PhilosophyMonkeyFranzKafka

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Friday, 6 April 2012

Adam Savage - How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries

Posted on 09:46 by Unknown
We live in a world in which we presuppose as a given that great scientific discoveries require the existence of great, expensive technological equipment: lasers, the Large Hadron Collider, microscopes, computers, the Hubble and Kepler telescopes, synchrotrons, super-duper cameras, you name it...

But more than great technology, the real secret to discovery is creativity, because creativity helps you make good use of whatever tools are actually available to you, even if they happen to be, as in the case of Eratosthenes, two sticks on the ground. In the following TEDTalk animated presentation, Myth Buster Adam Savage recounts a few examples (starting with Richard Feynman, moving on to Eratosthenes,  Galileo, and Armand Fizeau's toothed wheel to measure the speed of light,) about how small ideas can give rise to mind-blowing ideas and revolutionary discoveries.


And if Carl Sagan is more your style, you might be interested in his take on Eratosthenes.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in Aristotle, Galileo, math, Richard Feynman, RSA Animate, science, TEDTalks | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Report: U.S. Kids Get Majority of Antibiotics from McDonald's
    And here we've been complaining about our lack of a healthcare system that attends to the medical needs of the poor:) Check out more hil...
  • Daniel Dennett - How to Tell If You're an Atheist
    The human mind is both beautiful and frustrating. We have minds that can contemplate the meaning of infinity and consciousness, on the one h...
  • What Is Evolution and Natural Selection?
    I don't know if it's by design or circumstance, but (apart from the religious and ideological elements) part of the resistance to ev...
  • Critical Thinking Animated Primer
    One cannot stress enough the importance of critical thinking. Without it, we would be defenseless against the manipulative tactics of other ...
  • Election Results in a Beautiful Animation
    I don't know if you heard, but here in the ol' U.S. of A. we just had an election this Tuesday. You know, just trying to choose who ...
  • What Is the Self?
    If you're not used to thinking philosophically, here's a bit of a conceptual conundrum for you: you have certain personal and profes...
  • The Cell - The Hidden Kingdom
    We take it for granted today, but there was a time when not only did humanity not understand the nature of cells, we didn't even know th...
  • Unhate
    Contrary to what the majority of people all over the world believe, I'm pretty sure this is the only life we will ever know. To some, th...
  • Einstein Mask Optical Illusion
    In our everyday experience, it seems as though perception is simply a matter of information hitting your sense organs and going straight to ...
  • The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
    Last week in America we got to celebrate the 4th of July. To many people, this is a nice excuse to have a day off, spend it with family or f...

