http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/vi/videos.aspx Watch the latest visiting speakers' lectures from Microsoft Research © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. en-US Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:08:25 GMT [Speaker: Sebastian Seung] Science has long struggled to pinpoint where, precisely, our uniqueness resides. A connectome is a map of connections between a brain’s neurons, and connectomics is the use of brain imaging and technology to increase the speed and efficiency of those maps. Your brain contains a million times more connections than your genome has letters. Finding the complete neuronal connectome of a human brain is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges of all time. Seung’s goal is to compare connectomes between normal brains and disordered brains, which would reveal what’s behind brain disorders. If he and his team succeed, it could reveal the basis of personality, intelligence, memory, and mental disorders. Many scientists speculate that people with anorexia, autism, and schizophrenia are “wired differently.” This research has the potential to completely rock our understanding of the brain. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=159015 Sebastian Seung Science and Technology Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Adam Lashinsky] It has been said about Apple that its business practices are like a bumble bee: It shouldn’t fly, but it does. And how well it does. Apple is the first or second most valuable company in the world, and it got that way by doing business differently from how it is taught at Harvard Business School. The whole world loves Apple products, but even sophisticated business people don’t understand how Apple does what it does. Apple’s approach to leadership, personnel, secrecy, design, product development, marketing, public relations is extraordinarily unique approaches to business. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=158955 Adam Lashinsky Science and Technology Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:00:00 GMT [Speaker: Rebecca MacKinnon] In an age where technology companies censor and turn over users’ personal information at the behest of government, internet policy expert Rebecca MacKinnon argues a different approach to protecting our personal liberties and freedoms. In Consent of the Networked, MacKinnon proposes focusing policy upstream—at the point of conception and innovation—to ensure accountability is built into the fabric of cyberspace. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=158668 Rebecca MacKinnon Science and Technology Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Susan Cain] At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working independently over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. The dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=158430 Susan Cain Science and Technology Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: William Gibson] William Gibson is known primarily as a novelist, with his work ranging from his groundbreaking first novel, Neuromancer, to his more recent contemporary bestsellers Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. During those nearly thirty years, though, Gibson has been sought out by widely varying publications for his insights into contemporary culture. Wired magazine sent him to Singapore to report on one of the world's most buttoned-up states. The New York Times Magazine asked him to describe what was wrong with the Internet. Rolling Stone published his essay on the ways our lives are all "soundtracked" by the music and the culture around us. And in a speech at the 2010 Book Expo, he memorably described the interactive relationship between writer and reader. These essays and articles have never been collected-until now. Some have never appeared in print at all. In addition, Distrust That Particular Flavor includes journalism from small publishers, online sources, and magazines no longer in existence. Distrust That Particular Flavor offers readers a privileged view into the mind of a writer whose thinking has shaped not only a generation of writers but our entire culture. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=158107 William Gibson Science and Technology Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Winifred Gallagher] All of us are attuned to things that are new or unfamiliar because they convey vital information about potential threats and resources. The "love of the new," or neophilia, is hardwired into our brains at the deepest levels. In today's fast-paced world, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the mind-boggling number of new things that bombard us daily. The amount of new information that we handle has quadrupled in the last thirty years and shows no sign of slowing—we must look beyond such secondary issues as voracious consumerism, attention problems, and electronics addiction to refocus on neophilia's true purpose: to learn about and create the new things that actually matter. Whether we love change, avoid change, or take the middle path, neophilia plays a crucial role in all of our lives. We can embrace our changing world AND live a fuller, saner life. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=157776 Winifred Gallagher Science and Technology Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Beth Coleman] There has been a cultural shift from analog to digital: creating an “x-reality” that crosses between the virtual and the real. Encompassing a multiplicity of network combinations, it is the role of the avatar to help us express our new agency--our new power to customize our networked life. The gestalt of images, text, and multimedia that make up our online identities--in virtual worlds like Second Life and in the form of email, video chat, and other digital artifacts. What has come out of this shift is real-time collaboration and co-presence. The star of this drama of expanded horizons is the networked subject--all of us who represent aspects of ourselves and our work across the mediascape. