# 2945
I am an unabashed fan of the online TED Talks.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Each year they hold a 4 day long event at Long Beach, California where 50 people are urged to give the 18-minute talk of their lives.
And what talks they are!
I was first turned onto the TED Talks when a friend sent me a link to the winner of 2006’s TED Prize, Dr. Larry Brilliant's presentation on his dream of a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.
If you’ve never seen this speech, I urge you to watch it now.
(Click Image to view video)
Ted calls these talks Ideas Worth Spreading. And that they certainly are.
With more than 200 videos now online, and that number growing each year, the TED archive is an inspiring wellspring of new and important ideas by the best and brightest minds in the world.
This week’s entry on the TED website is a talk by Nathan Wolfe, the world famous virus hunter and founder of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI). I wrote about Dr. Wolfe just recently (see Nathan Wolfe: Virus Hunter) in this blog.
The work he is doing is both important, and fascinating. Here is how the TED website describes his talk:
About this talk
Virus hunter Nathan Wolfe is outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- before they claim millions of lives
About Nathan Wolfe
Armed with blood samples, high-tech tools and a small army of fieldworkers, Nathan Wolfe hopes to re-invent pandemic control -- and reveal hidden secrets of the planet's dominant lifeform: the virus. Full bio and more links
(Click Image to view video)
TED Talks are as varied (and interesting) as the world that surround us. You could spend a lot of time exploring this website.
While not every talk will be everyone's cup of tea, the TED website gets my highest recommendation.