Categories

  • 3-minute philosophy (11)
  • 60 Second Adventures in Thought (8)
  • Alan Turing (3)
  • All Too Human (1)
  • amazing (6)
  • animals (25)
  • animation (77)
  • anthropology (4)
  • architecture (2)
  • Aristotle (13)
  • art (14)
  • atheism (41)
  • audio (21)
  • autism (2)
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1)
  • Big Brother (4)
  • biography (9)
  • Bishop Berkeley (3)
  • Brainspotting (3)
  • Brian Cox (6)
  • Bryan Magee (1)
  • Carl Sagan (5)
  • Charles Darwin (9)
  • chemistry (6)
  • Christopher Hitchens (6)
  • cognitive science (5)
  • corruption (108)
  • Cosmos (3)
  • creationism (12)
  • Dan Ariely (1)
  • Daniel Dennett (4)
  • David Attenborough (3)
  • David Chalmers (1)
  • David Hume (17)
  • David Sloan Wilson (2)
  • debate (12)
  • Descartes (11)
  • dinosaurs (1)
  • documentary (45)
  • doodling in math (6)
  • E.O. Wilson (2)
  • economics (23)
  • education (43)
  • Einstein (11)
  • Elegant Universe (11)
  • Enemies of Reason (21)
  • environment (19)
  • Epicurus / Lucretius (1)
  • ethics (100)
  • evolution (55)
  • existentialism (13)
  • feminism (13)
  • Flying Spaghetti Monster (2)
  • Founding Fathers (13)
  • free speech (4)
  • free will (7)
  • Freud (1)
  • funny songs (12)
  • Galileo (6)
  • gay stuff (12)
  • geography (9)
  • George Carlin (2)
  • health (35)
  • Hegel (1)
  • Heidegger (1)
  • hilarious (163)
  • history (64)
  • Hobbes (8)
  • Inside Nature's Giants (6)
  • Jane Goodall (1)
  • Jim Al-Khalili (4)
  • John Locke (9)
  • John Searle (4)
  • Jon Stewart (48)
  • jurisprudence (8)
  • Kant (7)
  • Ken Miller (1)
  • Kierkegaard (2)
  • Kurt Vonnegut (1)
  • Large Hadron Collider (7)
  • Leibniz (5)
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1)
  • linguistics (11)
  • literature (25)
  • logic (60)
  • Lord Robert Winston (1)
  • magic (3)
  • Malcolm Gladwell (1)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. (2)
  • Marx (2)
  • Masters of Philosophy (19)
  • math (38)
  • Michael Faraday (2)
  • Michael Sandel (2)
  • Michael Shermer (1)
  • mind (34)
  • Mind control (1)
  • monkeys (8)
  • Monty Python (3)
  • movie (2)
  • music (7)
  • National Geographic (3)
  • Neil DeGrasse Tyson (7)
  • Newton (7)
  • Nietzsche (7)
  • Optical illusion (10)
  • Paradox (8)
  • Penn and Teller (1)
  • personal (5)
  • Peter Millican (10)
  • Peter Singer (7)
  • philosophy (111)
  • Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (1)
  • physics (39)
  • Plato (7)
  • porn (7)
  • privacy (4)
  • problem of evil (4)
  • psychology (18)
  • public announcement (2)
  • racism (19)
  • religion (115)
  • Richard Dawkins (12)
  • Richard Feynman (7)
  • Ricky Gervais (1)
  • Robert Krulwich (1)
  • RSA Animate (16)
  • Sam Harris (3)
  • sartre (1)
  • science (79)
  • sex (19)
  • SNL (2)
  • Socrates (7)
  • space (32)
  • sports (4)
  • Stephen Colbert (40)
  • Stephen Fry (6)
  • Stephen Hawking (4)
  • Stephen J. Gould (1)
  • Steven Pinker (6)
  • Steven Weinberg (1)
  • technology (20)
  • TEDTalks (50)
  • The Human Sexes (4)
  • The Onion (24)
  • Tim Minchin (4)
  • time (5)
  • time lapse (10)
  • William Lane Craig (3)
  • Wittgenstein (3)

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (49)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (9)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (8)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ▼  2012 (205)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (20)
    • ►  June (19)
    • ►  May (27)
    • ▼  April (26)
      • Jimmy Kimmel at the White House Correspondents' Di...
      • Scientists Discover Delicious New Species
      • Obama Slow Jams the News
      • Neil deGrasse Tyson - Space as Culture
      • Just How Small Is an Atom?
      • Banksy on Advertising
      • Tribute to Christopher Hitchens
      • Strange Charm: A Song about Quarks
      • Autistic Reporter: Train Thankfully Unharmed In Cr...
      • Doodling in Math - Spirals, Fibonacci and Plants - 3
      • The Battle for the War on Women
      • T-Rex - Warrior or Wimp?
      • A Geological Timescale for Young-Earth Creationists
      • Colbert and the Dirt Bike Badass in the Lincoln Tu...
      • Bro-Choice
      • Billy Collins - Everyday Moments Caught in Time
      • Faith/Off - Easter vs Passover
      • Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
      • To Infinity and Beyond
      • Adam Savage - How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific ...
      • Tucson Bans Ethnic Studies Program
      • Rick Santorum's Insane Conspiracy Theories
      • The Fabric of the Cosmos - The Illusion of Time
      • Schrödinger’s Cat... in 60 Seconds
      • The GOP - Join the Party!
      • Inside Nature's Giants - The Camel
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (22)
    • ►  January (20)
  • ►  2011 (217)
    • ►  December (19)
    • ►  November (20)
    • ►  October (17)
    • ►  September (19)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (19)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ►  May (19)
    • ►  April (16)
    • ►  March (22)
    • ►  February (19)
    • ►  January (16)
  • ►  2010 (29)
    • ►  December (26)
    • ►  November (3)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile