TEDTalks Science et médecine

Biologist Dan Gibson edits and programs DNA, just like coders program a computer. But his "code" creates life, giving scientists the power to convert digital information into biological material like proteins and vaccines. Now he's on to a new project: "biological transportation," which holds the promise of beaming new medicines across the globe over the internet. Learn more about how this technology could change the way we respond to disease outbreaks and enable us to download personalized prescriptions in our homes.

Il y a cent mille milliards de microbes environ qui vivent dans votre estomac et qui vous protègent des infections, qui aident la digestion et régulent votre système immunitaire. Cependant, au fur et à mesure que nos corps se sont adaptés à la vie dans la société moderne, nous avons commencé à perdre certains de nos microbes habituels. En même temps, certaines maladies liées à la perte de diversité dans les intestins montent en flèche dans les pays développés. Le microbiologiste informatique Dan Knights partage certaines découvertes intrigantes sur les différences entre les microbiotes des personnes dans des pays en développement comparés avec les États-Unis et comment elles peuvent affecter notre santé. Apprenez-en davantage sur le monde des microbes qui vivent en vous et sur le travail qui est fait afin de créer des outils pour les restaurer et les reconstituer.

Our planet has a carbon problem -- if we don't start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, we'll grow hotter, faster. Chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox previews some amazing technology to scrub carbon from the air, using chemical reactions that capture and reuse CO2 in much the same way trees do ... but at a vast scale. This detailed talk reviews both the promise and the pitfalls.

Navigating territorial hippos and active minefields, TED Fellow Steve Boyes and a team of scientists have been traveling through the Okavango Delta, Africa's largest remaining wetland wilderness, to explore and protect this near-pristine habitat against the rising threat of development. In this awe-inspiring talk packed with images, he shares his work doing detailed scientific surveys in the hopes of protecting this enormous, fragile wilderness.

Oceanographer Penny Chisholm introduces us to an amazing little being: Prochlorococcus, the most abundant photosynthetic species on the planet. A marine microbe that has existed for millions of years, Prochlorococcus wasn't discovered until the mid-1980s -- but its ancient genetic code may hold clues to how we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

In October 2017, astrobiologist Karen J. Meech got the call every astronomer waits for: NASA had spotted the very first visitor from another star system. The interstellar comet -- a half-mile-long object eventually named `Oumuamua, from the Hawaiian for "scout" or "messenger" -- raised intriguing questions: Was it a chunk of rocky debris from a new star system, shredded material from a supernova explosion, evidence of alien technology or something else altogether? In this riveting talk, Meech tells the story of how her team raced against the clock to find answers about this unexpected gift from afar.

Dans cette observation fascinante des « mâles alpha », le primatologue Frans de Waal explore les avantages et les inconvénients de leur puissance en établissant des parallèles surprenants entre la façon qu'on les humains de choisir leurs leaders et celle des primates. Ses recherches révèlent certaines des capacités inattendues des mâles alpha - la générosité, l'empathie, même le maintien de la paix - et éclaire les luttes de pouvoir entre les politiciens humains. « Quelqu'un qui est grand , fort, qui intimide et insulte tout le monde n'est pas forcément un mâle alpha, » dit de Waal.

Did humans evolve from monkeys or from fish? In this enlightening talk, ichthyologist and TED Fellow Prosanta Chakrabarty dispels some hardwired myths about evolution, encouraging us to remember that we're a small part of a complex, four-billion-year process -- and not the end of the line. "We're not the goal of evolution," Chakrabarty says. "Think of us all as young leaves on this ancient and gigantic tree of life -- connected by invisible branches not just to each other, but to our extinct relatives and our evolutionary ancestors."

Dans cette conversation imaginative, l'ingénieur en neurologie Sam Rodriques nous emmène dans une visite guidée palpitante des 100 prochaines années de la neurologie. Il prévoit des innovations étranges (et parfois effrayantes) qui pourraient être la clé pour comprendre et traiter les maladies du cerveau -- comme des lasers capables de percer de minuscules trous dans nos crânes afin d'étudier l'activité électrique de nos neurones.

In her brutally honest, ironically funny and widely read meditation on death, "You May Want to Marry My Husband," the late author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal gave her husband Jason very public permission to move on and find happiness. A year after her death, Jason offers candid insights on the often excruciating process of moving through and with loss -- as well as some quiet wisdom for anyone else experiencing life-changing grief.