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=157343 Beth Coleman Science and Technology Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: George Anders] How can we sort out the mysteries of talent? How do venture capitalists pick winners, the FBI hostage rescue team find agents, or Hollywood casting agents size up actors. Anyone trying to build a great organization faces the same basic challenges. We all struggle to tell really outstanding prospects from ones who look great on paper but then fail on the job. And how to spot the candidates who don’t look as good on paper but might still deliver extraordinary performance. The good news is that anyone can hone the ability to recognize greatness. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=157245 George Anders Science and Technology Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Frank Close] 40 years ago, a group of scientists made breakthroughs which later inspired the construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson (God particle) will be found, if found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there’s more at stake—what we’re really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=157097 Frank Close Science and Technology Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Michael Nielsen] How did 250,000 amateur astronomers discover an entirely new kind of galaxy? Scientists are using the internet to dramatically expand our problem-solving ability and increase our combined brainpower. The internet is transforming the nature of our collective intelligence and how we understand the world. In Reinventing Discovery, Michael Nielsen argues that we are living at the dawn of the most dramatic change in science in more than 300 years: the era of networked science. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=156488 Michael Nielsen Science and Technology Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Robert Trivers] Although our senses have evolved to give us a detailed perception of the outside world, as soon as that information hits our brain it becomes biased and distorted, usually without conscious effort. Whether it’s a romantic relationship or the planning of an offensive war, there are many opportunities to lie and self-deceive—but deceit and self-deception alienate us from reality and can lead to disaster. Why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday existence?. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=156489 Robert Trivers Science and Technology Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Gina Amaro Rudan] We’ve been conditioned to believe that true genius is a rarity ie. Einstein or Mozart. What if you can tap into a practical genius that will unleash your full potential and bring fulfillment to both work and life. Find the “sweet spot” between your skills and your creative passions to change the game and become extraordinary. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=155871 Gina Amaro Rudan Science and Technology Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Daniel Kahneman] Can we trust our intuitions? Daniel Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust instincts, exploring the machinery of the mind and the two systems that drive the way we think and make choices. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Bringing together years of research from one of the most influential psychologists in history, Thinking Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=155752 Daniel Kahneman Science and Technology Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Steven Pinker] Violence has been in decline for millennia. We once lived in a world in which human sacrifice, sadistic torture, brutal slavery, political murder, and blood sports were commonplace. Using more than a hundred graphs and maps, Steven Pinker shows that the conventional wisdom that we are living in a violent era is an illusion. Drawing from psychology, history, brain science, war studies, game theory, complexity theory, and popular culture, Pinker explores where violence comes from, why it has been so common over the course of history, and how we're slowly controlling it http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=155548 Steven Pinker Science and Technology Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Daniel Yergin] The world’s appetite for energy is growing. Today, oil use in the developed world averages 14 barrels per person per year. In the developing world, it is only 3 barrels per person. How will the world cope when billions of people go from 3 barrels to 6 barrels? Energy and its challenges—where it comes from, who controls it, how it affects the planet—will be a defining issue for our future. Yergin presents the compelling story of modern energy—how it came to be the way it is, how it works, the risks and challenges it portends, and how different it might be in the future. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=155286 Daniel Yergin Science and Technology Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:30:00 GMT [Speakers: John Tierney and Roy Baumeister] Leading social psychologist and scientist Roy F. Baumeister’s latest research reveals that the average person spends four hours of their day battling temptation. While self-control is biologically rooted, we have the capacity to manipulate our nature. Willpower works like a muscle that can be strengthened with practice, and fatigued with overuse. Combining the best of modern social science with practical wisdom, Baumeister and Tierney revolutionize our understanding of self-control. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=153981 John Tierney; Roy Baumeister Science and Technology Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:30:00 GMT