The next session of TED, entitled Epiphany, had a lot of science in it. Now, I'm a philosophy major, but I can understand *some* science :-)
"What is remarkable in fundamental physics ... that which is beautiful and elegant is more likely to be right than something that is inelegant." Murray Gell-Mann (He discovered the quark! Think about that for a sec. He. Discovered. The. Quark. Whoa.) As I get it .. "nature" doesn't waste time with unnecessary complexity. Laws of nature (or laws of the universe) are a good example. The law of gravity (discovered by Newton) is mathematically described in the same way as the law of electricity (thank you, Coulomb). Ethan Zuckerman has much more detailed notes on this if you're interested. My take-away is that we don't spend enough time in awe of science and mathematics. And I am reassured that even when the rest of the world is chaotic and messy and practically nonsensical, the foundation of the universe is ultimately simple, elegant and beautiful.
Next up was Jonathan Widom. Cell biologist who discovered that there is metadata encoded in our DNA that tells nucleosomes what type of cell to make (e.g. should it make a neuron or a liver cell). At least I think this is what he discovered. I tried really hard on this one .. I sat up, paid attention, I could hear the hamster-wheel turning in my brain and I'm pretty sure I frightened the fellow next to me (Chris has a couple of his pieces on display at TED - check out Cans Seraut on his site. Amazing artist; hilarious guy) with the smoke coming out my ears. But I didn't quite get it. And from a quick scan, most of my fellow bloggers didn't either. If you are a cell biologist or geneticist or similar .. insights are appreciated!!
Jeff Han has created the ultimate touch screen interface. This is a video of it (you have to watch a commercial first .. be patient). But the awesome thing is .. the touch screen wall is HERE. In the simulcast lounge! I hope to play with it tomorrow. And have pics or even a video. Seriously cool.
"Life is nothing more that a series of questions linked together back to back ..." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar is now a motivational speaker; his talk at TED ranged from his experiences as a teen growing up in Harlem at the height of the Civil Rights movement to his formula for success on the Lakers.
Epiphany closed with a set by jazzy, bluesy guitarist Raul Midon. He performed a number of songs both from his debut album State of Mind and a new album that is currently in production. On his site, you can listen to some of his tracks. Such a great voice! He has a song about the impact of technology. Also, his turn of phrase is quite elegant - he likened searching on Google to "rummaging through the century". An excellent way to close out Day 1.
Well, maybe the BEST way to close out Day 1 was with the Grey Goose martinis at the opening night party sponsored by Grey Goose and Wired. But that's a *different* post.
Hi, my name is 
