Inspiring and thought-provoking talks from TEDx Albertopolis

Last month, Keri and I took a train trip to London to attend Tedx Albertopolis. You may have already heard of TED – they describe themselves as ‘a non-profit devoted to ideas worth spreading’ and their website is chock-full of talks and lectures on pretty much every subject you can imagine from leading experts and some famous faces.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share ideas, in the spirit of the main TED conference. TEDx Albertopolis took its inspiration from the original idea of the Albertopolis area – that the arts and science should be able to work together for the public good – with a programme of talks on where art and science meet.

The programme was extremely diverse, with everything from seaweed art to public health. Here are some of our favourite sessions of the afternoon.

Sole determination: Nicholas McCarthy

Nicholas is the only left-handed pianist to graduate from London’s Royal College of Music and is now the world’s youngest solo left-handed player. In this talk, he tells the story of his journey and how he overcame the skepticism and obstacles in his path.

Dances with words: John Halpern

John Halpern is a cryptic crossword setter for The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times and many other newspapers. He sees wordplay and patterns everywhere and believes in the power of words to bring people together.

Tourette’s Syndrome, the alchemy of chaos: Jessica Thom

The founder of Tourettshero, Jessica aims to change the world one tic at a time and celebrate the humour that comes with Tourette’s. She challenges misconceptions and encourages people to see the creative opportunities the condition presents.

The drug’s don’t work: Sally Davies

Sally is the Chief Medical Officer for the UK (in fact, she’s the first female to ever hold the positions) and was recently names one of the top ten most powerful women in the country. In this thought-provoking and rather scary talk, she talks about one of things that scares her most – the increase in disease resistant antibiotics and the lack of new drugs in the pipeline. She also gives some ideas on what we can do to prevent a day when the drugs no longer work.

Featured image by James Deacon and Pete Davie.