MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch at home, and do “homework” in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

“JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.”

I’m off to the TED2011 conference, which will be my 10th TED conference. I’ll be stopping by LA this weekend to meet up with some TEDsters, then in Palm Springs all of Sunday to meet with TEDx organizers, then Long Beach for a backstage peek, then back to Palm Springs the rest of the week. Let me know if your going, in LA, or follow me on twitter for updates. And yes, that is me on the back of a shared bike last year cruising around the resort during one of the session breaks with my friend Ash from Australia. Also follow the Facebook Fanpage for occasional quick updates.

Ads on the web are horrible. Marketing needs to change, and more importantly, the meaning needs to change and relate back to a user desire, versus a forced upon undesirable interrupting ad.

TED is launching a short project to solve this issue, or at least to understand it more. They got million of people to watch 18 minute ads about ideas worth spreading, so why not take on the challenge in making ads worth spreading… or bette yet, what is an ad in the web world… what should it be, a broadcast, an idea, a problem, a challenge, a solution, or something else.

Watch the video above and learn more about this project which you can participate in here.

While attending TEDmed2010 I had the amazing opportunity to touch and feel a living breathing lung! Watch the video above and wait for it to breath in! The machine (Vitrolife) keeping this lung alive has been used to save 30+ human lives in keeping organs alive while patients prepare allowing a much longer timespan from donation to transplantation. It’s quite amazing to touch and a life changing experience to realize how precious our bodies are. These lungs are incredibly soft, almost like a soft, warm, living gel… actually very much like a piece of fat.

This lung in particular is a pigs lung, but I’ll include a video of a human lung after the jump. Also I’ll share a picture of Martha Stewart taking a picture of this very lung I touched and the picture she tweeted out in her experience.

Human lung video after the jump, and matha stewart images:

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I’m off to San Diego for this years sold out TEDMED conference which I’ve never been to but I’ve heard so much about. If your are going, let me know, or let me know what else to look out for in San Diego. The line-up of speakers is quite amazing and several of their previous talks can be seen in their video archives which I’d highly recommend watching.

Follow me on twitter for some live updates during the conference.

“TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation — a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness. And for TED, it means the dawn of a whole new chapter …”

David Byrne (RISD drop out alumn) talks about how architecture helped music evolve. I relate this a lot to how your deskspace both digital and physical affect your creative work.

“In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning — creating conditions where kids’ natural talents can flourish.”

via TEDtalk

His talk from 2006 where I got to hang out with him quite a bit after the jump.

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I’ve been incredibly busy helping organize the TEDxCambridge event occurring May 16th at the MIT Stata Center. The theme “How do you eat”  is based off of this year TED prize winner Jamie Oliver in regards to Food and education. If you are in Boston May 16th, apply to get an invite and let me know. We can only invite 300 attendees and registration will close soon. You can learn more on tedxcambridge.com

Also, if you are in a position to sponsor any food, funding, or gifts for the event, please contact me asap. (now! =) ).
We will have 2 break sessions followed by an evening event in eating, drinking, and idea sharing!

Lots of awesome speakers in the line up!
- Wylie Dufresne: WD 50
- Chandler Burr: Times Scent critic
- Dan Ariely: Behavioral Economist
- Richard Chisolm: Filmmaker
- John Gertsen: Mixologist
-  many more!

update: Photos on flickr, via eddric(350),Tino(40), JB (60), millie(16)

By far my favorite talk at this years TED was cell biologist Mark Roth talk about Suspended Animation! Unbelievable! TEDsters were running around the bar asking for Hydrogen Sulfide after the talk.

“Mark Roth studies suspended animation: the art of shutting down life processes and then starting them up again. It’s wild stuff, but it’s not science fiction. Induced by careful use of an otherwise toxic gas, suspended animation can potentially help trauma and heart attack victims survive long enough to be treated.”

Watch the video above or here.