第一篇：TED演讲稿

好了，我们即将潜入海底深处。

We're going to go on a pe to the deep sea，任何一个有过这种美妙机会的人都知道

and anyone that's had that lovely opportunity knows

在这两个半小时的下降过程中，that for about two and half hours on the way down，是一个完全漆黑的世界。

it's a perfectly positively pitch-black world.我们透过窗户会看见世界上各种最神秘的动物，And we used to see the most mysterious animals out the window

各种无法形容的动物。这些闪亮着的光，that you couldn't describe: these blinking lights--

完美地构成了如萤火虫般发光的世界。a world of bioluminescence, like fireflies.研究保护协会的Edith Witter博士

Dr.Edith Widder--she's now at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association--

发明了一种照相机，was able to come up with a camera

这种照相机可以拍下这些令人难以置信的生物。that could capture some of these incredible animals，这就是你现在在屏幕上看到的。

and that's what you're seeing here on the screen.他们全部都是生物发光体。像我说的，就像萤火虫一样。

That's all bioluminescence.So, like I said: just like fireflies.这是个会飞的火鸡，在树下。（笑声）

There's a flying turkey under a tree.(Laughter)

我知道我现在像是个实习期的地质学家，不过我就是喜欢。

I'm a geologist by training.But I love that.你可以看到这些生物发出的光，And you see, some of the bioluminescence

有些是为了避免被吃掉。they use to avoid being eaten，有些又是为引诱食物上钩。some they use to attract prey，尽管如此，用艺术的角度来看，这些都如此神奇。but all of it, from an artistic point of view, is positively amazing.再来看看这里发生了些什么—— And a lot of what goes on inside...这条鱼有着会发光，闪烁的眼睛。

there's a fish with glowing eyes, pulsating eyes.有些颜色则可以催眠。

Some of the colors are designed to hypnotize，多么有趣的图案。这是最后一个：

these lovely patterns.And then this last one，也是我的最爱，像转轮一样的设计。one of my favorites, this pinwheel design.每一次潜水都充满着惊喜。

Just absolutely amazing, every single pe.这正是一个未知的世界。到今天为止，我们只探索了其中的极小部分，That's the unknown world, and today we've only explored about 3 percent

大约只占了所有海洋的3%。of what's out there in the ocean.到现在，我们已经发现了世界上最高的山峰，Already we've found the world's highest mountains，最深的峡谷，the world's deepest valleys，水下湖，水下瀑布，underwater lakes, underwater waterfalls--

还有我们刚才看到的。

a lot of that we shared with you from the stage.然而，恰是我们曾经以为根本不可能有生命的地方，And in a place where we thought no life at all，我们发现了众多的生物，还有它们的密度和多样性，we find more life, we think, and persity and density

都超过了热带雨林。这告诉我们

than the tropical rainforest, which tells us that

我们实际上对自己的星球还不甚了解。we don't know much about this planet at all.还有剩下的97%，那里要不就是一片荒芜，要不就是充满惊喜。

There's still 97 percent, and either that 97 percent is empty or just full of surprises.不过我现在还是想说说浅水里的世界，But I want to jump up to shallow water now

来看看那些神奇的生物。

and look at some creatures that are positively amazing.头足类动物，有头有角。小时候我把他们当作是枪乌贼。

Cephalopods--head-foots.As a kid I knew them as calamari, mostly.(Laughter)

这是一条章鱼。This is an octopus--

这是来自Roger Hanlon博士，海洋生物实验室的成果。

this is the work of Dr.Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab--

这些头足类动物真令人着迷，and it's just fascinating how cephalopods can，它用它们的眼睛，它们那难以置信的眼睛来观察周围的环境，with their incredible eyes, sense their surroundings，看光，看图案。

look at light, look at patterns.这有只章鱼正在穿过礁石。

Here's an octopus moving across the reef，找到一个位置，停下来，卷起，然后马上消失在背景之中。

finds a spot to settle down, curls up and then disappears into the background.这很难做到。Tough thing to do.接下来，再来一起看一对鱿鱼。

