At the time of this filming, Jack Horner was the Museum of the Rockies Curator of Paleontology but he has since retired. He is known for his groundbreaking discoveries of the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere, the first evidence of dinosaur colonial nesting, the first evidence of parental care among dinosaurs, and the first dinosaur embryos.
Paleontologist Jack Horner discovered the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere. He and his dig teams have discovered the first evidence of parental care in dinosaurs, extensive nesting grounds, evidence of dinosaur herds, and the world’s first dinosaur embryos. He’s now exploring how to build a dinosaur.
His lifelong quest to research dinosaurs was not stifled by the ADHD which kept him from a formal college degree but enabled him to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Montana in 1986 and later be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Now he has a dinosaur named after him! The recently discovered Daspletosaurus horneri, or “Horner’s frightful lizard,” lived in Montana around 75 million years ago and is a cousin of the T. Rex. It stood at 2.2 meters tall and, as its name hints, it had a large horn behind each eye. A scaly face dotted with tactile sensory organs (similar to the ones modern crocodiles have) provided their snouts with sensitivity similar to fingertips. Its discovery provides new insight into how tyrannosaurids evolved. This new species appears to have evolved directly from its sister species, Daspletosaurus torosus. The finding supports the theory of anagenesis, or direct evolution without branching, in which a species changes enough over time from its ancestral form to become a new species.
Jack, widely acknowledged to be the inspiration for the main character in the book and film Jurassic Park is now the Retired Curator of Paleontology of the Rocky Mountain Museum and Museum of the Rockies Emeritus Regent’s Professor, Montana State University
Did you know that you’re 30 times more likely to laugh if you’re with somebody else than if you’re alone? Cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott shares this and other surprising facts about laughter in this fast-paced, action-packed and, yes, hilarious dash through the science of the topic.
You’re tying your shoes wrong – no matter that you’ve been doing it for 70 years and you’ve got it so down pat that you can do it and chew gum at that same time.
Who knew?
The good news? You’re not too old to learn (again) how to tie shoes.
As it turns out, there are two completely different knots, tied with only the most miniscule of differences—one holds and the other does not.
Terry Moore found out he’d been tying his shoes the wrong way his whole life when he complained to a salesman that the laces he’d bought were substandard because they wouldn’t stay tied.
In the spirit of TED, he takes the stage to share a better way. (Historical note: This was the very first 3-minute audience talk given from the TED stage, in 2005.)
If you’re gonna change the way you tie shoes after watching this video, you’ll (I’m almost positive) find that it’s not the “slam dunk” that you first think it is.
Things like this are so in-grained they seem like they’re almost genetic, similar to the migration instinct of birds. In some ways, quitting smoking may be easier.
Mind Your ‘Matter’ Concussion and Your Grey Matter
How do we protect children against head injury and concussion?
Grey Matter is, of course, referring to the tissue of your brain—the tissue in question when we talk about brain injury from concussion; which, in her humorous way, she called “Extremely resilient in children to AN injury.”[Note the “an” meaning one single. To multiple…not so much!]
In fact, the risk of permanent brain damage increases EXPONENTIALLY with the number of blows to the head a child receives. The only way to prevent a bad outcome in a head injury (concussion) is to prevent that 1st injury from happening.
She also told you that children are MUCH MORE SUSEPTIBLE to brain injury and even older adolescents. THREE TIMES more likely to have their concussion turn into a “catastrophic” injury than their college age counterparts—AND take almost three times as long to restore to baseline.
As a neuropsychologist working in the field of brain injuries, Kim Gorgens has seen firsthand the damage sports-related impacts can do. And as chair of the State of Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Board and a member of the Brain Injury Legislative Collaborative, she’s working to shape Colorado law around youth sports injuries.
Gorgens, an assistant clinical professor in the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology, also is the president-elect of the Colorado Neuropsychological Society and has an appointment to the American Psychological Association’s Council on Disability in Psychology.
Let’s face it. A lot of what you (as a parent) worry about these days is stuff that didn’t even enter your parents minds to worry about for you!
