Subject
2 entries
Ted
Bookmarks
Why Is 'x' the Unknown?
A TED talk by Terry Moore tracing why 'x' became the symbol for an unknown quantity — it comes from the Arabic 'xei' (thing/something), transliterated into Spanish via a sound that doesn't exist in Spanish phonology. A reminder that mathematical notation has contingent historical origins.
Anthony Atala: Printing a Human Kidney
Anthony Atala's TED talk demonstrating a bioprinted kidney scaffold on stage — a landmark moment for regenerative medicine that showed 3D printing of functional human tissue was no longer speculative. Atala's lab at Wake Forest had already implanted lab-grown bladders in patients.