TED 2011: Anthony Atala Prints Organs

Score: 9 balloons

This was the most fascinating technology demo of TED. Dr. Atala uses a 3D printer (which is already awesome cool in itself) to lay down layers of stem cells in order to create organs for transplant. The unit he brought with him printed out a kidney!

Now the kidney he showed us doesn't yet work. For that step he'll have to hire someone like TED Fellow Nina Tandon, a Columbia University researcher who shared her progress in using electrical current to activate stem cells (e.g. she can make heart cells start beating).



 See the Guide to TED Talks 2011.

TED 2011: Wael Ghonim, Egyptian Activist

Score: 10 balloons

This rabble-rousing Googler hero shares his inspiring first-hand account of the Egyptian revolution. Wael delivered his TED Talk from Cairo, where one of 70 TEDx groups participated virtually in this year’s conference.


See the Guide to TED Talks 2011.

TED 2011: Wadah Khanfar, Director General of Al Jazeera

This review was written by Nina Khosla.

Score: 9 balloons



Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, seemed to be a polarizing talk - many believed that his perspective was illuminating and Al Jazeera had played a crucial role in the extraordinary events taking place in the Middle East; and many others that the talk was a token attempt by TED to incorporate something, anything, about these world-changing events, and that the role of Al Jazeera was not particularly central to precipitating the occasion.

I personally fall somewhere in the middle: was Al Jazeera the thing that sparked a thousand revolutions? Absolutely not. Still, Al Jazeera sat with the cameras on, and embraced a new generation that, as Khanfar emphasized multiple times, effused a new set of "global values." According to Khanfar, this new generation created these revolutions, and sculpted a new view of the world to inspire their countrymen. Khanfar seemed to be enthralled with the word "connected," but not in the way we find ourselves captivated by this word in the west. This is a society that needs to present this new view of the world so that individuals can understand that they are not alone, but part of a movement of others embracing a new view of society. Al Jazeera took this and captured it on camera, sharing and perpetuating this view.



 See the Guide to TED Talks 2011.

JR, Winner of the 2011 TED Prize

Score: 6 balloons

This year TED awarded its prize to JR, a unique kind of street artist. I have never understood how TED selects its winners (Karen Armstrong? Jamie Oliver?) and JR is no exception. What about those speakers who are eradicating polio, malaria and slavery? But based on the standing ovation and web site comments, the TED community found him to be "courageous and inspiring". So I will defer to TED.com's description of JR:

JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.

 See the Guide to TED Talks 2011.

Your Guide to TED Talks 2011

I had the great fortune this week to attend my fifth TED Conference in Long Beach, along with Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Demi Moore, Al Gore, Jason Mraz, Mark Pincus, and too many other fabulous TEDsters.

As in prior years, I've compiled a resource to help you select which TED Talks to watch online. The main-stage talks -- which I've classified below -- will link to my reviews and to the videos as they become available throughout March. Each TED Talk has been rated on a 1-to-10 scale by a panel that includes me, my sister Jill, and Nina Khosla, an 8-year TEDster and blogger who graciously reviewed the Tuesday sessions that I missed. Nina co-founded Teethie, an online community platform set to launch this summer.

The 2011 speaker lineup lived up to prior years. You can never tell beforehand which ones will be the classics; this year the standouts turned out to be General Stanley McChrystal, dinosaur hunter Jack Horner, transplant surgeon Anthony Atala, Slate columnist Kathryn Schulz, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, poet Sarah Kay, Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim, and fourth grade teacher John Hunter.

Invention

  9   Anthony Atala, printing organs

  9   Deb Roy, 24/7 home movies

  8   Aaron O’Connell, human scale quantum mechanics

  6   Fiorenzo Omenetto, cool uses of silk

Directed Evolution

  9   Jack Horner on making a dinosaur

  8   Harvey Fineberg, Neo-evolution

  7   Eythor Bender, human exo-skeletons

Cognition

How we think

10   Kathryn Shulz, Being Wrong

  8   David Brooks, Emotion precedes reason

  8   Ed Boyden, Illuminating the brain

  7   Antonio Damasio, Cognition of Self

  4   Daniel Temmet, autistic cognition

Revolution
How information networks are transforming military conflicts in the Arab world.

10   Wael Ghonim, Egyptian activist
10   General Stanley McChrystal on leadership
  9   Wadah Khanfar, Director General of Al Jazeera
  5   Ralph Langner, Stuxnet cyberworm

Education
Creating more engaging curricula for the diversity of kids in our schools.

10   John Hunter on World Peace, and other 4th Grade Achievements
  8   Salman Khan on Khan Academy

Smart Cars and Roads
The future of mobility

  9   Sebastian Thrun, Google's driverless cars

  8   Bill Ford, the future of mobility

  7   Dennis Hong, driving blind

Deciphering the Past

  8   Rajesh Rao, Cracking the Indus code
  7   David Christian, history of entropy
  6   Edward Tenner, unintended consequences

Discovering New Life Forms

  8   Edith Widder, bio-illuminescence
  8   Felisa Wolfe-Simon, arsenic-based life forms

Shameless Promotion

10   Morgan Spurlock, Best TED Talk Ever Sold
  3   Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi
  2   Christina Lampe-Onnerud, modular batteries

Performance Artists

10   Jason Mraz
  9   Bobby McFerrin
  9   Sarah Kay, poet
  7   Julie Taymour, designs musicals like Spiderman
  6   Handspring Puppet Company
  3   Maya Beiser cellist
  2   Antony, vocalist

Social Art

  9   Paul Nicklen, Arctic photographer
  8   Thomas Heatherwick, large scale artist
  7   Shea Hembrey, artist
  6   JR, TED Prize Winner
  5   Eric Whitacre, virtual chorus
  5   Sunni Brown, gamestormer
  4   Kate Hartman, funny hats
  4   Janet Echelman, fishnet sculptures
  3   Beatrice Coron, papercutter

Other

  9   Roger Ebert, finding his voice
  8   Al Weiwei, Chinese activisit
  7   Eli Parisi, the internet echo chamber
  6   Amina Az-Zubair, fixing Nigeria
  6   Janna Levin, black hole physicist
  5   Bruce Aylward, eradicating Polio


<-- TED2010