Tag: andrew hessel

TED talk notes: did you know humans have fewer genes than rice? (talks from John Lloyd, Andrew Hessel, Robert Full)

Every week, I share my notes from great TED talks. Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s a long page).

Here are 3 sets of brief notes: producer John Lloyd on what’s invisible, researcher Andrew Hessel on synthetic viruses, and biologist Robert Full on the secrets of animal movement.

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What’s invisible? More than you think – John Lloyd

  • we can’t see gravity. it’s the weakest and least understood of our 4 fundamental forces
    • the other three are strong and weak, nuclear
    • me: interestingly gravity is the only one you “feel”
  • we can’t see consciousness
  • Sufi masters say they’re all telepaths
  • initially we thought there were 100K genes in the human genome, continually revised downward, now think only 20K genes
    • rice by comparison has 38K genes (!)
  • every cell in your body is replaced at some point, after 7 years all have been replaced
  • we can’t see beam of light, only what it hits
  • we think there are 100B galaxies but can only observe 5
    • me: one of may reasons why I think there MUST be alien life
  • Thomas Edison: “we don’t know one percent of one millionth about anything”

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Synthetic virology | Andrew Hessel | TEDxDanubia

  • the Pink Army Movement is the exact opposite of a traditional pharma company:
    • not broad-use drugs, but narrow-based
    • not closed, but open-source
    • not for-profit, but non-profit
  • an oncolytic virus is a weak virus that can’t takeover a healthy cell, but can takeover a cancerous cell (which is by definition weaker); the cancer cell then makes copies of the oncolytic virus, the cell dies, and the virus goes on to infect other cancer cells
  • the cost of synthetically printing DNA has been dropping dramatically
  • pharma is the opposite of Moore’s Law
    • me: what a16z jokingly calls eroom’s law (‘Moore’ spelled backward, because the costs of development have risen dramatically while # of approved drugs has fallen dramatically)

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Robert Full: Secrets of movement, from geckos and roaches

  • animals have an array of secrets to move faster, better, up walls, etc
  • gecko feet literally act like tape, they peel onto and away from surfaces, this is intermolecular forces alone (unlike ants whose feet have some of the behavioral properties but use a type of biological glue)
  • other animals have tiny hooks on their feet, like cockroaches, to get more traction
  • still others use their legs to act like a second/supporting foot, for more traction

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Here’s the full list of TED notes!

TED talk notes: Thomas Piketty on why the US is more unequal than Europe, and Andrew Hessel on making cancer fighting viruses

Every week, I share notes from some of my favorite TED talks. Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s just a continuous, single page).

Thomas Piketty: New thoughts on capital in the twenty-first century

  • in the long-run, r > g (return on capital is greater than the return on economic growth), which leads to income inequality
  • in the last century, Europe and US have flipped: the US is now much more unequal
  • there are many reasons for this, including unequal access to skills, fast rise in top incomes
  • wealth inequality is always a lot higher than income inequality
  • wealth inequality is still less extreme than 1900
  • with r > g, initial inequalities are amplified at faster pace
  • there is always some level of dynamism and change (e.g., large families, poor investment decisions)
  • for most of history r > g (g was mostly 0 in agrarian society)
  • r > 0 was necessary for eventual labor diversification and societal evolution
  • both r and g have risen over time
  • long-run g is about 1-2%, we’ve seen unusually high g (3-4%) in post-war 20th century
  • long-run r is about 4-5%
  • r-g delta is caused by technology, savings rate, other factors
  • r > g particularly strong for billionaires; there are scale effects (e.g., portfolio management, financial instruments, tax evasion and lawyers and accountants)
  • main suggestion: increased financial transparency
  • if he were to rewrite the book today, he’d actually conclude that US income inequality higher than he reported

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Andrew Hessel: Synthetic Virology

  • the Pink Army Movement is the exact opposite of a traditional pharma company:
    • focused not on broad, but narrow-based drugs
    • not a closed system, but open-source
    • not for-profit, but non-profit
  • an oncolytic virus is a weak virus that can’t takeover a healthy cell, but can takeover a cancerous cell (which is by definition weaker than a healthy cell); the cancer cell then makes copies of the oncolytic virus, the cancer cell dies and the virus goes on to infect other cancer cells
  • cost of synthetically printing DNA is dropping dramatically
  • pharma is the opposite of Moore’s Law, costs of development have risen dramatically while # of approved drugs has fallen dramatically (me: a16z  jokingly calls this eroom’s law)

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Here’s the complete list of TED notes