TED Community » Natasha Djordjevic

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Science and development. Biochemistry, chemistry, biology. Genetics and DNA engineering. Fighting incurable diseases like cancer, MS, Alzheimer's disease... Also medicine and psychology.

An idea worth spreading

I think that answer to everything is already written in our DNA, the only problem is how to read it... We still haven't even began to realize how much potential lies within our own cells. God did not create us, evolution did and now for the first time we have the ability to take evolution and guide it where ever we want. Big question still remains: will we be able to control ourselves through ethics and bring science and answers, and help to people without abusing it and using our knowledge for war and destruction and death? The answer lies within scientists themselves. In their ability to use their science and knowledge to benefit people and in their vigilance.

Talk to me about

Biochemistry, chemistry, biology, genetics, physiology and science in general and in what ways it can benefit people. Also I would like to here about people, medicine and psychology.

People don't know that I'm good at

Chemical experiments especially when I'm under pressure and need to be organized, tactical and methodical. Also I'm very good at all types of crafting ( sewing, knitting, repairs...). I'm very neat.

My TED Story

Another idea very much worth spreading is the use of herbs in everyday life. Western societies sometimes turn to nature and some people in the United States (for example) use medicinal herbs every day. But in my country that is rarely the case and it is limited to small towns and villages near mountains. this is, in my opinion, mainly because of fast urbanization. People have forgotten about healing powers of herbs that their ancestors have been using for centuries. But why should a person immediately turn to drugs and chemistry when the answer can be found in nature? Those components that we take from drugs can be found in herbs, only in smaller dosses and much healthier package! Not to mention safe and cheap because I'm not talking about some exotic plants, no I'm talking about plants that here grow almost everywhere. The only problem is educating people about finding and properly using these plants like those ancient herbalists used to do....

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.90 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we say for sure that these hallucinations aren't the product of our experiences or memories?

  Jun 9 2011: Thank you so much... I will look into it...

• A reply on Conversation: What are in your opinion benefits of being an atheist?

  Jun 9 2011: Interesting... I think you are right...

• A reply on Conversation: What are in your opinion benefits of being an atheist?

  Jun 9 2011: I think that life itself becomes more precious when we remove the concept of afterlife out of the equation. If haven is what we are hoping for than lifetime of abstention is a small price we should pay. So we live and just pray for it to be all over so we can collect our prize. Then life looses it's meaning. And what if "god" asks us to do something even worse than abstinence? And what if you, "god forbid" you do commit a sin, what would you do to regain the right to go to haven? I think that none of us needs that comfortable blanket if we know that we lived a happy satisfactory life and left something behind, contributed to the world. Anyway that's all the warmth I would need...
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: What are in your opinion benefits of being an atheist?

  Jun 9 2011: I completely agree and I hate that we as a civilization are not yet mature enough to abandon religion and live by an ethical or moral code, rather than to restrict ourselves in fear from divine retribution... Religion has always stood in the way for progress and yet although it has never stopped it, it effectively slowed it down. I can't even begin to imagine where we would be today if it weren't for that religious brake slowing us down. But progress is inevitable and I think that we should leave religion and embrace ethics and morality as they are if we are to survive and avoid destroying ourselves.

• A reply on Conversation: How can we say for sure that these hallucinations aren't the product of our experiences or memories?

  Jun 9 2011: Thanks so much for this incredible answer. It is a very interesting theory and I will look more into it. Maybe you can suggest some TED talks or websites or books that I can find on this subject... Thanks again for your answer.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Richard Dawkins: Militant atheism

  Jun 9 2011: PS one more thing: my future may take me to the United States and I cannot say that I haven't taught about how will it look to them when they see that I am an atheist. I am proud that I am, but why is that such a big deal? Why can't we just respect each other without a question of religion? And also, I sometimes fell really threathend by the believers and I wish there were more people like me that I know about.
  
  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2eCoDO/planetmut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/atheist-cartoon-1-550x708.jpg
  And to answer the speakers question: my boyfriend is an atheist and a historian... So that's a "+1" for them...

• A comment on Talk: Richard Dawkins: Militant atheism

  Jun 9 2011: I became an atheist when I was about 15-16 years old. I was raised in a very religious family and as a child I even went to church many times and even tried to pray. I still remember that once when I was very little, I stole some crayons from a friend and later when my mother took me to church I was terrified of god because I had broken one of the 10 commandments. I even stopped trying to pray because I felt like such a sinner. Let me just remind you that at the time I was 6 or 7 years old! When it was time to take an exam that will designate my path in life because a good result meant going to a good school, my mother simply said: "pray for it". That was the first time I chose to believe in myself and have faith in my own abilities rather then to believe in some irrational figure that is always watching and judging me. When I began my school next fall, I was a year older and I began reading some scientific books and watching Karl Sagan's Cosmos on my dad's tapes. I couldn't yet understand all of it but I could understand this much: I simply couldn't make myself believe that all that perfection on this Earth and beyond it was created by one person, no matter who that person was. At that time I came upon Darwin's theory and I realized that if I couldn't believe in one part of the "good book", I couldn't believe in the rest of it. I believe that that was the moment I became an atheist, and a proud one for that matter! Now I am even older and it has never been harder for me to even try to believe in god in a country that is maybe even more religious than America. However, I was raised in a religious family and I cannot bring myself to be rude to the faithfull until they attack me for being a blasphemer, which ironically I can't be since I don't even believe in the guy! I think that it is sad that a community such as this one cannot rise up and fight for what they believe, or rather don't believe in!

• A comment on Talk: Keith Barry: Brain magic

  Jun 9 2011: This is great... I'm still doing the hands thing from the beginning of the video!!!
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds

  Jun 9 2011: This is a great video! I would just like to know how can we say for sure that these hallucinations aren't a product of our own experiences and imagination when we don't know half the things that our brain does? Also, I read somewhere that hallucinations caused by consuming LSD aren't under consumer's control. That they have nothing to do with his or hers life and present thinking and that they cannot be influenced on by a bystander or cognitive processes of the consumer. As oppose to that, hallucinations caused by "magic mushrooms" or other things like that can be influenced on which explains how ancient Mayas and Indian shamans could "talk" with the gods and get advice from them. I would like to hear opinions on this subject as well.

• A comment on Talk: Joshua Klein: The intelligence of crows

  Jun 9 2011: I love this solution! In my country we have a problem not just with crows, but also with abandoned dogs. I wonder if the same logic can be applied to these animals in order to teach them useful skills as oppose to just letting them run around?