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TED Theme: Tales of Invention

TED has always loved a good creation story. No matter the scale -- kitchen, continent, or solar system -- invention grants us access to the frontiers of our understanding. Legendary designer Philippe Starck's lively ruminations on his own creative process suggest how the patterns of ...

TED has always loved a good creation story. No matter the scale -- kitchen, continent, or solar system -- invention grants us access to the frontiers of our understanding. Legendary designer Philippe Starck's lively ruminations on his own creative process suggest how the patterns of a civilization might affect, say, the design of a citrus juicer. Jan Chipchase investigates the worldwide impact of mobile phones -- and the impact of culture on next-generation mobile technology. Explorer and adventurer Bill Stone, meanwhile, fires up a rapt audience with his ambitious plan to harvest energy from the moon. Copyright lawyer Larry Lessig gives a brief history of creative freedom and copyright, and talks about how contemporary copyright law could strangle future artistic invention and interpretation. William Kamkwamba tells how he built a windmill from scrap metal when he was 14 years old. And Amy Smith shares her transformative low-tech tools for saving life in the developing world.

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    Joshua Klein: A thought experiment on the intelligence of crows

    Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice ...

    Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he's come up with an elegant thought experiment: a machine that could form a new bond between animal and human.

    May 13, 2008 Read more
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    Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world

    Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can ...

    Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses.

    May 6, 2008 Read more
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    Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide?

    Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking ...

    Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved.

    Apr 22, 2008 Read more
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    Yochai Benkler: The new open-source economics

    Yochai Benkler explains how collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux ...

    Yochai Benkler explains how collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux represent the next stage of human organization.

    Apr 16, 2008 Read more
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    Tod Machover + Dan Ellsey: Inventing instruments that unlock new music

    Tod Machover of MIT's Media Lab is devoted to extending ...

    Tod Machover of MIT's Media Lab is devoted to extending musical expression to everyone, from virtuosos to amateurs, and in the most diverse forms, from opera to video games. He and composer Dan Ellsey shed light on what's next.

    Apr 15, 2008 Read more
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    Johnny Lee: Free or cheap Wii Remote hacks

    Building sophisticated educational tools out of cheap parts, Johnny Lee ...

    Building sophisticated educational tools out of cheap parts, Johnny Lee demos his cool Wii Remote hacks, which turn the $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer.

    Apr 11, 2008 Read more
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    David Hoffman: Sputnik mania

    Filmmaker David Hoffman shares footage from his feature-length documentary Sputnik ...

    Filmmaker David Hoffman shares footage from his feature-length documentary Sputnik Mania, which shows how the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to both the space race and the arms race -- and jump-started science and math education around the world.

    Apr 2, 2008 Read more
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    Frank Gehry: My days as a young rebel

    Before he was a legend, architect Frank Gehry takes a ...

    Before he was a legend, architect Frank Gehry takes a whistlestop tour of his early work, from his house in Venice Beach to the American Center in Paris, which was under construction (and much on his mind) when he gave this talk.

    Mar 13, 2008 Read more
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    Craig Venter: On the verge of creating synthetic life

    "Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" ...

    "Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" Craig Venter asks. His answer is "yes" -- and pretty soon. He walks through his latest research and promises that we'll soon be able to build and boot up a synthetic chromosome.

    Mar 6, 2008 Read more
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    Alan Kay: A powerful idea about ideas

    With all the intensity and brilliance for which he is ...

    With all the intensity and brilliance for which he is known, Alan Kay envisions better techniques for teaching kids by using computers to illustrate experience in ways -– mathematically and scientifically -- that only computers can.

    Mar 4, 2008 Read more
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