Discovery & Discussion
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Sundays 11:40 am
(Except Potluck Sundays) James Reeb Room 
Coordinator: Dave Nelson
“The Industrial Revolution did not prepare us for a Post-Industrial Era.” - Robert C. Robertson "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso |
Join us as we explore the impact of technology on our world. We start with a either a short video or a live speaker who is an expert in the field, followed by open discussion. Occasionally, we will address subjects that are not directly related to technology, but are both timely and relevant to our congregation. All are Welcome. 
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." - Henry Ford |
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Sunday June 16
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The amazing brains and morphing skin of octopuses and other cephalopods.
Octopus, squid and cuttlefish -- collectively known as cephalopods -- have strange, massive, distributed brains. What do they do with all that neural power? Dive into the ocean, in this just released 2019 featured TED Talk, with marine biologist Roger Hanlon, who shares astonishing footage of the camouflaging abilities of cephalopods, which can change their skin color and texture in a flash. Learn how their smart skin, and their ability to deploy it in sophisticated ways, could be evidence of an alternative form of intelligence -- and how it could lead to breakthroughs in AI, fabrics, cosmetics and beyond.
Roger Hanlon is a Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Octopus, squid and cuttlefish -- collectively known as cephalopods -- have strange, massive, distributed brains. What do they do with all that neural power? Dive into the ocean, in this just released 2019 featured TED Talk, with marine biologist Roger Hanlon, who shares astonishing footage of the camouflaging abilities of cephalopods, which can change their skin color and texture in a flash. Learn how their smart skin, and their ability to deploy it in sophisticated ways, could be evidence of an alternative form of intelligence -- and how it could lead to breakthroughs in AI, fabrics, cosmetics and beyond.
Roger Hanlon is a Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Past Programs
Left click on the titles below to watch the video.
Left click on the titles below to watch the video.
Sunday May 19
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Shedding light on dark matter. Physicist Patricia Burchat talks about two mysterious but basic ingredients of our universe: dark matter and dark energy. Together, they comprise 96% of the known universe. They can't be directly measured, but their influence is immense. |
Sunday May 5
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Inside the Black Hole image that made history At the center of a galaxy more than 55 million light-years away, there's a supermassive black hole with the mass of several billion suns. And now, for the first time ever, we can see it. Astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, head of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, speaks with TED's Chris Anderson about the iconic, first-ever image of a black hole -- and the epic, worldwide effort involved in capturing it. |
Sunday April 28
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Happiness and the complexity of memory. The mind is a diligent recorder, taking note of all that happens and storing data on it for retrieval later, right? Well actually, no. Consider the “Riddle of Experience vs Memory.” Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals, in this amazing TED Talk, how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. Widely regarded as the world's most influential living psychologist, Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel in Economics for his pioneering work in behavioral economics — exploring the irrational ways we make decisions about risk. |
Sunday April 7
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Can we regenerate heart muscle with stem cells? The heart is one of the least regenerative organs in the human body -- a big factor in making heart failure the number one killer worldwide. What if we could help heart muscle regenerate after injury? Meet Physician and scientist Chuck Murry via his Recent featured TED Talk as he shares his groundbreaking research into using stem cells to grow new heart cells -- an exciting step towards realizing the awesome promise of stem cells as medicine. |
Sunday March 31
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The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes! Phil Plait was on a Hubble Space Telescope team of astronomers who thought they may have captured the first direct photo of an exoplanet ever taken. But did the evidence actually support that? In this just released feature TED Talk, follow along as Plait shows how science progresses -- through a robust amount of making and correcting errors. "The price of doing science is admitting when you're wrong, but the payoff is the best there is: knowledge and understanding," he says. |
Sunday March 24
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The disarming case to act right now on climate change. Meet Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old climate activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. In this featured TED Talk she gives a passionate call to action and explains why and how, in August 2018, she walked out of school and organized a strike to raise awareness of global warming by protesting outside the Swedish parliament and grabbing the world's attention. According to Thunberg, "The climate crisis has already been solved and we have all the facts and solutions; all we have to do is to wake up and change." Moderator: Linda Classon. |
Sunday March 17
