The Best TED Talks to Watch Right Now

Speaker 

This is a summary on Ted talk. Social scientist tends to use peer reviewed literature in communication. This limits access to such information from common individuals. With increasing use of technology especially ‘you tube’, people are getting an opportunity to have access to such information. The focus of this study is on Ted talk by Heather Barnet on how individuals may learn from a semi intelligent slime. 

Article summary 

Heather has brought major points forward regarding the topic. He notes that Physarum Polycephalum is one of the 700 types of known slime molds. It belongs to the amoeba kingdom. It is normally a single cell animal but joins with other cells in an effort to make a mass super cell that can enable it to maximize utilization of resources. The speaker notes his discovery of this cell through the use of a Petri dish in a laboratory. In his findings, he realized that slime molds growth rate is one centimeter per hour. It moves to different location within the Petri dish after exhausting nutrients from one location and marks its territory. The author notes the significant interest that has been drawn among authors by this discovery. Scholars and researchers in universities are experimenting with the organism to unearth more truth about it. Even artists are fascinated by the organism. For instance, in physics, they can learn that the usage of oscillations in communication is depicted in the lime mode, so is the need of use of thousands of connections to work as a single entity. Significant knowledge can be drawn from the manner in which slime mode develops itself and operates in multiple disciplines including learning about how lightning strikes, how neural networks operates as well as how blood flows in vessels (TED, 2014). 

Problem addressed 

The study was addressing the problem of understanding how networks operates as well as well as coordinated actions could be initiated in the body operations as well as technology. More so, it focuses on indicating that the organism in question is not a mold but a semi mold as it is made up of multiple cells that comes together to form a mega organism that can utilize resources in a better manner. The effectiveness of the presentation is high as it clearly indicates how such mega molds are made and how they coordinate their activities to maximize resource use and territory development. 

Importance of the talk 

The topic discussed is of significant value to professionals in multiple fields. In the field of biology, it helps in confirming that the organism is not a mold but a slime mold. It also enhances understanding of how our body organisms operate. For instance, our neural system as well as blood flow system employees the pattern observed in the mold in execution of their tasks. In the field of engineering, the observation enhances our understanding of how lightning operates. These are important contributions in the field of science and indicate the needs to carry out further research on the same 

In conclusion, it is evident that this topic reinforced my understanding of biology as a field that is comprised of new discoveries from time to time and one that is difficult to exhaust. It also enhanced my understanding of operations of body operations, something that the speaker was able to effectively demonstrate using examples 

Reference 

TED (2014). what humans can learn from semi intelligent slime. Retrieved from 

https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_barnett_what_humans_can_learn_from_semi_intelligent_slime_1?language=en