Is Anatomy Destiny? - A Talk By Alice Dreger

Via TED:

Alice Dreger works with people at the edge of anatomy, such as conjoined twins and intersexed people. In her observation, it's often a fuzzy line between male and female, among other anatomical distinctions. Which brings up a huge question: Why do we let our anatomy determine our fate?

Alice Dreger is a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in Chicago. She describes her focus as "social justice work in medicine and science" through research, writing, speaking and advocacy.

She's written several books that study subjects on the edge of norm-challenging bodies, including One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal and Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex and Intersex in the Age of Ethics.

She says: "The question that has motivated many of my projects is this: Why not change minds instead of bodies?"

Symphonies of Science: Ode to the Brain

As much as I tire of the overuse of auto-tune in pop music, I can't get enough of the "Symphonies of Science" videos.  I think what I enjoy most is the presentation of what is often considered dry, egghead-speak in the form of an easily digestible, radio-friendly musical compositions.  I'm always a fan of anyone who can communicate scientific ideas and evoke an emotional response.

Here is the latest in the series, "Ode to the Brain," described on the Symphonies of Science page as follows:

Through the powerful words of scientists Carl Sagan, Robert Winston, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Jill Bolte Taylor, Bill Nye, and Oliver Sacks, it covers different aspects the brain including its evolution, neuron networks, folding, and more. The material sampled for this video comes from Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Jill Bolte Taylor's TED Talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran's TED Talk, Bill Nye's Brain episode, BBC's "The Human Body", Oliver Sachs' TED Talk, Discovery Channel's "Human Body: Pushing the Limits", and more.

You can view all of the videos in the series here.  They're totally worth your time. 

A Complete History of the Universe, From The Big Bang to the Internet

Historian David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. Totally worth your time.

From the TEDTalks description: "This is "Big History": an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline."

Dr. Christian recently announced his initiative, The Big History Project, to teach big history to secondary school students in Australia and the United States. We need initiatives such as this, especially at a time when Creationism incessantly tries (and succeeds) to nudge its way into classrooms.