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How to Have a Good Conversation. Reaching agreement begins with having a good conversation. Yet we live in a world where our politicians can’t speak with one another. Why is it so difficult to talk with people that we disagree with? According to Celeste Headlee, a good conversation requires a balance between talking and listening, and most people don’t know how to really listen. In this featured TED Talk, she gives 10 ways to have a better conversation. |
Sunday March 3
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How to transform apocalypse fatigue into action on global warming. The biggest obstacle to dealing with climate disruptions lies between your ears, says psychologist and economist Per Espen Stokes. He's spent years studying the defenses we use to avoid thinking about the demise of our planet -- and figuring out a new way of talking about global warming that keeps us from shutting down. Step away from the doomsday narratives and learn how to make caring for the earth feel personable, do-able and empowering with this uplifting and informative TED Talk. |
Sunday February 24
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Can we create new senses for humans? As humans, we can perceive less than a ten-trillionth of all light waves. "Our experience of reality is constrained by our biology," says neuroscientist David Eagleman in this special TED Talk. He wants to change that. His research into our brain processes has led him to create new interfaces -- such as a sensory vest -- to take in previously unseen information about the world around us. Eagleman helps decode the mysteries of the tangled web of neurons and electricity that make our minds tick -- and also make us human. |
Sunday February 17
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What your breath could reveal about your health. There's no better way to stop a disease than to catch and treat it early, before symptoms occur. That's the whole point of medical screening techniques like radiography, MRIs and blood tests. But there's one medium with overlooked potential for medical analysis: your breath. In this fascinating TED talk from November 2018, Technologist, Dr. Julian Burschka shares the latest in the science of breath analysis -- the screening of the volatile organic compounds in your exhaled breath -- and how it could be used as a powerful tool to detect, predict and ultimately prevent disease. TED@Merck, Darmstadt, Germany. |
Sunday February 3
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The discoveries awaiting us in the ocean's twilight zone. What will we find in the twilight zone: the vast, mysterious, virtually unexplored realm hundreds of meters below the ocean's surface? Heidi M. Sosik of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wants to find out. In this wonder-filled talk, she shares her plan to investigate these uncharted waters, which may hold a million new species and 90 percent of the world's fish biomass, using submersible technology. What we discover there won't just astound us, Sosik says -- it will help us be better stewards of the world's oceans. |
Sunday January 20
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Quantum Computing explained in 10 minutes. A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely. Enter the quantum wonderland with TED Fellow Shohini Ghose and learn how this technology holds the potential to transform medicine, create unbreakable encryption and even teleport information. Filmed at TEDWomen, November 2018. Join us at 11:30. All are welcome. |
Sunday January 6
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The radical possibilities of man-made DNA. Every cell that's ever lived has been the result of the four-letter genetic alphabet: A, T, C and G – the basic units of DNA. But now that's changed. In this visionary TED talk, synthetic biologist Floyd E. Romesberg introduces us to the first living organisms created with six-letter DNA – the four natural letters plus two new man-made ones, X and Y – and explores how this breakthrough could challenge our basic understanding of nature's design. |
Sunday December 30
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12 truths I learned from life and writing. With disarming familiarity, Anne Lamott tackles what most don’t like to consider. Her honest writing helps us make sense of life’s chaos. In this compelling TED Talk, she dives into the nuances of being a human who lives in a confusing, beautiful, emotional world, offering her characteristic life-affirming wisdom and humor on family, writing, the meaning of God, death and more. |
Sunday December 23
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A Lesson on Looking. Are you looking closely? Esse est percipi? Visual educator Amy Herman explains how to use art to enhance your powers of perception and find connections where they may not be apparent. Learn the techniques Herman uses to train Navy SEALs, doctors and crime scene investigators to convert observable details into actionable knowledge with this insightful talk. |
Sunday December 16
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3 myths about the future of work (and why they’re not true). Will machines replace humans? Daniel Susskind confronts this question and three misconceptions we have about our automated future, suggesting we ask something else: How will we distribute wealth in a world when there will be less, or even no work? Join us for this inspiring TED Talk about one aspect of the impact of Artificial Intelligence— followed by group discussion. |
Sunday December 2
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How a long forgotten virus could help us solve the antibiotics crisis. Viruses have a bad reputation – but some of them could one day save your life, says biotech entrepreneur Alexander Belcredi. In this fascinating talk, he introduces us to phages, naturally-occurring viruses that hunt and kill harmful bacteria with deadly precision and shows how these once forgotten organisms could provide new hope against the growing threat of antibiotic resistant superbugs. |