In the next bit, we're going to see a couple squid.这就是鱿鱼。当雄性鱿鱼搏斗时，These are squid.Now males, when they fight，如果它们想要显示出自己的侵略性，它们就变为白色了。

if they're really aggressive, they turn white.这有两条雄鱿鱼在搏斗。

And these two males are fighting，它们用撞屁股的方式来搏斗，they do it by bouncing their butts together，真是挺有意思的方法。这里有一条雄性在左边，which is an interesting concept.Now, here's a male on the left

雌性在右边。

and a female on the right，看，这条雄性能有办法利用颜色把自己分为两半，and the male has managed to split his coloration

所以雌性只能看到它温顺，优雅的一边，so the female only always sees the kinder gentler squid in him.雄性--（笑声）再来看一次。

And the male...(Laughter)We're going to see it again.让我们再看一次。注意它的颜色：

Let's take a look at it again.Watch the coloration:

白色在右边，棕色在左边。

white on the right, brown on the left.它后退一步，让其它的雄性无法靠近

He takes a step back--so he's keeping off the other males

来到另外一边，并且马上转换颜色。

by splitting his body--and comes up on the other side...瞧！以前有人告诉我 Bingo!Now I'm told that's

这个雄性特征不仅仅是在鱿鱼身上，不过我也不太确定。

not just a squid phenomenon with males, but I don't know.墨鱼，我很喜欢墨鱼。这是一只巨型澳大利亚墨鱼。Cuttlefish.I love cuttlefish.This is a Giant Australian Cuttlefish.看它，看它那双无精打采的眼睛。

And there he is, his droopy little eyes up here.不过它们能做很神奇的事。

But they can do pretty amazing things, too.我们马上就能看到它退入到礁石的夹缝中去，Here we're going to see one backing into a crevice, and

注意它的触角。watch his tentacles--

它就这样把触角拉进来，使自己看起来像海藻一样。he just pulls them in, makes them look just like algae.刹那就消失在背景中。

Disappears right into the background.多神奇！这又是两只雄性在搏斗。

Positively amazing.Here's two males fighting.当然，这些头足类非常聪明，Once again, they're smart enough, these cephalopods;

他们知道如何不会伤害到对方。they know not to hurt each other.不过看下它们能够利用皮肤来变换图案。怎么样？ But look at the patterns that they can do with their skin.很神奇吧！

That's an amazing thing.这是个章鱼。有时候，它们不想被别人发现它们在移动，Here's an octopus.Sometimes they don't want to be seen when they move

因为那些食肉动物会发现它们。because predators can see them.看，这个家伙把自己弄的像石头一样，Here, this guy actually can make himself look like a rock，观察着它周围的环境，and, looking at his environment，然后滑过水底，can actually slide across the bottom，利用波纹和阴影来隐藏自己，从而不被发现。using the waves and the shadows so he can't be seen.就是这样，无声无息地融入环境之中。His motion blends right into the background--

这就是移动石头的手法。我们从浅海中学到了很多新东西。

the moving rock trick.So, we're learning lots new from the shallow water.继续来探索下深海领域，Still exploring the deep，同时从浅海中学到很多新东西。

but learning lots from the shallow water.这有个原因来解释：在浅海里，There's a good reason why: the shallow water's

到处都是捕猎者。这是条梭鱼。full of predators--here's a barracuda--

如果你是条章鱼或是头足类动物的话，and if you're an octopus or a cephalopod，你确实需要知道怎么利用周围的环境来隐藏自己。you need to really understand how to use your surroundings to hide.下个画面里，你可以看到一个美丽的珊瑚。

In the next scene, you're going to see a nice coral bottom.你会发现，一条章鱼

And you see that an octopus would stand out

我以为是电脑特效。让我们看看倒放。

如果不进行伪装，极易被发现。

very easily there if you couldn't use your camouflage，伪装是改变你皮肤的颜色和纹理。use your skin to change color and texture.前面这里有些海藻，Here's some algae in the foreground...还有一条章鱼。难道不神奇么？不过现在，显然Roger（摄影师）吓到了它，and an octopus.Ain't that amazing? Now, Roger spooked him

它马上释放烟雾弹——墨水来掩护逃脱。so he took off in a cloud of ink, and when he

当它停下来，会想，“啊，我被发现了，lands the octopus says, “Oh, I've been seen.那我最好变到最大来保护下自己。

The best thing to do is to get as big as I can get.”

