"Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World." - Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World." This event took place on February 11, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series.

Neil deGrasse Tyson - Wide-ranging interview

Neil deGrasse Tyson Nova scienceNOW host and astrophysicist - feature interview - 44:46 - Apr 8, 2007

Wide-ranging New York interview with celebrated astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on The Alcove with Mark Molaro. Dr. Tyson is Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is also the host of the PBS science program Nova scienceNOW. His latest book is the bestselling "Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandries". Dr. Tyson ruminates on all things cosmic - our expanding universe, black holes, asteroids threatening our planet and other phenomena. He discusses the need for more scientific literacy, the science versus religion debate, and he touches on the challenges he has faced to become an astrophysicist who happens to also be African-American. As always, we are enlightened and entertained by this remarkable scientist and educator.

The Psychology of Blink. Understanding the unconscious mind

Recent psychological research has revealed widely held unconscious thought patterns that most people would rather not possess. Dr. Anthony Greenwald, psychology professor at the University of Washington, describes his research developing the method (described in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink) that reveals this unconscious mental content, demonstrates the method and describes how the unconscious mental content that it reveals affects our behavior.

Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist -- Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the PBS program NOVA scienceNOW and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, sits down with Dr. Thomas Cech, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to discuss his own illuminating experiences as a graduate student, and how he became interested in science. Tyson also discusses his outreach success in making science accessible to the general public.

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.)