http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/vi/videos.aspx Watch the latest visiting speakers' lectures from Microsoft Research © 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. en-US Mon, 06 May 2013 17:48:25 GMT Mon, 06 May 2013 17:48:25 GMT [Speaker: Mario Livio] We all make mistakes, because nobody is perfect—and that includes five of the greatest scientists in history: Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Einstein. But … their mistakes helped advance science—and science thrives on error, advancing when erroneous ideas are disproven. Mistakes in any discipline that is based on creative thinking and innovation are not only inevitable, they are an essential part of progress. Breakthroughs require the willingness to embrace risks and to accept errors as potential portals of discovery. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=192706 Mario Livio Science and Technology Wed, 15 May 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Evgeny Morozov] Our society is at a crossroads. Smart technology is transforming our world, making many aspects of our lives more convenient, efficient and - in some cases – fun. Better and cheaper sensors can now be embedded in almost everything, and technologies can log the products we buy and the way we use them. Technology, author Evgeny Morozov proposes, can be a force for improvement - but only if we abandon the idea that it is necessarily revolutionary and instead genuinely interrogate why and how we are using it. From urging us to drop outdated ideas of the Internet to showing how to design more humane and democratic technological solutions, Morozov presents the reasons why we will always need to consider the consequences of the way we use technology. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=192625 Evgeny Morozov Science and Technology Mon, 13 May 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: John Gerzema] We live in a world that’s increasingly social, interdependent and transparent. And in this world, feminine values are ascendant. Traditionally feminine leadership and values are proving to be more popular than the macho paradigm of the past. The most innovative among us are breaking away from traditional structures to be more flexible, collaborative and nurturing. And both men and women from Medellin to Nairobi are adopting this style, which emphasizes cooperation, long-term thinking, and flexibility. Informally, and in countless ways, they are following the Athena Doctrine, named after the Greek Goddess, the warrior whose strength came from wisdom and fairness. All over the world, people are deploying feminine thinking and values to make their lives, and the world, better. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=191904 John Gerzema Science and Technology Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Adam Alter] The world is populated with words and images that prompt unexpected, unconscious decisions. Why are people named Kim, Kelly, and Ken more likely to donate to Hurricane Katrina victims than to Hurricane Rita victims? Are you really more likely to solve puzzles if you watch a light bulb illuminate? The human brain is fantastically complex, having engineered space travel and liberated nuclear energy, so it's no wonder that we resist the idea that we're deeply influenced by our surroundings. Dr. Adam Alter explores how our environment shapes what we think, how we feel, and the ways we behave, and shows how the most unexpected factors lead us to think, feel, and behave the way we do. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=189728 Adam Alter Science and Technology Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Bruce Nussbaum] The world is quickly changing in ways we find hard to comprehend. Successful methods of dealing with problems have become outmoded. To be successful, you can't just be good; you also need to be creative. In Creative Intelligence, innovation expert Bruce Nussbaum charts the making of a new literacy, "Creative Intelligence", or CQ. From corporate CEOs trying to parse the confusing matrix of global business to K-12 teachers attempting to reach bored kids in increasingly wired classrooms, creativity is viewed as the antidote to uncertainty and complexity. Nussbaum shows readers how to frame problems in new ways and devise solutions that are original by drawing insight from anthropology and culture rather than psychology and the brain. He illustrates how to connect our creative output with a new type of economic system, Indie Capitalism, where creativity is the source of value, where entrepreneurs drive growth, and where social networks are the building blocks of the economy. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=189109 Bruce Nussbaum Science and Technology Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Jonah Berger] What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. In this new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission, and shares the reasons why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral. He will share how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content and make your product or idea catch on. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=188871 Jonah Berger Science and Technology Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:30:00 GMT [Speakers: Brandon Sanderson and Harriet McDougal] January 2013 marks a historic moment in publishing: A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the 14th and final volume in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time®, brings to a close the legendary epic fantasy series that has sold over 18 million copies in North America and over 44 million copies worldwide since its beginning over twenty years ago. With the end finally here, fan anticipation for the much-buzzed about concluding volume has reached dizzying heights. When Robert Jordan passed away from cardiac amyloidosis in 2007, there was an incredible outpouring of emotion from the deeply beloved author’s millions of fans, but also great sadness and consternation that his life’s work might go unfinished. But Jordan had prepared for the moment: with hundreds of pages of notes devoted to the concluding volumes, he made his desire known to his widow and long-time editor, Harriet McDougal, to find a successor to finish the series. Her selection, a little-known fantasy author and devoted fan of Jordan’s named Brandon Sanderson, has gone above and beyond fan expectation with two of the final three volumes, The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight (both #1 New York Times bestsellers). Now, with A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the Sanderson and McDougal duo have made sure that this last book lives up to the very high standard Jordan set, and gives the series and the fans a worthy and deserving conclusion. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=184032 Brandon Sanderson; Harriet McDougal Science and Technology Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: George Saunders] One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet. Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. The New York Times raves that this is “the best book you’ll read this year.” These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=183613 George Saunders Science and Technology Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: W. Patrick McCray] In 1969, physicist Gerard O’Neill began looking to space colonies as humanity’s new frontier; a decade later, engineer Eric Drexler turned his attention to the molecular world. Blending countercultural ideals with hard science, entrepreneurship, libertarianism, and optimism, these modern utopians predicted their technologies could transform society—but it’s not always easy being a modern utopian. Author W. Patrick McCray examines the successes and pitfalls the scientists encountered, and how they ultimately imagined, designed, and popularized speculative technologies such as space colonies and nanotechnologies http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=183555 W. Patrick McCray Science and Technology Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speakers: Alex Weinert and Dr. Mike Jensen] Dr. Jensen and his team have developed a method of reprogramming the body’s own immune system to kill cancer without the devastating side effects of radiation and chemotherapy. This technique of genetically re-engineering an individual’s T cells has proven to be safe and effective in the laboratory and is a transformative shift away from the debilitating side effects that surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can have on a child’s developing mind and body. He is a bold visionary - one that is going to change the way pediatric cancers are treated and cured – in our lifetime. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=183410 Alex Weinert; Mike Jensen Science and Technology Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Alec Foege] The American tinkering spirit, a unique combination of untamed creativity and practical business sense, helped build the United States into the world’s greatest economic power. Home to the inventions of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and many more, the US has been a nation of tinkerers from its very beginning. Today’s American tinkerers are innovators, but they’re so much more: Brilliant, cockeyed dilettantes such as Segway inventor Dean Kamen, brain trust entrepreneur Nathan Myhrvold, and Tinkering School founder Gever Tulley are rethinking the way the country accesses its tinkering birthright. Lately, the country seems to be changing from a land of doers to one of consumers and the once-praised innovative aura seems to have fallen aside to corporate goals. But as companies begin to bring manufacturing back to domestic shores, industry can learn a lot from the history of the pure tinkering mindset, and better understand how to recapture its remarkable power. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=180605 Alec Foege Science and Technology Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Nick Montfort] A single line of code--the extremely concise BASIC program for the Commodore 64 inscribed in the title—is used as a lens through which to consider the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture. Nick Montfort, in collaboration with nine other authors, treat code not as merely functional but as a text--in the case of 10 PRINT, a text that appeared in many different printed sources--that yields a story about its making, its purpose, its assumptions, and more. They consider randomness and regularity in computing and art, the maze in culture, the popular BASIC programming language, and the highly influential Commodore 64 computer. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=180079 Nick Montfort Science and Technology Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Matthew E. May] The world is more overwhelming than ever before. There is endless choice and feature overkill in all but the best experiences. Everybody knows everything about us. The simple life is a thing of the past. Author Matthew May argues that success in this new age looks different and demands a new skill: Subtraction. He defines this as the art of removing anything excessive, or having the discipline to refrain from adding it in the first place. And if subtraction is the new skill to be acquired, we need a guide to developing it. His book, The Laws of Subtraction outlines six simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything, and delivers a single yet powerful idea: When you remove just the right things in just the right way, something very good happens. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=179882 Matthew E. May Science and Technology Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Nassim Nicholas Taleb] Author and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb offers a definitive solution for how to gain from disorder and chaos, while being protected from fragilities and adverse events. Taleb argues that many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What he calls the "antifragile" is actually beyond the robust, because it benefits from shocks, uncertainty, and stressors, just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension. The antifragile needs disorder in order to survive and flourish. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=179651 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Science and Technology Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Nathan Myhrvold] Modernist Cuisine at Home, by Nathan Myhrvold with Maxime Bilet, is destined to set a new standard for home cookbooks. The authors have collected all the essential information that any cook needs to stock a modern kitchen, to master Modernist techniques, and to make hundreds of stunning recipes. Drawing on the same commitment to perfection that produced Modernist Cuisine, Modernist Cuisine at Home applies innovations pioneered by The Cooking Lab to refine classic home dishes, from hamburgers and wings to macaroni and cheese. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=179187 Nathan Myhrvold Science and Technology Fri, 07 Dec 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speaker: Peter Hoffman] Below the calm, ordered exterior of a living organism lies microscopic chaos. Our cells are filled with molecular machines, which, like tiny ratchets, transform random motion into ordered activity, and create the “purpose” that is the hallmark of life. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, nanoscale factories custom-build other molecular machines, and mechanical machines twist, untwist, separate and package strands of DNA. The cell is like a city—an unfathomably, complex collection of molecular workers creating something greater than themselves. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=177454 Peter Hoffman Science and Technology Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:30:00 GMT [Speakers: Paul Miller and Ephraim Freed] The new geography of work will be transformational: Digital Workplaces where we spend more and more time, allow us to work in entirely new ways with richer, more immersive tools. This new digital working world is always there, always on. Whether we are in our traditional or newly repurposed offices, or wherever else we happen to be working; at home, in the garden, in a touchdown space, a café, on a train, in the park, in a car… Every aspect of work is being liberated but this comes with challenges around work addiction and employee isolation. Ultimately we can rethink how and where we work today. Technological advances driving the digital age are already visibly changing the workplace and we’ll discuss where those new capabilities might lead us. Ephraim Freed will be interviewing Paul. Ephraim is the Community Manager at the Intranet Benchmarking Forum (part of the Digital Workplace Group). http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=177998 Paul Miller; Ephraim Freed Science and Technology Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:30:00 GMT