Yuval Noah Harari and Mustafa Suleyman discuss how we might have to grapple with the biggest technological revolution of our times. They debate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on our immediate futures, how the technology can be controlled, and whether it could ever have agency.
A visual and musical journey to the edge of our universe, visualizing the fabric of space-time in order to study its dynamics and different forms...
Can we, as adults, grow new neurons? Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret says that we can, and she offers research and practical advice on how we can help our brains better perform neurogenesis—improving mood, increasing memory formation and preventing the decline associated with aging along the way.
The three body problem is famous for being impossible to solve. But actually it's been solved many times, and in ingenious ways. Some of those solutions are incredibly useful, and some are incredibly bizarre.
With unprecedented heat waves and record-breaking global temperatures, it’s hard to believe that there might be a place on earth that has actually COOLED since the industrial revolution. But, it turns out, there is such a spot. The cold blob off of Greenland mystified scientists for years, but new studies have uncovered a scary reality - this cool patch might be a warning of the impending collapse of a vital earth circulation system. And the consequences would be dire.
Once Columbus’s crown jewel for its urban architecture renaissance, Union Station was demolished to make room for a new convention center.
A judge ordered a last-minute halt of demolition, but not before nearly the entire site was demolished, except for one remaining arch. That arch now sites on Nationwide Boulevard in Columbus’s Arena District.
New questions arise about Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jet, prompting the update of an award-winning investigation into the design, oversight and production of a plane that was involved in two crashes that killed 346 people.
China is undergoing its largest public construction project in history, in order to transfer water from the water-rich southern regions of China to the drier, more populous regions of northern China, including Beijing and Tianjin.
From ancient seas to fertile soils, evolutionary biologist Shane Campbell-Staton explores the remarkable journey that transformed the Cretaceous coastline into the fertile “Black Belt” region of the American South. He joins oceanographer Craig McClain, professor Sven Beckert, and geneticist Steven Micheletti to learn how millions of years of deposits shaped the events of Black American history.
Is it possible to invent a computer that computes anything in a flash? Or could some problems stump even the most powerful of computers? How complex is too complex for computation? The question of how hard a problem is to solve lies at the heart of an important field of computer science called computational complexity.
Computational complexity theorists want to know which problems are practically solvable using clever algorithms and which problems are truly difficult, maybe even virtually impossible, for computers to crack. This hardness is central to what’s called the P versus NP problem, one of the most difficult and important questions in all of math and science.
This video covers a wide range of topics including: the history of computer science, how transistor-based electronic computers solve problems using Boolean logical operations and algorithms, what is a Turing Machine, the different classes of problems, circuit complexity, and the emerging field of meta-complexity, where researchers study the self-referential nature of complexity questions.
What is a genome, and how are traits passed from generation to generation? Learn how pea plants helped launch the study of genetics and how the field of genetics research has evolved over time.
Music theory is white. According to the Society for Music Theory’s “Annual Report on Membership Demographics” for 2018, 84.2% of the society’s membership is white, 90.4% of all full-time employees in music theory are white, and 93.9% of associate and full professors in music theory are white.
Aside from this literal version, there exists a figurative and even more deep-seated whiteness in music theory. This is the whiteness—which manifests itself in the composers we choose to represent our field inside and outside of the classroom, and in the music theorists that we elevate to the top of our discipline—that one must practice, regardless of one’s own personal racial identity, in order to call oneself a music theorist.
Virtually every transaction comes with an intermediary involved. Using a technology called blockchain, Bitcoin was the first prominent cryptocurrency that could operate without a financial intermediary. The future technology of the blockchain will enable a wide range of peer-to-peer applications without intermediaries.
Smart grid introduces a two-way dialogue where electricity and information can be exchanged between the utility and its customers. It's a developing network of communications, controls, computers, automation, new technologies and tools working together to make the grid more efficient, more reliable, more secure and greener.
This smart grid enables integration of newer technologies such as wind and solar energy production and plug-in electric vehicle charging. With the participation of informed consumers, this smart grid will replace the aging infrastructure of today's grid, and utilities can better communicate with consumers to help manage electricity needs.
Educator and entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun wants us to use artificial intelligence (AI) to free humanity of repetitive work and unleash our creativity.
In an inspiring, informative conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Thrun discusses the progress of deep learning, why we shouldn't fear runaway AI, and how society will be better off if dull, tedious work is done with the help of machines.
"Only one percent of interesting things have been invented yet," Thrun says. "I believe all of us are insanely creative... [AI] will empower us to turn creativity into action."
On 5 December 2022, a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it.
This historic, first-of-its kind achievement will provide unprecedented capability to support NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy, which would be a game-changer for efforts to achieve President Biden’s goal of a net-zero carbon economy.
Application programming interfaces (API) are used all the time in programming and web development, so it is important to understand how to use them.
Acquire hands-on experience with a few popular web API’s. As long as you know the absolute basics of coding and the web, you'll have no problem following along.
In this demonstration, speech is made to be heard as song, and this is achieved without transforming the sounds in any way, or by adding any musical context, but simply by repeating a phrase several times over.
Analysis of Celine Dion’s “All By Myself,” which features an incredible key change from G major to Cb major. How does the structure and composition of this song feed into its powerful narrative role?
The Fourier series is a way of portraying any function as the sum of a bunch of sine waves of varying magnitude. Put another way, it is a manner of drawing with circles.
MATLAB is a programming platform designed to analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications, using the MATLAB language, a matrix-based language allowing natural expression and computation of mathematical functions.
The language, apps, and built-in math functions enable you to quickly explore multiple approaches to arrive at a solution. MATLAB lets you take your ideas from research to production by deploying to enterprise applications and embedded devices, as well as integrating with Simulink® and Model-Based Design.
Calculus is the study of how things change, typically over time.
About the Instructor:
Herb Gross has taught math as senior lecturer at MIT and was the founding math department chair at Bunker Hill Community College. He is the developer of the Mathematics As A Second Language website, providing arithmetic and algebra materials to elementary and middle school teachers.
Hans Zimmer talks about scoring movies with a computer and piano keyboard.