How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries

TED
I know of no other single online source that offers more educational videos of superior quality than does TED, a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

To learn more about TED, please click here.

How about a sample?

During one of TED’s most popular programs, Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed — Eratosthenes’ calculation of the Earth’s circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau’s measurement of the speed of light in 1849. Find more TED-Ed videos on our new YouTube channel by clicking here.

The host of MythBusters on the Discovery Channel, he is a longtime special-effects artist and a minor obsessive. As his official MythBusters bio puts it, “Adam Savage has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what’s in his brain and make it real.” He worked as a special-effects artist, fabricator, modelmaker and general dreamer-upper for a decade and a half, working on films such as Galaxy Quest and the Matrix sequels, as well as Episodes I and II of the Star Wars series.

In 2002, he and his fellow movie-industry veteran Jamie Hyneman became the hosts of MythBusters, a Discovery Channel show that puts urban myths and rules of thumb to test in visceral, often hilarious ways. Behind the sheer awesomeness of their rocket cars and flaming projectiles, the MythBusters are a force for science education.

Please click here to watch Adam’s program.

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