Posts tagged United Kingdom

Wear glasses? You may want to watch this one. At TEDxKingsCollegeLondon, Chris Hammond presents some of the fascinating research into myopia — commonly known as nearsightedness — being pursued in ophthalmology today. It turns out that old wive’s tale telling you not to read in the dark is probably sage advice! Hammond goes deeper than that of course, sharing how newfound understanding could lead to better prevention and treatment methods. (Filmed at TEDxKingsCollegeLondon)

What’s driving the global War on Terror? It’s not necessarily what you think, says historian Chris Fuller. At TEDxSWPS, he explains how the effects of economic forces along with climate change — rising temperatures, arid farmland, flash floods — are driving citizens in North Africa to join militant groups like Al Qaeda for solutions — and makes a call for Western nations to change their approach to combatting terrorism. (Filmed at TEDxSWPS)

There is no one lens that can bring the truth about reality into focus. Instead, Julian Baggini suggests in this talk from TEDxKingsCollegeLondon, the truth is “nothing more than a totality of different points of view.” The trick, he suggests, to finding truths about the world or ourselves is finding the right lenses for the right occasions and knowing which ones bring the truth into focus and which ones distort reality. (Filmed at TEDxKingsCollegeLondon)

Our ways of life are at risk. From rising sea levels to nuclear threats, humanity could easily end. How often do we consider the full breadth of these risks when we make decisions; big or small, political or personal? At TEDxOxford, Nick Bostrom describes the exponentially spiraling effect that seemingly trivial actions today could have on the distant future and argues that we need to be more mindful of our decisions. (Filmed at TEDxOxford)