那片棕色让它的眼睛看起来十分大。That big brown makes his eyespot very big.它在唬人。让我们看一次倒放。

So, he's bluffing.Let's do it backwards--

我第一次看到的时候还以为他在开玩笑呢。

I thought he was joking when he first showed it to me.I thought it was all graphics--so here it is in reverse.注意看它皮肤的颜色，以及皮肤的纹理。Watch the skin color;watch the skin texture.多么神奇的动物，可以改变自己的颜色和质地 Just an amazing animal, it can change color and texture

来变得和背景一样。看它消失在海藻中。

to match the surroundings.Watch him blend right into this algae.一，二，三。

One, two, three.(Applause)

它不见了，我也该下去了。谢谢大家！

And now he's gone, and so am I.Thank you very much.

第二篇：TED演讲稿

So I'm here to tell you that we have a problem with boys, and it's a serious problem with boys.Their culture isn't working in schools, and I'm going to share with you ways that we can think about overcoming that problem.First, I want to start by saying, this is a boy, and this is a girl, and this is probably stereotypically what you think of as a boy and a girl.If I essentialize gender for you today, then you can dismiss what I have to say.So I'm not going to do that.I'm not interested in doing that.This is a different kind of boy and a different kind of girl.So the point here is that not all boys exist within these rigid boundaries of what we think of as boys and girls, and not all girls exist within those rigid boundaries of what we think of as girls.But, in fact, most boys tend to be a certain way, and most girls tend to be a certain way.And the point is that, for boys, the way that they exist and the culture that they embrace isn't working well in schools now.1:08How do we know that? The Hundred Girls Project tells us some really nice statistics.For example, for every 100 girls that are suspended from school, there are 250 boys that are suspended from school.For every 100 girls who are expelled from school, there are 335 boys who are expelled from school.For every 100 girls in special education, there are 217 boys.For every 100 girls with a learning disability,there are 276 boys.For every 100 girls with an emotional disturbance diagnosed, we have 324 boys.And by the way, all of these numbers are significantly higher if you happen to be black, if you happen to be poor, if you happen to exist in an overcrowded school.And if you are a boy, you're four times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD--Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.2:02Now there is another side to this.And it is important that we recognize that women still need help in school, that salaries are still significantly lower, even when controlled for job types, and that girls have continued to struggle in math and science for years.That's all true.Nothing about that prevents us from paying attention to the literacy needs of our boys between ages three and 13.And so we should.In fact, what we ought to do is take a page from their playbook, because the initiatives and programs that have been set in place for women in science and engineering and mathematics are fantastic.They've done a lot of good for girls in these situations, and we ought to be thinking about how we can make that happen for boys too in their younger years.2:50Even in their older years, what we find is that there's still a problem.When we look at the universities,60 percent of baccalaureate degrees are going to women now, which is

