TEDxCaltech

Everyone knows about the TED talks -- the great, and mercifully short, presentations whose videos are among the most-shared on the web. Even clicking on a completely random talk, you're likely to be rewarded with something interesting. Part of that is the extraordinary level of quality control -- not only in choosing speakers, but in working with speakers ahead of time to fine-tune their presentations. And holding them to a time limit. Besides the big TED conferences, there are also independently-organized events known as TEDx. Caltech is going to host such an event for the first time, TEDxCaltech, on January 14. The theme is "Feynman's Vision: The Next 50 Years." In practice that means three groups of talks: Conceptualization and Visualization in Science, Frontiers of Physics, and Nanoscience and Future Biology. Check out the list of speakers. If it weren't for the fact that I am on it myself, I'd ...