A game to map the brain: Amy Robinson at TEDxNijmegen

The next great leap in neuroscience may require a full, detailed map of the human brain. But it can take a researcher up to 50 hours to map just one neuron — and there are around 80 billion neurons in every brain. The solution? The crowd. In this exciting talk, Amy Robinson demos EyeWire, a game that gives ordinary people the chance to participate in this new kind of cartography. (Filmed at TEDxNijmegen)

Each week, we choose four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Browse all TEDxTalks here »

kqedscience: Teen Develops Computer Algorithm to Diagnose Leukemia “Brittany Wenger isn’t your average high-school senior: She taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia. The 18-year-old student from Sarasota, Fla. built a custom, cloud-based “artificial neural network” to find patterns in genetic expression profiles to diagnose patients with an aggressive form of cancer called mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL). Simply put, this means Wenger taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia by creating a diagnostic tool for doctors to use.” Brittany is also a TEDx speaker! She spoke at TEDxCERN this May, and TEDxWomen in 2012.See our coverage of TEDxCERN here, and — below — watch Brittany’s TEDxWomen talk about Cloud4Cancer, a computer program she designed to diagnose breast cancer more accurately and less invasively.

kqedscience:

Teen Develops Computer Algorithm to Diagnose Leukemia

“Brittany Wenger isn’t your average high-school senior: She taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia.

The 18-year-old student from Sarasota, Fla. built a custom, cloud-based “artificial neural network” to find patterns in genetic expression profiles to diagnose patients with an aggressive form of cancer called mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL). Simply put, this means Wenger taught the computer how to diagnose leukemia by creating a diagnostic tool for doctors to use.”

Brittany is also a TEDx speaker! She spoke at TEDxCERN this May, and TEDxWomen in 2012.

See our coverage of TEDxCERN here, and — below — watch Brittany’s TEDxWomen talk about Cloud4Cancer, a computer program she designed to diagnose breast cancer more accurately and less invasively.

kqedscience

What are wild animals up to?: Nick Whitney

If you want to study true animal behavior, you ultimately have to watch them where they live, which can difficult underwater. By strapping accelerometers to wild sharks, sturgeon, snakes — and even his own children — Zoologist Nick Whitney found a clever and inexpensive way to monitor the activities of these animals in the wild. At TEDxSarasota, he shows how we can discover amazing things about the animal kingdom using ubiquitous technologies. (Filmed at TEDxSarasota)

Each week, we choose four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Browse all TEDxTalks here »

A TEDx at 21,000 feet:  For the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first ascent of the tallest mountain peak, TEDx’ers Nate Mook and Eiso Vaandrager brought TEDx to Mt. Everest — TEDxEverest — bringing talks to an audience of international climbers, local sherpas, and good friends at Everest’s Advanced Basecamp.

Above, Nate and Eiso hold flags for the TEDx communities represented at TEDxEverest.