a significant shift.And in fact, university administrators are a little uncomfortable about the idea that we may be getting close to 70 percent female population in universities.This makes university administrators very nervous, because girls don't want to go to schools that don't have boys.And so we're starting to see the establishment of men centers and men studies to think about how do we engage men in their experiences in the university.If you talk to faculty, they may say, “Ugh.Yeah, well, they're playing video games, and they're gambling online all night long, and they're playing World of Warcraft, and that's affecting their academic achievement.” Guess what? Video games are not the cause.Video games are a symptom.They were turned off a long time before they got here.3:52So let's talk about why they got turned off when they were between the ages of three and 13.There are three reasons that I believe that boys are out of sync with the culture of schools today.The first is zero tolerance.A kindergarten teacher I know, her son donated all of his toys to her, and when he did, she had to go through and pull out all the little plastic guns.You can't have plastic knives and swords and axes and all that kind of thing in a kindergarten classroom.What is it that we're afraid that this young man is going to do with this gun? I mean, really.But here he stands as testament to the fact that you can't roughhouse on the playground today.Now I'm not advocating for bullies.I'm not suggesting that we need to be allowing guns and knives into school.But when we say that an Eagle Scout in a high school classroom who has a locked parked car in the parking lot and a penknife in it has to be suspended from school, I think we may have gone a little too far with zero tolerance.4:55Another way that zero tolerance lives itself out is in the writing of boys.In a lot of classrooms todayyou're not allowed to write about anything that's violent.You're not allowed to write about anything that has to do with video games--these topics are banned.Boy comes home from school, and he says, “I hate writing.” “Why do you hate writing, son? What's wrong with writing?” “Now I have to write what she tells me to write.” “Okay, what is she telling you to write?” “Poems.I have to write poems.And little moments in my life.I don't want to write that stuff.” “All right.Well, what do you want to write? What do you want to write about?” “I want to write about video games.I want to write about leveling-up.I want to write about this really interesting world.I want to write about a tornado that comes into our houseand blows all the windows out and ruins all the furniture and kills everybody.” “All right.Okay.” You tell a teacher that, and they'll ask you, in all seriousness, “Should we send this child to the psychologist?”And the answer is no, he's just a boy.He's just a little boy.It's not okay to write these kinds of things in classrooms today.6:00So that's the first reason: zero tolerance policies and the way they're lived out.The next reason that boys' cultures are out of sync with school cultures: there are fewer male teachers.Anybody who's over 15 doesn't know what this means, because in the last 10 years, the number of elementary school classroom teachers has been cut in half.We went from 14 percent to seven percent.That means that 93 percent of the teachers that our young men get in elementary classrooms are women.Now what's the problem with this? Women are great.Yep, absolutely.But male role models for boys that say it's all right to be smart--they've got dads, they've got pastors, they've got Cub Scout leaders, but ultimately, six hours a day, five days a week they're spending in a classroom, and most of those classrooms are not places where men exist.And so they say, I guess this really isn't a place for boys.This is a place for girls.And I'm not very good at this, so I guess I'd better go play video games or get into sports, or something like that, because I obviously don't belong here.Men don't belong here, that's pretty obvious.7:06So that may be a very direct way that we see it happen.But less directly, the lack of male presence in the culture--you've got a teachers' lounge, and they're having a conversation about Joey and Johnny who beat each other up on the playground.“What are we going to do with these boys?” The answer to that question changes depending on who's sitting around that table.Are there men around that table?Are there moms who've raised boys around that table? You'll see, the conversation changes depending upon who's sitting around the table.7:36Third reason that boys are out of sync with school today: kindergarten is the old second grade, folks.We have a serious compression of the curriculum happening out there.When you're three, you better be able to write your name legibly, or else we'll consider it a developmental delay.By the time you're in first grade, you should be able to read paragraphs of text with maybe a picture, maybe not, in a book of maybe 25 to 30 pages.If you don't, we're probably going to be putting you into a Title 1 special reading program.And if you ask Title 1 teachers, they'll tell you they've got about four or five boys for every girl that's in their program, in the elementary grades.8:11The reason that this is a problem is because the message that boys are getting is “you need to do what the teacher asks you to do all the time.” The teacher's salary depends on “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top” and accountability and testing and all of this.So she has to figure out a way to get all these boys through this curriculum--and girls.This compressed curriculum is bad for all active kids.And what happens is, she says, “Please, sit down, be quiet, do what you're told, follow the rules,manage your time, focus, be a girl.” That's what she tells them.Indirectly, that's what she tells them.And so this is a very serious problem.Where is it coming from? It's coming from us.(Laughter)We want our babies to read when they are six months old.Have you seen the ads? We want to live in Lake Wobegon where every child is above average, but what this does to our children is really not healthy.It's not developmentally appropriate, and it's particularly bad for boys.9:24So what do we do? We need to meet them where they are.We need to put ourselves into boy culture.We need to change the mindset of acceptance in boys in elementary schools.More specifically, we can do some very specific things.We can design better games.Most of the educational games that are out there today are really flashcards.They're glorified drill and practice.They don't have the depth, the rich narrative that really engaging video games have, that the boys are really interested in.So we need to design better games.We need to talk to teachers and parents and school board members and politicians.We need to make sure that people see that we need more men in the classroom.We need to look carefully at our zero tolerance policies.Do they make sense? We need to think about how to uncompress this curriculum if we can, trying to bring boys back into a space that is comfortable for them.All of those conversations need to be happening.10:20There are some great examples out there of schools--the New York Times just talked about a school recently.A game designer from the New School put together a wonderful video gaming school.But it only treats a few kids, and so this isn't very scalable.We have to change the culture and the feelingsthat politicians and school board members and parents have about the way we accept and what we accept in our schools today.We need to find more money for game design.Because good games, really good games, cost money, and World of Warcraft has quite a budget.Most of the educational games do not.Where we started: my colleagues--Mike Petner, Shawn Vashaw, myself--we started by trying to look at the teachers' attitudes and find out how do they really feel about gaming, what do they say about it.And we discovered that they talk about the kids in their school, who talk about gaming, in pretty demeaning ways.They say, “Oh, yeah.They're always talking about that stuff.They're talking about their little action figures and their little achievements or merit badges, or whatever it is that they get.And they're always talking about this stuff.” And they say these things as if it's okay.But if it were your culture, think of how that might feel.It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of that kind of language.They're nervous about anything that has anything to do with violence because of the zero tolerance policies.They are sure that parents and administrators will never accept anything.11:45So we really need to think about looking at teacher attitudes and finding ways to change the attitudes so that teachers are much more open and accepting of boy cultures in their classrooms.Because, ultimately, if we don't, then we're going to have boys who leave elementary school saying, “Well I guess that was just a place for girls.It wasn't for me.So I've got to do gaming, or I've got to do sports.” If we change these things, if we pay attention to these things, and we re-engage boys in their learning, they will leave the elementary schools saying, “I'm smart.”

