How a miniaturized atomic clock could revolutionize space exploration | Jill Seubert

How a miniaturized atomic clock could revolutionize space exploration | Jill Seubert

Author: TED March 5, 2020 Duration: 11:07
Ask any deep space navigator like Jill Seubert what makes steering a spacecraft difficult, and they'll tell you it's all about the timing; a split-second can decide a mission's success or failure. So what do you do when a spacecraft is bad at telling time? You get it a clock -- an atomic clock, to be precise. Let Seubert whisk you away with the revolutionary potential of a future where you could receive stellar, GPS-like directions -- no matter where you are in the universe.

Curiosity about how our bodies work and the universe functions finds a compelling home in TED Talks Science and Medicine. This curated collection pulls directly from the global stage, featuring leading researchers, pioneering physicians, and insightful thinkers who are actively reshaping their fields. Each episode is a deep, personal narrative from the person behind the discovery, moving beyond textbook summaries to share the human story of scientific pursuit. You’ll hear a neurosurgeon explain the delicate biology of consciousness, a biologist decoding the secret language of trees, or an epidemiologist tracing the path of a pandemic. The discussions are grounded in rigorous research but delivered with a clarity and passion that makes complex concepts accessible and genuinely thrilling. Sourced from flagship TED conferences, independent TEDx events, and partner gatherings worldwide, this podcast serves as a direct line to the cutting edge. It’s for anyone who finds wonder in a detailed medical breakthrough or a revolutionary physics concept, offering a regular dose of perspective on the mechanisms of life and the cosmos. TED’s nonprofit mission to spread impactful ideas is perfectly realized here, turning each listening session into an engaging, thought-provoking exploration of what we know and the vast mysteries that remain.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 133

TED Talks Science and Medicine
Podcast Episodes
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Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic each year -- yet, despite our best efforts, less than 10 percent of it ends up being recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste? Morgan Vague describes her…
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Duration: 13:58
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How supercharged plants could slow climate change | Joanne Chory [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:34
Plants are amazing machines -- for millions of years, they've taken carbon dioxide out of the air and stored it underground, keeping a crucial check on the global climate. Plant geneticist Joanne Chory is working to ampl…
Inside the black hole image that made history | Sheperd Doeleman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:16
At the center of a galaxy more than 55 million light-years away, there's a supermassive black hole with the mass of several billion suns. And now, for the first time ever, we can see it. Astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman,…
Can we regenerate heart muscle with stem cells? | Chuck Murry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:22
The heart is one of the least regenerative organs in the human body -- a big factor in making heart failure the number one killer worldwide. What if we could help heart muscle regenerate after injury? Physician and scien…
Why bees hold the key to our future | Noah Wilson-Rich [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:41
Bees are dying off in record numbers, but ecologist Noah Wilson-Rich is interested in something else: Where are bees healthy and thriving? To find out, he recruited citizen scientists across the US to set up beehives in…
The secret to scientific discoveries? Making mistakes | Phil Plait [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:55
Phil Plait was on a Hubble Space Telescope team of astronomers who thought they may have captured the first direct photo of an exoplanet ever taken. But did the evidence actually support that? Follow along as Plait shows…
Where did the Moon come from? A new theory | Sarah T. Stewart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:57
The Earth and Moon are like identical twins, made up of the exact same materials -- which is really strange, since no other celestial bodies we know of share this kind of chemical relationship. What's responsible for thi…