The first TED talk that I will review will be the talk by Jill Tarter named Join the SETI Search. It would not be true if I said that I learned a lot new information from her speech – I’ve known about the SETI beforehand and that it consists of an array of telescopes. Although it also would not be true to say that I learned nothing from this TED talk. The main goal of Jill Tarter’s speech was not to educate the broad audience about SETI's working mechanics; it was also not about explaining the recent findings (as there still are none). The principal intent of her speech was to as she says "change the perspective" of how we look upon our membership on this planet and in this universe. She was definitely very convincing about our place under the sun and in the galaxy. And to say, I totally agree with everything she said. She is very enthusiastic about the whole SETI program, however, in my opinion, it might not be a brilliant idea. If we recollect all that the speaker said (the distance, time delay, and the time which detectable technology exists), then the possibility of finding a trace of another intelligent civilization dim and eventually get vanishingly small.
The second Ted talk I want to review is the talk by Janine Benyus named Biomimicry in action. The first point that I would like to note is that speech is very different from the one described in the paragraph above. It does not expose you to something you already new under the different sauce, in contrast, it packs the audience with new information and ideas. Janine Benyus explained the ideas that I personally did not pay attention to prior to watching her talk. The way that she suggests we learn from nature is innovational but at the same time very conservative. Nature had billions of years to optimize all its tools for each specific task, and we should only find where to look and from where to copy. This approach to invention and design is revolutionary in some sense, and it will definitely improve the quality and longevity of our lives. The site aggregating all natural engineering solutions is another mind-blowing idea worth mentioning.
The third talk to review would be the speech by Bonnie Bassler with the talk named How bacteria talk. The topic she was exploring is very vast and has rather broad implications. The presence of other bacteria is easily known by both bacteria of the same particular species, and by the bacteria of all other different species. The way this phenomenon works is now known to us, and we are able to understand how do bacteria communicate with each other. Bonnie described the field of her scientific inquiry, and it appears that bacteria use the universal chemical language to coordinate themselves. Bacteria cannot do much as individuals, but as groups, they can accumulate enough quantity of a specific chemical so, that they can act together. This their property and the patterns used for communication make it able to assist the symbiotic bacteria in our bodies and promote harmful from attacking us.
Ecological Footprint
The burden that our native planet Earth is bearing is enormous. Using the ecological footprint calculator I've found that if everyone living on the Earth would live just like I lived than our civilization would need 2.9 Earths to sustain itself. Indeed, the rate at which we deplete resources is horrific. The ugly truth is that we do not have these extra planets to produce the resources. We have only one. And when it is exposed to such harsh usability regimen, many plant and animal species get endangered and can even disappear. So, in order to reduce our own ecological footprint, we should consume less products produced industrially – we have to ride cars less and walk and cycle more, we should produce less trash, and burn less coal. We should use energy and materials more efficiently and recycle our wastes. In short, we should minimize our disrupting influence on the environment and let it regenerate. In the long run, we should settle mutually beneficial relationships with the planet we live on, as well as with its other plant and animal inhabitants.
