TED -- Technology, Entertainment, and Design

If you are not aware of the TED organization, its annual awards (the TED Prizes), and its astonishingly informative website, we recommend that you visit the site at your earliest possible convenience.  We'll wait.

TED: Ideas Worth Sharing

See! We told you so.


Latest find: Bonnie Bassler's lab at Princeton is discovering how bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.

TED talks linked to / referenced by this site.



About the TED Prizes:
The TED Prize winners are identified and their wishes described at the Ted Prize page. For a quick idea of what you'll find there, we provide a list of the current (2009) winners, and (progressively) those from previous years.

The TED Prize winners by year:

2009
Jose Abreu Venezuelan pianist, economist, educator, activist, and politician. I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.
Sylvia Earle Oceanographer and the world's best-known woman marine scientist. I wish you would use all means at your disposal -- films! expeditions! the web! more! -- to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.
Jill Tarter American astronomer and the current director of the Center for SETI Research. I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.
2008
Dave Eggers Author, philanthropist and literary entrepreneur I wish that you — you personally and every creative individual and organization you know — will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area, and that you’ll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of innovative public-private partnerships.
Karen Armstrong Authority on comparative religions I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.
Neil Turok Cosmologist and education activist My wish is that you help us unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa, so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein.

Updated:  2009 Apr 10