Presents

In this presentation, Rebecca Goldin will share some humorous as well as serious stories about statistical bloopers in the media, peppered with suggestions for better communication. Numerical reasoning can be powerful, she says, when we move past politics and morality to clarify what quantitative information actually tells us, what it does not and what it cannot.

Like a musical composition, physicist Stephon Alexander will present a four-part movement, each containing a vignette of experiences he had interacting and collaborating with artists and musicians (such as Brian Eno, Ned Kahn, Melvin Gibbs, Will Calhoun, Ornette, Dawn Meson and Rosemary Goodell) and how those interactions influenced his scientific ideas, research, approach and creativity.

During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas and his family disappeared. In 1920, a mysterious woman surfaced in Germany claiming to be his youngest daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. In this presentation, Amanda McBrien will talk about this transformative time in Russian history while illustrating how modern science, through the use of forensic evidence and DNA comparisons, helped solve the mystery of what really happened to Anastasia.

In this presentation, physicist Nadya Mason, neuroscientist Kay Tye, and TED's science curator David Biello will talk about the highs and lows of giving a TED Talk — and the importance of communicating the wonder of science in all media. Come learn how to make your research accessible and exciting to the general public without alienating your scientific peers, including do's and don'ts for public speaking. In a world where the facts of science are newly up for debate, science communication has never been more critical.

Brady Haran will talk about his adventures in making science and math videos on YouTube. Referencing specific examples, he will illustrate how popular and perhaps unconventional communication can sometimes yield surprising results. These examples include recent breakthroughs in the summing of cubed numbers.

Human emissions of greenhouse gases now overwhelm the influence of natural drivers in altering Earth's climate. How will our energy choices and resulting emissions affect temperature and precipitation, extreme events, sea-level rise and more over this century and beyond? What are the implications for meeting the targets of the Paris climate agreement and avoiding dangerous change? And what about the potential for surprise, as we push the climate system harder and faster than any other time in human history? Join Katharine Hayhoe as she highlights key results and new science from the U.S.’s Fourth National Climate Assessment and lays out how climate change is affecting regions and sectors across the country. With climate change being one of the most hotly debated scientific issues of today, Hayhoe will also discuss the key role our values play in shaping our attitudes and actions on this crucial topic.