Luhan Yang :How to create a world where no one dies waiting for a transplant

Luhan Yang at TED2018  (transcript)
How to create a world where no one dies waiting for a transplant
Summary
The story is about xenotransplantation. It means a process of transplanting animal organs into humans and it's famously known that some pigs carry organs with similar size and physiology to human organs.
The speaker explained that there are two problems with that, I thought that there are many other moral or ethical problems, though.
The two problems that she had were rejection and a virus.

The problem of rejection is that when the human immune system sees a new organ as foreign, it will reject it. Her team succeeded that by a process of cloning, the birthing piglet can carry organs whose genetic makeup hopefully wouldn't be rejected by the human immune system.
The next problem of a virus is that every pig carries a virus that is benign to the pig, but can be transmitted into humans. They succeeded also to take out all the virus, to modify within a cell and to eliminate the possibility of the dangerous virus being transmitted into humans.

Now, a lot of people need a lifesaving transplant, organs are shortages, and they won't be able to wait for humans' brain dead to transplant. The pig that gives one organ can still be alive. This will be a  world where no one dies waiting for a transplant.

Words in this story
xenotransplantation / the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species.
benign /adj/ (of a disease) not harmful in effect

Dean Kamen : To invent is to give

Dean Kamen at TED2002  (transcript)
To invent is to give
Summary
The title is to invent is to give, though, the truth is to invent is to give is difficult but no one knows that whether the inventions have reached someone who really wanted to do and wait for it or not. This is the difficult problem that might be called the last mile is the problem.

I didn't know about the iBOT that was a powered wheelchair developed by the speaker. In the cities, I see many wheelchairs, however, I've never seen the iBOT that will be very useful because this is a wheelchair that you can walk up and down stairs while sitting on without assistance. He told us that technology was great, though, this had another problem that was the transportation.
About transportation, we've solved all the long-range, high-speed, high-volume, and lager-weight problems of moving things around.  However, the fact is that there is the problem of the last mile. It might be an energy problem or a pollution problem or a density population problem.

And then the speaker invented a new way of moving that it can be seen as a pedestrian and the small engine is able to burn any fuel. You don't need to choose buses, taxes, and parking. It solved the energy problem, the pollution problem, and the density population problem, however, no one uses.
The speaker thinks that it must solve the water problem also.
It seems to be called the Segway.

I think that the invention can be used for some problem and for solving a problem, something is invented are different.
People must think that this is the worst problem that a woman has to go to a distant place for water, though, it's just that only she wants to do that. The problem with the solution has a lot of challenges.

Words in this story
context /noun/  circumstances, conditions, factors

Benedetta Berti : Did the global response to 9/11 make us safer?

Benedetta Berti TED2018  (transcript)
Did the global response to 9/11 make us safer?
Summary
I thought that it'll be better for understanding the story to explain what our security is more.
9/11 accident gave us an unbelievable shock. People have still struggled and they think that they have to do something, though, they didn't know what to do.

However, people must start realizing that the best way to guarantee people’s security won't be by defeating their enemies. It means that building sustainable security is not winning on the battlefield or is not crushing enemies but it must be protecting victims and building stability.
The speaker’s answer to the title is no. Now, the world has to rethink security.
Directly, we know that defeating ISIS may be a security achievement but stopping it and shelving the never-ending War on Terror are fear, though, many people in the world are struggling. It won't make us safer in the long term and the generation is always changing.

I want to tell Japanese people the same thing that the generation is always changing. For Japanese people, we have to protect our country with our own hands from China. We must not do the same thing as ever.
I would like to pray for those who lost their lives in 9/11 and wars.

Words in this story
impose /verb/ foist, force, inflict, press, urge, saddle someone with
take stock of / verify and  confirm the facts regarding something
perspective / outlook, prospect
perceptive /  insightful, discerning, sensitive
imminent /adj/ about to happen. impending, close (at hand)
shelve /verb/  postpone, put off, delay

Christina Wallace : How to stop swiping and find your person on dating apps

Christina Wallace at TED2018  (transcript)
How to stop swiping and find your person on dating apps
Summary
This is a story about a woman who succeeded in online dating!!

Somehow, I don't like this kind of story. I don't play internet games and don't use Facebook. I don't even watch TV.  I think that it's a waste of time.
Photos and profiles can be better than real things thus to see those and to be seen yours won't be important. People are too many on online sites and you can't choose one because they are too many. You have to spend much time before you meet someone in reality.

