TED Talks

No, not that bear with a bong. TED Talks are a series of talks that host special guests. They are individuals who are experts in their field of work. They attend such talks to share ideas or to inspire the World.

Just today, I was surfing the Art Science Museum's website to find out what are the recent events that they are holding and I stumbled across a TED event that's going to take place on the the 18th of March.

The 'Out Of This World' talk seems the most interesting to me because I noticed the panel of speakers are people who deal with space science. There is no program details of the event yet, but my best guess is that they will be touching on space-related subjects. I have already registered for a seating at the event. I will only know on the 10th of March if I am being selected to attend the talk. If you are interested, just click on the link below and register for a place.

Register @ http://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/ted-talks-screenings.html 

The speakers' profiles: https://conferences.ted.com/TED2015/program/guide.php

Nathalie Cabrol
Planetary explorer

To determine how life might persist on Mars, Nathalie Cabrol explores one of Earth’s most extreme environments: high-elevation Andean lakes and deserts.

While hunting for life in the fragile biomes of the Andes, Nathalie Cabrol has braved earthquakes, set a diving record and gathered data on the threats faced by mountain ecosystems in the face of climate change.

But Cabrol’s eyes are always fixed on Mars, which may have once had a climate similar to Earth’s mountain deserts. As a science team member for NASA, Cabrol helps design interplanetary experiments for the Martian Spirit rover, and researches new technologies for future missions to Mars and beyond.

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Alan Eustace
Stratospheric explorer

Alan Eustace leapt to Earth from the edge of the stratosphere wearing only a spacesuit, shattering skydiving records and potentially revolutionizing the commercial space industry.

On October 21, 2014, Google Senior Vice President of Knowledge Alan Eustace donned a custom-built, 400-pound spacesuit, was strapped to a weather balloon, and rose to a height of over 135,000 feet, where he dove to Earth at speeds exceeding 821 miles-per-hour -- breaking both the sound barrier and previous records for high-altitude jumps.

Leading up to this jump, Eustace and his partners in StratEx had spent years solving a key problem of stratosphere exploration: returning human beings to Earth from the edge of space using minimal life-support systems. In the process, they’ve opened the door to cheaper and safer near-space travel.

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Fred Jansen
Space explorer

As manager of the Rosetta mission, Fred Jansen is in charge of the project that could be instrumental in uncovering clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Fred Jansen manages the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, which guided a probe into orbit around a comet and dispatched a lander to its surface -- both firsts in space exploration. Although the lander Philae could not accomplish its full mission before going into hibernation, the data it’s already gathered will immeasurably multiply our knowledge of comets and their contributions to the ingredients of life on Earth.

In addition to his work with the Rosetta Mission, Jansen oversees the ESA’s XMM-Newton, an orbiting x-ray space observatory delving into the most elusive secrets of the universe, including black holes and dark matter.

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Stephen Petranek
Technology forecaster

Stephen Petranek untangles emerging technologies to predict which will become fixtures of our future lives -- and which could potentially save them.

Writer and technologist Stephen Petranek became a reluctant doomsayer when his earliest TED Talk (“10 ways the world could end”) racked up 1.5 million views. But Petranek is in fact an optimist who believes that humanity will escape its predicaments -- literally. Within a century, he predicts that humans will have established a city of 80,000  on Mars: and that not only is that plausible, but it’s also inevitable.

Petranek is the editor-in-chief of the Breakthrough Technology Report, a technology newsletter that ties scientific breakthroughs to investment opportunities. He's the author of the forthcoming TED Book How We'll Live on Mars.

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Sara Seager
Exoplanet expert

Sara Seager’s research led to the first discovery of an atmosphere on a planet outside our solar system. Now she’s on the hunt for a twin Earth.

Having helped pave the way for the current torrent of discoveries of planets outside of our solar system (or exoplanets), 2013  MacArthur Fellow Sara Seager is now preparing to fulfill her life dream of discovering a planet with nearly identical conditions to our own.

Seager’s present research and discovery mission projects include Earth-orbiting nanosatellite telescopes as well as the Starshade, a sunflower-shaped giant screen to block intrusive starlight, allowing a space telescope to zoom in on the small exoplanets that have thus far eluded our sight.

Edit* That was fast. I received an inivitation a day after I sent out a request.