10 Coolest Science TED talks

TED talks is all about inspiring people. And one thing it has, is a whole collection of interesting and mind-blowing science talks. Here are some of my personal all-time favourites:



1. Markus Fischer: A robot that flies like a bird


This is one of my all-time favourites. Seldom has a robot made my hair stand on end. A traditional robot is a big, clumsy, heavy metallic frame with a bundle of wires. It might have a head with shiny eyes, and four limbs that squeak as they move in breaks. Fischer breaks all these stigmas about a robot, and shows a robot that flaps its soft wings and soars through the air in the auditorium, just like a real bird. Talk about technology advancement.



2. David Blaine: How I held my breathe for 17 minutes

Blaine is one of the few magicians whom I can never quite figure out how he does what he does. Not only how he does his magic, but WHY he actually attempts some of the craziest death-defying stunts ever! Besides getting frozen alive, buried alive and drowned alive, Blaine held his breathe for 17 minutes in 2008 on Oprah's show. In this highly personal talk, Blaine described how he prepared for this record-breaking stunt (in a scientific manner), as well as the many close shaves with death he experienced during the process.




3. Keith Barry: Brain magic

Human brain hacker shows how the human mind can be easily deceived by making use of its loopholes - even on podcast! He calls himself a technologist, a software engineer of the human brain. And a really good one at that.



4. Brian Greene: Making sense of string theory

String theorist Greene takes an extremely complicated theory, and makes it simple enough for the layman to understand. Awesome usage of visual tools to help the audience visualize the 11 dimensions around us that we cannot usually see.




5. Adam Savage: How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries

Using famous examples in history such as Richard Feynman and Eratosthenes and Armand Fizeau, Savage explains how the simplest questions and simplest tools could bring you right to the edge of scientific discoveries. These people saw the same things, but were just a little bit more curious, and thought a little bit harder. My favorite quote from the talk - People often think of science as a closed black box, when it is actually an open field. We are all explorers!



6. Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

Through a few interesting optical illusions - Lotto explains how our eyes and brain actually interact. How we view things do not only depend on our eye sight, but also how our brain perceives what we see.




7. Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to birth - visualized

Be fascinated when you see science at work. Not at the level that we usually see, but at a microscopic level, or at a time frame slowed down by 1000 times, or accelerated by 10,000 times. Not that we need to modify nature to make it beautiful, but it is our human perception that limits how we perceive beauty, and image maker Tsiaras does this beautifully with regards to the birth of a human life.



8. Stephen Hawking: Questioning the universe

Famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking asks some BIG questions about the universe - how did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we (humans) alone? What will the future be like? Professor Hawking gives some suggestions as to how we can answer these questions and some warnings, complete with humor and humbleness.

9. David Gallo: Underwater astonishments

In a short 5 minute talk, Gallo shows amazing pictures of underwater creatures that we don't normally get to see in our everyday life (unless if you're an underwater explorer or a fish, that is). Watch out for the male cuttlefish that gets aggressive in the presence of other male cuttlefish, but shows only the gentle side to the female.



10. Fabian Oefner: Psychedelic science

What happens when you merge Science and Art? Not as odd a pair if you think about it - nature is beautiful. Oefner's mission is to bring out the most psychedelic images of Science. The best part is the live demo. Remember to breathe when you watch this. It will also bring a smile to you face, I assure you, as you realize the beauty that is constantly surrounding us. God's creations.

111 Motivational Science Quotes!

1. "Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science." Edwin Powell Hubble
2. "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science." Albert Einstein
3. "Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence" Louis Pasteur
4. "Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality." Albert Einstein
5. "Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." Emmanuel Kant
   
6. "The science of today is the technology of tomorrow." Edward Teller
7. "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." Albert Einstein
8. "Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition" Adam Smith
9. "Science grows like a weed every year" Kerry Mullis
10. "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."  Albert Einstein
11. "Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination" John Dewey
12. "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" Albert Einstein
13. "We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth" Kenneth R Miller
14. "A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God." Alan Perlis
15. "To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science." Isaac Newton
16. "Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science" Robert Green Ingersoll
17. "Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character." Albert Einstein
    
