competing (and probably winning) for the resources required for growth.
  There is also the health issue. While a range of GM foods have been approved for consumption, it must be noted that we have not been monitoring their effects on human physiology following long-term consumption. So while current studies have shown limited or no adverse effects, we can't definitely sy that these will not appear in the future. This arises from the fact that we simply do not know enough about DNA to be able to fiddle around with it and expect that the effects of our experimentations are isolated. As pointed out by B.E. Rollins in The Frankenstein Effect (yes, I do know how biased that title sounds, so I have read the text with the proverbial grain of salt) modifications may result in artificially elevated levels of certain hormones that may be found to have carcinogenic effects.
  And who's to say that these imbalances will not effect the organism either? Particularly for sentient animals.
  Of course, GM also leads to reduced variation, which really spells the end for any species.
  
  Just some I thought about. Time to get back to homework.

• A reply on Conversation: The evolution theory & religion

  May 18 2011: If continuity is so essential to understanding science, how on Earth did we ever manage to progress beyond our archaic beliefs? It's this lack of continuity, the lack of knowledge that drives us to learn more, not hinder us.

• A reply on Conversation: The evolution theory & religion

  May 16 2011: Cyclical continuity: continuity that spans over everything. One thing explains another, which explains another and eventually you come full circle.
  And we don't need to have continuity in we know or believe in because we simply don't know enough. There are inconsistencies in the bible, for example (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/inconsistencies.html) for your reference.

• A reply on Conversation: The evolution theory & religion

  May 15 2011: Look at space. When we knew little about it, in the times of Copernicus, our view of life, the Earth and the cosmos was simple: organisms were created by a divine body, the Earth was flat, the solar system was geocentric and not much was known about anything further. But now, we know the Earth is a sphere. Our solar system is heliocentric. We know more about the Universe, but the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. We have to theorize as to how things work and how they happen, for example evolution, the big bang and so forth. But even then (particularly about space) there are gaping holes in our knowledge that we wouldn't have known existed had we not made this theory in the first place. It is by that I men the more we know, the less we really do.
  
  And if relation is what we seek in what we know, not a cyclical continuity that I refer to, it won't be an issue to believe in a religion and in evolution at the same time.

• A reply on Conversation: The evolution theory & religion

  May 15 2011: I don't think the human race knows enough for there to be continuity in anything. The more we discover about the world around us, the more ignorant we are.

• A reply on Conversation: If I had 100% of your genes and 100% of your environmental experience I would be you.

  May 15 2011: In my opinion