第三篇：TED演讲稿

TED精彩演讲：坠机让我学到的三件事

Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft.Imagine a plane full of smoke.Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack，clack, clack.It sounds scary.想像一个大爆炸，当你在三千多英尺的高空；想像机舱内布满黑烟，想像引擎发出喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦、喀啦的声响，听起来很可怕。

Well I had a unique seat that day.I was sitting in 1D.I was the only one who can talk to the flight attendants.So I looked at them right away, and they said, “No problem.We probably hit some birds.” The pilot had already turned the plane around, and we weren't that far.You could see Manhattan.那天我的位置很特別，我坐在1D，我是唯一可以和空服员说话的人，于是我立刻看着他们，他们说，“没问题，我们可能撞上鸟了。” 机长已经把机头转向，我们离目的地很近，已经可以看到曼哈顿了。

Two minutes later, 3 things happened at the same time.The pilot lines up the plane with the Hudson River.That's usually not the route.He turns off the engines.Now imagine being in a plane with no sound.And then he says 3 words-the most unemotional 3 words I've ever heard.He says, “Brace for impact.” 两分钟以后，三件事情同时发生：机长把飞机对齐哈德逊河，一般的航道可不是这样。他关上引擎。想像坐在一架没有声音的飞机上。然后他说了几个字，我听过最不带情绪的几个字，他说，“即将迫降，小心冲击。”

I didn't have to talk to the flight attendant anymore.I could see in her eyes, it was terror.Life was over.我不用再问空服员什么了。我可以在她眼神里看到恐惧，人生结束了。

Now I want to share with you 3 things I learned about myself that day.现在我想和你们分享那天我所学到的三件事。

I leant that it all changes in an instant.We have this bucket list, we have these things we want to do in life, and I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to that I didn't, all the fences I wanted to mend, all the experiences I wanted to have and I never did.As I thought about that later on, I came up with a saying, which is, “collect bad wines”.Because if the wine is ready and the person is there, I'm opening it.I no longer want to postpone anything in life.And that urgency, that purpose, has really changed my life.在那一瞬间内，一切都改变了。我们的人生目标清单，那些我们想做的事，所有那些我想联络却没有联络的人，那些我想修补的围墙，人际关系，所有我想经历却没有经历的事。之后我回想那些事，我想到一句话，那就是，“我收藏的酒都很差。” 因为如果酒已成熟，分享对象也有，我早就把把酒打开了。我不想再把生命中的任何事延后，这种紧迫感、目标性改变了我的生命。