18. "Art is I; Science is we" Claude Bernard
19. "Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge" Stephen Hawking
20. "For the rest of my life I will reflect on what light is." Albert Einstein
21. "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" Carl Sagan
22. "The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day" Albert Einstein
23. "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science" Albert Einstein, in "The World as I See It"
24. "The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." Neil deGrasse Tyson 
25. "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." Albert Einstein
26. "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality" Carl Sagan in "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" 
27. "It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure" Albert Einstein
28. "It is strange that only extraordinary men make the discoveries, which later appear so easy and simple." Georg Lichtenberg
29. "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."  Albert Einstein
30. "No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer." Thomas Browne
31. "Science does not know its debt to imagination." Ralph Waldo Emerson
32. "The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them." William Lawrence Bragg
33. "A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation." Max Gluckman,
34. "One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet is the most precious thing we have." Albert Einstein
35. "Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science." Ralph Waldo Emerson
36. "Physics is imagination in a straight jacket." John Moffat
37. "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." Paul Dirac
38. "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it." Albert Einstein
39. "The greatest discoveries of science have always been those that forced us to rethink our beliefs about the universe and our place in it." Robert L. Park
40. "I believe that a scientist looking at non scientific problems, is just as dumb as the next guy." Richard Feynman
41. "The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music." Lewis Thomas
42. "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." Wernher Von Braun
43. "Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers." Sir Arthur Eddington
44. "Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind." Marston Bates
45. "The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions." Claude Lévi-Strauss
46. "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." Harrison Ford
47. "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." Alex Jason  
48. "In comparing religious belief to science, I try to remember that science is belief also." Robert Brault
49. "A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory." Albert Einstein
50. "For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses." Robert M. Pirsig
51. "Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue." Robert K. Merton
52. "Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated."  George Santayana
53. "The whole history of physics proves that a new discovery is quite likely lurking at the next decimal place." F.K. Richtmeyer
54. "The quantum is that embarrassing little piece of thread that always hangs from the sweater of space-time. Pull it and the whole thing unravels." Fred Alan Wolfe
55. "There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance." Hippocrates
56. "The doubter is a true man of science; he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science." Claude Bernard
57. "In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself — nature does it for you." Frank Wilczek
58. "Science without conscience is the soul's perdition." François Rabelais
59. "Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without prood."  Ashley Montague
60. "Quantum physics makes me so happy—it's like looking at the universe naked." Sheldon Cooper
61. "Science is the record of dead religions." Oscar Wilde
62. "As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly significant."  Albert Einstein
63. "I don't care how you get potassium out of kelp; I want to know how kelp gets potassium out of the sea." Willis R. Whitney
64. "Physics is geometric proof on steroids." S.A. Sachs
65. "God does not play dice with the universe." Albert Einstein
66. "Ethics and Science need to shake hands." Richard Clarke Cabot
67. "Science is all those things which are confirmed to such a degree that it would be unreasonable to withhold one's provisional consent." Stephen Jay Gould
68. "Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by the air. Facts are the air of science. Without them a man of science can never rise."  Ivan Pavlov
69. "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." Albert Einstein
70. "Life preys upon life. This is biology's most fundamental fact." Martin H. Fischer 
71. "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute—and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity." Albert Einstein
72. "But the great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact — which is so constantly being enacted under the eyes of philosophers..." T.H. Huxley
73. "DNA was the first three-dimensional Xerox machine." Kenneth Boulding
74. "That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on your way to the pertinent answer." Jacob Bronowski
75. "In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last." Hugh Walpole
76. "I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God." Abraham Lincoln
77. "Science is simply common sense at its best." Thomas Huxley
78. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Carl Sagan
79. "Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry." John Dewey
80. "It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young."  Konrad Lorenz
81. "Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor." Oliver Wendell Holmes
82. "Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought." Albert Einstein
83. "He whose science exceedeth his sense, perisheth by his ignorance." Old saying
84. "I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them." Karl Friedrich Gauss
85. "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."  Max Planck
86. "Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of carbon compounds that crawl." Mike Adams
87. "Governments are trying to achieve unanimity by stifling any scientist who disagrees. Einstein could not have got funding under the present system." Nigel Calder
88. "The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment." Celia Green
89. "When gravity calls, something falls" J.L.W. Brooks
90. "The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers." Lewis Thomas
91. "Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art." Will Durant
92. "Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them." Abraham Flexner
93. "The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don’t know why or how."  Albert Einstein
94. "Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more." George Bernard Shaw
95. "There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science." Anton Chekhov
96. "There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science." Louis Pasteur
97. "But in science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs." Francis Darwin
98. "The difference between the amoeba and Einstein is that, although both make use of the method of trial and error elimination, the amoeba dislikes erring while Einstein is intrigued by it." Karl Raimund Popper
99. "It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher." Charles Peirce
100. "I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician; he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale." Marie Curie
101. "The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself." Gerard Piel
102. "An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer." Max Planck
103. "Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money." Leon Lederman
104. "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious—the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." Albert Einstein
105. "My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, "So? Did you learn anything today?" But not my mother. "Izzy," she would say, "did you ask a good question today?" That difference — asking good questions — made me become a scientist." Isidor Isaac Rabi
106. "We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always a chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity." Marie Curie
107. "We learn geology the morning after the earthquake." Ralph Waldo Emerson
108. "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." Albert Einstein
109. "The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems." G.W. Allport
110. "There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain
111. "I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess." Walt Whitman

Career in Science - What they don't tell you in advance

There are many things I wish I knew early in my career in Science. I thank God for a few good mentors who did teach me along the way, but the earlier the better, so some things do not need to be learnt the hard way. A few words of advice:

1. You need perseverance - lots of it. You do experiments all day, and over 90% of it will fail. And even when experiments do work out and you have a nice story to tell, 90% of your journal submissions will fail the first time round. Talk about being critical about our science. And it doesn't stop there. The success rate of NIH grant applications is <20%, and that includes competitors from the largest and most famous labs out there. 
2. Do not be afraid of the unknown. Because you will be uncovering the unknown. That's exactly what science is about!
3. Be bold. Dare to ask. Having a PhD doesn't mean you should be expected to know everything. In fact, you could possibly know the least since you have spent the bulk of your life studying a single problem. Don't be embarrassed to ask question. 
4. Rejection is an ever present companion in science. Says Andrew Hendry in a recent interview by Nature Journal (Nature 2015. 523, 381-382)
5. You will not earn big bucks. At least, most people won't. Unless if you win a Nobel Prize, or if your work spins off into a very successful startup. 
6. You will forever be learning. Science is not about obtaining a PhD, then becoming the master of all things. The PhD is but the start of everything that you're going to learn. It is probably just an indication that you can think independently, and have spent enough years living off your family / spouse. In Science, the field changes rapidly, knowledge is constantly being created. and different fields are converging and diverging. You'll always need to work hard to keep abreast of all related work, and even more to learn about other fields of science that could be the key to bringing your science to the next level. 
7. Diversify your learning. No one told me that mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering would be useful to a biologist. Or maybe more than useful - essential. Had I known that earlier, I would have allowed my inquisitive self to take more undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, which I happened to excel more than in biology. 

On hindsight, although I wish I knew these things earlier, I wouldn't have wanted to know them before I started my career in Science. Knowing these would have deterred me from doing Science! And I must say, despite its challenges, I love being a Scientist :)