Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, one of today's most engaging science communicators and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ""The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,"" managed to compress the whole history of cancer studies, from primitive to sophisticated, as well a look to the future, into a few comprehensible, enjoyable minutes.
Prof. Eytan Domany takes the stage to discusses the nature of memory, how we form memories, and how they change over time. He ties this into the dance about to performed by Israel's Vertigo Dance Company at Lincoln Center, describing how the movements made by the dancers – seemingly repetitive, but slightly different each time – represent memory.
October 29, 2014
Institute President Prof. Daniel Zajfman tells the crowd that they are privy to a unique show: the collaboration between neuroscientists and modern dancers will play exactly twice, once in New York City, once in Tel Aviv. He compares scientists and dancers, saying that they both have to work extremely hard; need collaboration; and must have inspiration.
October 29, 2014
In his role as part of the science and modern dance performance at Lincoln Center, Prof. Elad Schneidman describes how he is ""learning to read the language of the brain"" – revealing how the brain makes words, sentences, paragraphs. As he speaks, dancers move about him – as individuals, then building on their connections – in an interpretation of this language.
October 29, 2014
Prof. Noam Sobel introduces the sensory into the science and dance program: while all our senses are involved in any experience, it is the brain that lets us smell, or hear, or touch. His studies on the brain mechanism behind the sense of smell could lead to early diagnosis of diseases. His dancers are both mechanical and fluid, conveying the way the brain works – and not.
October 29, 2014
At this TEDx event at the Weizmann Institute, planetary scientist Prof. Oded Aharonson takes on climate change by asking two questions: to what extent is climate change about what we do the earth, and to what extent is it about what the itself earth does (by moving, etc.)? After all, Earth's rotation around the sun is not static. Neither, of course, are we unpredictable humans.
August 21, 2014
Speaking at a TEDx event at the Weizmann Institute, Prof. Ron Milo – while today a plant scientist – talks about the magic of numbers; for example, the only way to truly understand the difference between hot and cold is to know that there's a 10 percent difference in the vibration of select molecules. We can use this numerical intuition to better understand our own biology.
August 21, 2014
In this performance at a TEDx event at the Weizmann Institute, renowned systems biologist Prof. Uri Alon plays and sings an homage – to the tune of Leonard Cohen's ""Suzanne"" – to his friend Mike, a fellow-scientist who didn't let the postdoc Uri give up and quit science. If you've ever had a mentor, someone to whom you owe your career, this one's for you.
August 21, 2014
At a TEDx event at the Weizmann Institute, Dr. Maya Schuldiner talks about the many years of training that scientists, doctors, and the like must undergo – in her case, a third of her life – in order to be successful. But there's a dark secret: they are not taught business – how to interview and recruit, how to set up a lab, how to manage staff. This is a problem.
August 21, 2014
©2019 American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