The second thing I learnt that dayI thought about, wow, I really feel one real regret, I've lived a good life.In my own humanity and mistaked, I've tired to get better at everything I tried.But in my humanity, I also allow my ego to get in.And I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter.And I thought about my relationship with my wife, my friends, with people.And after, as I reflected on that, I decided to eliminate negative energy from my life.It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.I've not had a fight with my wife in 2 years.It feels great.I no longer try to be right;I choose to be happy.那天我学到的第二件事是，正当我们通过乔治华盛顿大桥，那也没过多久，我想，哇，我有一件真正后悔的事。虽然我有人性缺点，也犯了些错，但我生活得其实不错。我试着把每件事做得更好。但因为人性，我难免有些自我中心，我后悔竟然花了许多时间，和生命中重要的人讨论那些不重要的事。我想到我和妻子、朋友及人们的关系，之后，回想这件事时，我决定除掉我人生中的负面情绪。还没完全做到，但确实好多了。过去两年我从未和妻子吵架，感觉很好，我不再尝试争论对错，我选择快乐。

The third thing I learnedfirst-grade, not much artistic talent...yet.And I 'm balling, I'm crying, like a little kid.And it made all the sense in the world to me.I realized at that point by connecting those two dots, that the only thing that matters in my life is being a great dad.Above all, above all, the only goal I have in life is to be a good dad.一个月后，我参加女儿的表演，她一年级，没什么艺术天份，就算如此。我泪流满面，像个孩子，这让我的世界重新有了意义。当当时我意识到，将这两件事连接起来，其实我生命中唯一重要的事，就是成为一个好父亲，比任何事都重要，比任何事都重要，我人生中唯一的目标就是做个好父亲。

I was given the gift of a miracle, of not dying that day.I was given another gift, which was to be able to see into the future and come back and live differently.那天我经历了一个奇迹，我活下來了。我还得到另一个启示，像是看见自己的未来再回來，改变自己的人生。

I challenge you guys that are flying today, imagine the same thing happens on your planebut imagine, and how would you change? What would you get done that you're waiting to get done because you think you'll be here forever? How would you change your relationtships and the negative energy in them? And more than anything, are you being the best parent you can? 我鼓励今天要坐飞机的各位，想像如果你坐的飞机出了同样的事，最好不要－但想像一下，你会如何改变？有什么是你想做却没做的，因为你觉得你有其它机会做它？你会如何改变你的人际关系，不再如此负面？最重要的是，你是否尽力成为一个好父母？ Thank you.

第四篇：TED演讲稿

TED演讲-论生物多样性 爱德华·威尔逊

生物多样性之感 潘俞宏

I was appreciated by Edward Wilson’s on biological persity.He introduce the biological persity and wish we could build up the Encyclopedia of Life to preserve lift.That’s also my wish.We all know that many species disappear every years and Human-forced climate change alone again, if unabated could eliminate a quarter of surviving species during the next five decades.In normal, one specie would turn into a different form or disappear on the earth finally, but it may take a long time.However it become faster because of the environment pollution.What I want to say is that biological persity is a valuable wealth of all human beings and provide a good environment for the survival of mankind.It is the foundation of human society's survival and development.At the same time, people rely on the ecological system to purify air, water, etc.All nature Creatures are interdependent and mutually restricted.The vast of one specie indicates that many species are about to die, but we could do nothing.Now it’s time for us to do something, not only the Encyclopedia of Life, just all what we can do.To search for life, to understand it and finally, above all, to preserve it.

