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Viruses as Planetary Forces

Viruses as Planetary Forces

Carl Zimmer presents at the Singularity Summit, giving an excellent overview of the ubiquitous life forms that have shaped the evolution of life on earth.

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Bill Gates Gives a TED Talk

Bill Gates Gives a TED Talk

Bill Gates gave a TED talk in 2009 titled “Mosquitoes, malaria and education“. It’s a broad-sweeping talk, but here are a few points that stuck out for me.

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Earth-Like Planet Composed of Diamonds?

Earth-Like Planet Composed of Diamonds?

One exoplanet’s chemistry has proven to be unique from anything we’ve seen before, its rocky layers composed largely of pure diamond.

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Lenski’s E. Coli Grow “New Legs”

Lenski’s E. Coli Grow “New Legs”

Lenski’s high-profile E. coli program represents an iconic case of experimental evolution.

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Review: Rage

Review: Rage

With its penchant for monosyllabic game titles and quick-twitch gunplay, Id has now dropped Rage into the first person fracas.

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Hysteria and 7th Century Literature

Hysteria and 7th Century Literature

The recently uploaded anti-Muslim video is a squalid piece of amateurish videowork to be sure, but the reactionary measures proliferated throughout the Muslim states have shown just how dangerous certain beliefs can be.

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Review: The Order of Things

Review: The Order of Things

Michel Foucault’s 1966 work on the history and meaning of Western thought is an intellectual tour de force that’s not for the faint of heart.

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Math Class Needs a Makeover

Math Class Needs a Makeover

In this brief TED talk, Dan Meyer discusses the backwardness of math education in America and how to improve the situation.

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Harvey Fineberg on Neo-Evolution

Harvey Fineberg on Neo-Evolution

Harvey Fineberg discusses the future of human evolution. What’s coming next for our species?

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Review: Wordsmithy

Review: Wordsmithy

Laconic, punchy, pitch perfect, and one hell of a joy to read, Wilson has manufactured the formula for what it takes to be a great writer and shipped it to us on a silver plate.

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Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice

Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice

Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” remains one of the greatest talks in the TED catalog. Incisive and comprehensively applicable, the way he connects choice psychology to marketing, human welfare, and social policy is masterful.

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Scientists Create Artificial Jellyfish Using Rat Cells

Scientists Create Artificial Jellyfish Using Rat Cells

A team of Harvard scientists has reverse-engineered a jellyfish by using cells from a rat’s heart muscle, resulting in the world’s first synthetic jelly.

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