TEDTalk Tuesday: Structure of the Universe

[Occulus]

Today's TEDTALKTUESDAY deals with the structure of our universe on very large scales. Using brilliant computer renderings calculated from data gathered by satellites, our speaker reveals both the overall structure as it can be seen from Earth as well as how we believe it all came to be.

Enjoy!

GEORGESMOOT

Talk Title: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/george_smoot_on_the_design_of_the_universe.html">The design of the universe (video runtime: 18:59)

You can also download this talk for free in http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/download/video/5664/talk/404">high-resolution format- just right-click the link and select "save link as...".]



George Smoot

Wiki bio

About this talk

At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way.

[damntexdem]

1. Structure of the universe? OMG? Will we need infrastructure spending to address this?

I mean, I knew that the Bushistas had messed up a lot of things -- but the structure of the universe! ;-)

[Speck Tater]

2. He talks too fast and skims over the interesting stuff too lightly.

I'd like to see a more in-depth presentation that doesn't feel so rushed.

Fascinating stuff!

[Posteritatis]

3. The whole point of TED talks is a huge topic in a small timeframe

Eighteen minutes (or some other fairly odd number in that range) is the standard length for them for a reason; it's basically a "give The Talk Of Your Life within these constraints" challenge as much as an educational event.

There's several hundred of them on that site; most do a pretty decent job, but almost all of them are presentations on very large topics to a room full of (by the standards of their discipline) laymen. Most of them are IMNSHO spectacular, and I cheerfully recommend to anyone that they absolutely obliterate their productivity for an afternoon or evening by camping out on that site for awhile.

[Speck Tater]

5. Agreed. But most of them DO merely whet one's appetite for more.

But that's what Google is for :)

[Posteritatis]

6. Yep, and I'm assuming that's their main purpose (nt)

[hootinholler]

4. C'mon, compressing the universe into an 18 minute talk?

Ya gotta gloss over something.

-Hoot

[Fumesucker]

7. Cosmology for dummies.. n/t