Tag: john lloyd

TED talk notes #5, John Lloyd: What’s invisible? More than you think

Gravity is weakest and least understood of 4 fundamental forces (strong force, weak force, nuclear)

We can’t see consciousness

Sufi masters say they’re all telepaths

Initially we thought there were 100K genes, continually revised downward, now think only 20K genes
By contrast, rice has 38K genes (!)

Every cell in your body is replaced at some point, after 7 years they’ve all been replaced

We can’t SEE beam of light, only what it hits

Think there are 100B galaxies but we can only see 5

Thomas Edison: “we don’t know one percent of one millionth about anything”

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Full list of TED talk notes here.

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!