The speaker seems to have similar opinions, she doesn't seem to dislike using online, though. It's because she is smart, she graduated from a famous university, She thought that she wouldn't be chosen because she was taller than almost of boys in the university.

However, she knew that online dating sites don't work well, people look too great on paper, and it's important to meet reality, however, it has to avoid all sexual content.

She invented a new online dating app called the zero date. The zero is one drink, one hour, and one question. It means that you can meet in reality soon but you can step up little by little.

Indeed, is it right that chemical reaction comes from combining meeting in reality and using the internet even here?

Vilayanur Ramachandran : The neurons that shaped civilization

Vilayanur Ramachandran at TEDIndia 2009  (transcript)
The neurons that shaped civilization
Summary
You must think about why neurons and civilization are related in the title.

Neurons are on the front of the brain frontal lobes and it's called ordinary motor command neurons. Those neurons will fire when a person performs a specific action and maybe about 20 percent of them will fire when you are looking at somebody else performing the same action like neuron is adopting the other person's point of view.

And then it leads to involving imitation and emulation is important because those cause our great leap forward. There are sudden emergence and rapid spread of human skills like tool use, the use of fire, the use of shelters, language, the ability to read somebody else's mind, interpret that person's behavior and so on.

Those are the basis of the imitation of complex skills is what we call culture and is the basis of civilization.

We must think that the connection is surprising.
Thus when we think about the meaning of its own existence, consciousness, representation of self, what separates you from other human beings, what allows you to empathize with other human beings, and the emergence of culture and civilization, it requires neurons that is the foundation of a point of views.

VS Ramachandran : 3 clues to understanding your brain

VS Ramachandran at TED2007 (transcript)
3 clues to understanding your brain
Summary
The speaker is a neurologist and he studies the human brain and the functions and structure of the human brain.
This time, the way of approaching the function of the human brain is to look at patients with sustained damage to a small region of the brain.  It shows a highly selective loss of one function but not blunt.  Its intervention will map what the circuitry of the brain is generated.
He gave us three examples that are a Capgras syndrome, 1) Phantom limbs, 2) and  Synesthesia. 3)

The Capgras syndrome isThe Capgras syndrome is that the small brain part called the fusiform gyrus is damaged and people no longer recognize people's faces and they can't even recognize themselves in the mirror, however, they can still recognize people from voice.

Phantom limbs told sometimes is a curious syndrome that people continue vividly feel the presence of the missing arm or leg after amputating arm or leg. this comes from the brain learning. The brain learns something and it carries over into your body image, thus you feel the missing arm or leg even after amputating arm or leg. He says many times that the brain learns so even paralysis is also learned and when phantom paralysis is relearned again, it'll be overcome.  It seems to use mirrors.

Synesthesia is a mingling of the senses. All senses are distinct, though, these people muddle up their senses. There seems to be an abnormal gene and a mutation in the gene that causes this abnormal cross wiring. In the brain, for example, there are areas of the color and number. It's right next to each other, though, when there's some accidental cross-wiring between color and numbers, people see a number that is colored. They lose the ability to engage in something and also metaphors.

The brain has 100 billion nerve cells and little wisps of protoplasm are interacting with each other. It creates human nature and human consciousness. It's a basis of many uniquely human abilities like abstraction, metaphor, and creativity.  Thus even if a small part of the brain is damaged, something that is human nature and human consciousness is losing like his three examples. Understanding your brain will start like this.

Words in this story
paralysis /noun/ powerlessness, become immobile
numb /adj/  without sensation, without feeling

Mark Pollock and Simone George : A love letter to realism in a time of grief

Mark Pollock and Simone George at TED2018  (transcript)
A love letter to realism in a time of grief
Summary
Words in this story
This was a shocking story. It's because there are many important things for the living, for example, those are love, optimism, and something else, though, realism that we must dislike or think that we want to run away from has been important to live. We have to accept the brutal facts thus we keep hope alive.

The optimists rely on hope alone and they risk being disappointed and demoralized, but realists have managed to resolve the tension between acceptance and hope by running them in parallel and it creates identities for life that is why to live. It means that not to change our circumstances but to challenge to change ourselves.

Acceptance is tough and severe. We are alive to help it and this is something that we are imposed as humans.

Words in this story
realism  /noun/ the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.
demoralize /verb/ cause (someone) to lose confidence or hope; dispirit.