AND a lot of what appears on the internet (your largest source of information these days) is superficial, one-size-fits-all, just-get-an-article-written, worthless fluff—if not downright fabrication or scam. Read more →
Obesity is now more common in the world than being underweight! How crazy is that?
Global obesity numbers shot up over 600 percent between 1975 and 2014 and don’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon—is that crazy or not? Read more →
The 3500 species of mosquitos in the world are responsible for multiple debilitating diseases to human kind. Whole continents like Africa suffer not only in their health but in their economies as well due to this tiny animal. Seventy of these species have the capacity to transmit malaria but only four of them carry out almost 90% of Africa’s problems.
Fredros Okumu, director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), tells us, in this TED talk, of the work going on in order to make a world with “Zero problem” with Malaria; and how whole villages are banding together to eradicate the disease.
He calls himself a “mosquito catcher for a living” something he and his partners do by using themselves as bait and describes what he has learned about the habits of the things. Unconventional methods to “tame” the most dangerous animal on earth.
Fredros Okumu: “Mosquito Catcher”
Fredros Okumu is director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). Since 2008, Okumu has been studying human-mosquito interactions and developing new techniques to complement existing malaria interventions and accelerate efforts towards elimination. His other interests include quantitative ecology of residual malaria vectors, mathematical simulations to predict effectiveness of interventions, improved housing for marginalized communities and prevention of child malnutrition.
Parkinson’s Disease is a terribly UNDER-funded disease as far as research goes. One in a hundred people around the world over 60 have Parkinson’s disease; that was 9 million people in 2015—the last time they did a world census.
In 2015 one in eight people were over 60, by 2030 one in six will be. By 2030 there will be more people over 60 in the world than there will be children 0-9. In addition, for some as yet unknown reason the rate of Parkinson’s disease is increasing every year. This problem will only get worse, we’ve got to make some progress on this thing now.
The James Parkinson Tulip by J.W.S. Van der Wereld
In 1980, J.W.S. Van der Wereld, a Dutch horticulturalist with Parkinson’s disease (PD), developed a red and white tulip to honor Dr. James Parkinson. At the 9th World Parkinson’s Disease Day Conference in Luxembourg on April 11, 2005, the new red and white tulip was launched as the official symbol of PD.
The tulip is described in detail as the exterior being a glowing cardinal red, small feathered white edge, the outer base whitish; the inside, a currant-red to turkey-red, broad feathered white edge, anthers pale yellow”.
Not only did the tulip receive the Award of Merit that year from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, but it also was the recipient of the Trial Garden Award from the Royal General Bulb Growers of Holland.
It’s just that people keep asking questions, others are continually writing about them and there’s just so many interesting photos available to accompany articles. Read more →
The last time I wrote about bug bites I told myself: “If I write one more thing about bugs, people will think I’ve got a fetish or something!”
Well I don’t, but here we go again! There’s just so many questions about them in people’s minds, doctor’s tend to forget about them compared to other daily crises, there’s a lot of articles still being written by others and… there’s just so many good photos lately. Read more →
I thought that we might just take a bit of a break from the intensity of pediatric medical writing and “stop to smell the roses” just a bit. Hope you don’t mind.
I just keep thinking, while I’m immersed in this computer neck deep, that “there’s just got to be something more I can do with it than struggle through medical articles all day.” And, as it turns out, there is: Art. Read more →
Better toilets, better life More Important Than Armies, Armaments or Spaceships
Joe Madiath, who calls himself a Social entrepreneur, is bringing Indian villagers together around water, hygiene and sanitation projects with suprising results. In rural India, he describes, “the lack of toilets creates a big, stinking problem.”
It leads to poor quality water, one of the leading causes of disease in India, and has a tremendously, disproportionately negative effect on women and children.
In this TED talk, Madiath introduces a program to help villagers help themselves, by building clean, protected water and sanitation systems and requiring everyone in the village to collaborate — with significant benefits that ripple across health, education and even government.
“For India,” he claims, “armies and armaments, software companies and spaceships may not be as important as taps and toilets.”
