Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain

About this talk
Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain's incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He's researching ways to harness the brain's plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.
About Michael Merzenich
Michael Merzenich studies neuroplasticity -- the brain's powerful ability to change itself and adapt -- and ways we might make use of that plasticity to heal injured brains.

Nancy Etcoff on the surprising science of happiness

About this talk
Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff looks at happiness -- the ways we try to achieve and increase it, the way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies.
About Nancy Etcoff
Nancy Etcoff is part of a new vanguard of cognitive researchers asking: What makes us happy? Why do we like beautiful things? And how on earth did we evolve that way?

Celebrating jobs -- all kinds of jobs: Mike Rowe on TED.com

From EG'08: Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today. (Recorded in December 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 20:03.)

Juan Enriquez: Beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo evolutis

About this talk
Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.
About Juan Enriquez
Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society.

Jill Tarter: Why the search for alien intelligence matters

About this talk

The SETI Institute's Jill Tarter makes her TED Prize wish: to accelerate our search for cosmic company. Using a growing array of radio telescopes, she and her team listen for patterns that may be a sign of intelligence elsewhere in the universe.
About Jill Tarter
SETI's Jill Tarter has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere, and almost all aspects of this field have been affected by her work.

Earth's mass extinctions: Peter Ward on TED.com

Asteroid strikes get all the coverage, but "Medea Hypothesis" author Peter Ward argues that most of Earth's mass extinctions were caused by lowly bacteria. The culprit, a poison called hydrogen sulfide, may have an interesting application in medicine. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:42.)
About Peter Ward
Peter D. Ward studies life on Earth -- where it came from, how it might end, and how utterly rare it might be.

Kary Mullis: Celebrating the scientific experiment

About this talk
Biochemist Kary Mullis talks about the basis of modern science: the experiment. Sharing tales from the 17th century and from his own backyard-rocketry days, Mullis celebrates the curiosity, inspiration and rigor of good science in all its forms.

About Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.)

George Smoot on the design of the universe | TED.com

About this talk
At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way.
About George Smoot
Astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner George Smoot studies the cosmic microwave background radiation -- the afterglow of the Big Bang.



George Smoot on the design of the universe | Video on TED.com

What I worry about, what I'm excited about: Bill Joy on TED.com

Technologist and futurist Bill Joy shares several big worries for humanity -- and several big hopes in the fields of health, education and future tech. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:02.)

A meditation on hope: Sherwin Nuland on TED.com

Surgeon and writer Sherwin Nuland meditates on the idea of hope -- the desire to become our better selves and make a better world. In a thoughtful 12 minutes, he explores the connection between "hope" and "change" -- a fitting talk to end this week full of both. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 12:37.)

Dan Gilbert: Exploring the frontiers of happiness

About this talk
Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.
About Dan Gilbert
Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong -- a premise he supports with intriguing research

Benjamin Wallace: Does happiness have a price tag?

About this talk
Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world's most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.
About Benjamin Wallace
Benjamin Wallace is a journalist and author of The Billionaire's Vinegar, the true story of the world's most expensive bottle of (possibly phony?) wine. He's been a contributor to GQ,

Samantha Power on a complicated hero | TED.com

About this talk
Samantha Power tells a story of a complicated hero, Sergio Vieira de Mello. This UN diplomat walked a thin moral line, negotiating with the world's worst dictators to help their people survive crisis. It's a compelling story told with a fiery passion.
About Samantha Power
Samantha Power studies US foreign policy, especially as it relates to war and human rights. Her books take on the world's worst problems: genocide, civil war and brutal dictatorships.




Samantha Power on a complicated hero | Video on TED.com

Jared Diamond on why societies collapse | TED.com

About this talk
Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it.

About Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond is an award-winning scholar of ecology, biology and history, and best-selling author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.




Jared Diamond on why societies collapse | Video on TED.com

Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

About this talk
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a moving memory of her own father, and of their shared love of baseball.

About Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin writes insightful books on the US Presidency (JFK, LBJ, FDR and Lincoln, so far), telling each president's personal story against the backdrop of history.



Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents | Video on TED.com

Steven Johnson on the Web as a city | Video on TED.com

About this talk
Outside.in's Steven Johnson says the Web is like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected and yet functioning as many independent parts. While disaster strikes in one place, elsewhere, life goes on.

About Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson is the best-selling author of five thoughtful and surprising books linking science, technology and society. He's also a longtime innovator in the web world,



Steven Johnson on the Web as a city | Video on TED.com

James Nachtwey fights XDR-TB | Video on TED.com

"About this talk
Photojournalist James Nachtwey sees his TED Prize wish come true, as we share his powerful photographs of XDR-TB, a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis that's touching off a global medical crisis. Learn how to help at http://www.xdrtb.org
About James Nachtwey
Photojournalist James Nachtwey is considered by many to be the greatest war photographer of recent decades. He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries."



James Nachtwey fights XDR-TB | Video on TED.com:

Steven Pinker chalks it up to the blank slate | TED.com

About this talk
Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.

About Steven Pinker
Linguist Steven Pinker questions the very nature of our thoughts -- the way we use words, how we learn, and how we relate to others.



Steven Pinker chalks it up to the blank slate | Video on TED.com

Jonathan Haidt: Moral Psicology - The difference between liberals and conservatives

About this talk

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

About Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and understanding of those whose morals don't.



http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Jane Goodall helps humans and animals live together | Video on TED.com

About this talk
The legendary chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall talks about TACARE and her other community projects, which help people in booming African towns live side-by-side with threatened animals.

About Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall, dubbed by her biographer "the woman who redefined man," has changed our perceptions of primates, people, and the connection between the two.



Jane Goodall helps humans and animals live together | Video on TED.com