Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides an enlightening window into the history of global trade and human population movement through a perhaps surprising source: pepper genetics. The study bases its findings on a dataset of over 10,000 pepper (C. annuum) genomes collected […]
A Global History of Trade, As Told Through Peppers Read More »
3 bound copies of the Letters to the Future Project. Source: Letters to the future In our efforts to foster long-term thinking and preservation, we at Long Now do not typically think of single use plastic as an ally. Yet that’s precisely what the non-profit art project Letters to the future does, harnessing plastic’s lack
Letters to the Future Uses Plastic Waste To Send Lasting Messages Read More »
3 bound copies of the Letters to the Future Project. Source: Letters to the future In our efforts to foster long-term thinking and preservation, we at Long Now do not typically think of single use plastic as an ally. Yet that’s precisely what the non-profit art project Letters to the future does, harnessing plastic’s lack
Letters to the Future Uses Plastic Waste To Send Lasting Messages Read More »
Robot ethicist Kate Darling offers a nuanced and smart take on our relationships to robots and the increasing presence they will have in our lives. From a social, legal, and ethical perspective, she shows that our current ways of thinking don’t leave room for the robot technology that is soon to become part of our
Kate Darling – The New Breed: What Our Animal History Reveals For Our Robotic Future Read More »
As a society, how do we address the “wicked hard problem” of vaccine acceptance? How can public health institutions reach those who are hesitant when even robust fact-based campaigns don’t seem to work? Infectious diseases are one of the long-standing challenges for humanity; historical plagues and flare ups of disease have transformed societies, redrawn boundaries
Prerna Singh – State, Society & Vaccines Read More »
What is the role and purpose of Anthropology today? Wade Davis looks back at the pioneering work of Franz Boas in the early 20th century that upended long-held Western assumptions on race & gender, along with definitions of “social progress”. Boas and his students used comparative ethnography to advance “cultural relativism”– the idea that every
Wade Davis – Activist Anthropology Read More »
Forest Ecologist Suzanne Simard reveals that trees are part of a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground mycorrhizal networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities, and share and exchange resources and support. Simard’s extraordinary research and tenacious efforts to raise awareness on the interconnectedness of
Suzanne Simard – Mother Trees and the Social Forest Read More »
“It is Time” (02020) by Alicia Eggert in collaboration with David Moinina Sengeh. The neon sign was commissioned by TED and Fine Acts for TED Countdown, and driven around Dallas, Texas on October 10th, 02020 to generate action around climate change. Photo by Vision & Verve. I. Time The most commonly-used noun in the English
“It is Time” (02020) by Alicia Eggert in collaboration with David Moinina Sengeh. The neon sign was commissioned by TED and Fine Acts for TED Countdown, and driven around Dallas, Texas on October 10th, 02020 to generate action around climate change. Photo by Vision & Verve. I. Time The most commonly-used noun in the English
Tracing an arc from the earliest humans to our digitized, synthesized present and future – Adam Rogers shows the expansive human quest for the understanding, creation and use of color. We meet our ancestors mashing charcoal in caves, Silk Road merchants competing for the best ceramics, and textile artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of how
Adam Rogers – Full Spectrum: The Science of Color and Modern Human Perception Read More »
