Have you ever wondered how your ears work? In this delightful and fascinating talk, biophysicist Jim Hudspeth demonstrates the wonderfully simple yet astonishingly powerful mechanics of hair cells, the microscopic powerhouses that make hearing possible -- and explains how, when it's really quiet, your ears will begin to beam out a spectrum of sounds unique to you.

How comfortable are you with robots taking over your life? Covering a wide range of potential applications -- from the mundane (robot house cleaner) to the mischievous (robot sex partner) to the downright macabre (uploading your brain to live on after death) -- technology strategist Lucy Farey-Jones shares data-backed evidence of how our willingness to accept AI may be radically changing.

"You don't predict the future -- you imagine the future," says sci-fi writer Charlie Jane Anders. In a talk that's part dream, part research-based extrapolation, she takes us on a wild, speculative tour of the delights and challenges the future may hold -- and shows how dreaming up weird, futuristic possibilities empowers us to construct a better tomorrow.

The world is more connected than ever, but some communities are still cut off from vital resources like electricity and health care. In this solution-oriented talk, activist Johanna Figueira discusses her work with Code for Venezuela -- a platform that gathers technologists to address Venezuela's needs for information and medical supplies -- and shares ideas for how it could be used as a model to help other communities in need.

Pardons, commutations and bankruptcy laws are all tools of forgiveness within the US legal system. Are we using them frequently enough, and with fairness? Law professor Martha Minow outlines how these merciful measures can reinforce racial and economic inequality -- and makes the case for creating a system of restorative justice that focuses on accountability and reconciliation rather than punishment.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks offers thoughts on how we can navigate the coronavirus pandemic with courage, hope and empathy. With wisdom and clarity, he speaks on leadership, fear, death, hope and how we could use this moment to build a more just world. Watch for a special, impromptu prayer about halfway through the conversation. (This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and head of curation Helen Walters. Recorded March 30, 2020)

To understand what makes marriages work, we need to talk about why they sometimes end, says family law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen. Follow along as she lays out three ways that thinking about marital decisions through the lens of divorce can help you better navigate togetherness from the beginning.

Some biological structures are so small that scientists can't see them with even the most powerful microscopes. That's where molecular animator and TED Fellow Janet Iwasa gets creative. Explore vast, unseen molecular worlds as she shares mesmerizing animations that imagine how they might work.

If you had to explain to a newborn what it means to be a human being living on Earth in the 21st century, what would you say? Visual artist Oliver Jeffers put his answer in a letter to his son, sharing pearls of wisdom on existence and the diversity of life. He offers observations of the "beautiful, fragile drama of human civilization" in this poetic talk paired with his original illustrations and animations.

Many countries have an active, centuries-old law that allows government agencies to take your things -- your house, your car, your business -- without ever convicting you of a crime. Law researcher Dick M. Carpenter II exposes how this practice of civil forfeiture threatens your rights and creates a huge monetary incentive for law enforcement to pocket your possessions -- and he lays out a path to end "policing for profit" once and for all.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, bioengineer Jim Collins and his team combined the power of AI with synthetic biology in an effort to combat a different looming crisis: antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Collins explains how they pivoted their efforts to begin developing a series of tools and antiviral compounds to help fight COVID-19 -- and shares their plan to discover seven new classes of antibiotics over the next seven years. (This ambitious plan is a part of The Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

The January 2020 issue of College & Research Libraries is now freely available online. Visit the C&RL website for complete contents from 1939 to the present and follow C&RL on Facebook and Twitter for updates and discussion. Note: The November 2013 issue was the final print issue of College & Research Libraries. The journal began an online-only publication model [...]

SAVE THE DATE ESADE Business School will host the 2020 Behavioral Decision Research and Management (BDRM) conference, in Barcelona, Spain. Dates: Tuesday June 16th – Thursday June 18th, 2020. More information coming, September of 2019. Faculty Organizers Uri Simonsohn (ESADE) Isabelle Engeler (IESE) Jordi Quoidbach (ESADE) Bart de Langhe (ESADE) Johannes Müller-Trede (IESE) Ioannis Evangelidis […]

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SOCIETY FOR JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING NEWSLETTER The quarterly Society for Judgment and Decision Making newsletter is available for download from the SJDM site: http://sjdm.org/newsletters/ It features announcements, conferences, jobs, and the 2019 Conference program. See y’all in Montreal (nobody ever says that but the 2019 SJDM meeting will take place in Montreal, November 15-18, […]

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SOCIETY FOR JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING CONFERENCE PROGRAM: DOWNLOAD AWAY The program for the 2019 SJDM conference (taking place this weekend (Nov 15-19, 2019) in Montreal, Canada) can be found in two places The SJDM home page (program link) The SJDM Newsletter (link) Please get it while it is hot.

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SUBMISSION DEADLINE FEBRUARY 16, 2020 Call For Papers IC2S2 brings together researchers in computational science, complexity, and social science, and provides a platform for new work in the field of computational social science. Contributed abstracts are presented orally in parallel thematic sessions or as posters at the three day conference, which takes place at MIT […]

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ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE JANUARY 15, 2020 The Foundations of Utility and Risk (FUR) Conference will, for the first time, take place in the Asia Pacific area in 2020. We invite all Economists and other Social Scientists interested in the study of Decision-making to submit papers to the conference. Since 1982, FUR gathers every two years […]

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DEADLINE FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS: FEB 15, 2020 On June 5-6 2020, Temple University will host the 10th Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium on Decision Neuroscience (ISDN) in Philadelphia, PA. This symposium is unique in that it brings together a range of constituencies involved in the use of neuroscience techniques to understand consumer decision making – world renowned […]

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By Emily Reynolds. Study finds viewers had slightly more negative perceptions of people with mental illness after seeing the movie.

Our political system is out of balance, and teachers must prepare the next generation to do better, argues teacher-turned-legislator John Waldron.

California classrooms could reopen with modifications as soon as late July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, bringing a new wave of anxiety for parents, teachers, and students.

The decision by a federal appeals court recognizing the right to a basic minimum education may be felt far beyond the substandard Detroit schools underlying it, but hurdles could remain.

A Houston-area school district is apologizing after an administrator told Muslim students they need to obtain permission from an imam to wear hijabs in school.

The momentum to raise teacher salaries in several states has ground to a halt amid fears of coronavirus’ massive economic blow.

Michael Sentance abruptly resigns less than a year after being hired to oversee Alabama's schools and as board members were preparing to decide his fate after a brutal evaluation.

The proposed legislation would require the 1.1-million student district to publish the source code behind algorithms used to assign students to high schools, evaluate teachers, and more.

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who helped initiate a shakeup of Denver Public Schools, has announced that he's running for president as a Democrat in 2020.

The decision by a federal appeals court recognizing the right to a basic minimum education may be felt far beyond the substandard Detroit schools underlying it, but hurdles could remain.