第五篇：ted演讲稿

Brian Cox: CERN's supercollider This is the Large Hadron Collider.It's 27 kilometers in circumference.It's the biggest scientific experiment ever attempted.Over 10,000 physicists and engineers from 85 countries around the world have come together over several decades to build this machine.What we do is we accelerate protons--so, hydrogen nuclei--around 99.999999 percent the speed of light.Right? At that speed, they go around that 27 kilometers 11,000 times a second.And we collide them with another beam of protons going in the opposite direction.We collide them inside giant detectors.They're essentially digital cameras.And this is the one that I work on, ATLAS.You get some sense of the size--you can just see these EU standard-size people underneath.(Laughter)You get some sense of the size: 44 meters wide, 22 meters in diameter, 7,000 tons.And we re-create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began up to 600 million times a second inside that detector--immense numbers.And if you see those metal bits there--those are huge magnets that bend electrically charged particles, so it can measure how fast they're traveling.This is a picture about a year ago.Those magnets are in there.And, again, a EU standard-size, real person, so you get some sense of the scale.And it's in there that those mini-Big Bangs will be created, sometime in the summer this year.And actually, this morning, I got an email saying that we've just finished, today, building the last piece of ATLAS.So as of today, it's finished.I'd like to say that I planned that for TED, but I didn't.So it's been completed as of today.(Applause)Yeah, it's a wonderful achievement.So, you might be asking, “Why? Why create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began?” Well, particle physicists are nothing if not ambitious.And the aim of particle physics is to understand what everything's made of, and how everything sticks together.And by everything I mean, of course, me and you, the Earth, the Sun, the 100 billion suns in our galaxy and the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.Absolutely everything.Now you might say, “Well, OK, but why not just look at it? You know? If you want to know what I'm made of, let's look at me.” Well, we found that as you look back in time, the universe gets hotter and hotter, denser and denser, and simpler and simpler.Now, there's no real reason I'm aware of for that, but that seems to be the case.So, way back in the early times of the universe, we believe it was very simple and understandable.All this complexity, all the way to these wonderful things--human brains--are a property of an old and cold and complicated universe.Back at the start, in the first billionth of a second, we believe, or we've observed, it was very simple.It's almost like...imagine a snowflake in your hand, and you look at it, and it's an incredibly complicated, beautiful object.But as you heat it up, it'll melt into a pool of water, and you would be able to see that, actually, it was just made of H20, water.So it's in that same sense that we look back in time to understand what the universe is made of.And, as of today, it's made of these things.Just 12 particles of matter, stuck together by four forces of nature.The quarks, these pink things, are the things that make up protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nuclei in your body.The electron--the thing that goes around the atomic nucleus--held around in orbit, by the way, by the electromagnetic force that's carried by this thing, the photon.The quarks are stuck together by other things called gluons.And these guys, here, they're the weak nuclear force, probably the least familiar.But, without it, the sun wouldn't shine.And when the sun shines, you get copious quantities of these things, called neutrinos, pouring out.Actually, if you just look at your thumbnail--about a square centimeter--there are something like 60 billion neutrinos per second from the sun, passing through every square centimeter of your body.But you don't feel them, because the weak force is correctly named--very short range and very weak, so they just fly through you.And these particles have been discovered over the last century, pretty much.The first one, the electron, was discovered in 1897, and the last one, this thing called the tau neutrino, in the year 2000.Actually just--I was going to say, just up the road in Chicago.I know it's a big country, America, isn't it? Just up the road.Relative to the universe, it's just up the road.(Laughter)So, this thing was discovered in the year 2000, so it's a relatively recent picture.One of the wonderful things, actually, I find, is that we've discovered any of them, when you realize how tiny they are.You know, they're a step in size from the entire observable universe.So, 100 billion galaxies, 13.7 billion light years away--a step in size from that to Monterey, actually, is about the same as from Monterey to these things.Absolutely, exquisitely minute, and yet we've discovered pretty much the full set.So, one of my most illustrious forebears at Manchester University, Ernest Rutherford, discoverer of the atomic nucleus, once said, “All science is either physics or stamp collecting.” Now, I don't think he meant to insult the rest of science, although he was from New Zealand, so it's possible.(Laughter)But what he meant was that what we've done, really, is stamp collect there.OK, we've discovered the particles, but unless you understand the underlying reason for that pattern--you know, why it's built the way it is--really you've done stamp collecting.You haven't done science.Fortunately, we have probably one of the greatest scientific achievements of the twentieth century that underpins that pattern.It's the Newton's laws, if you want, of particle physics.It's called the standard model--beautifully simple mathematical equation.You could stick it on the front of a T-shirt, which is always the sign of elegance.This is it.(Laughter)I've been a little disingenuous, because I've expanded it out in all its gory detail.This equation, though, allows you to calculate everything--other than gravity--that happens in the universe.So, you want to know why the sky is blue, why atomic nuclei stick together--in principle, you've got a big enough computer--why DNA is the shape it is.In principle, you should be able to calculate it from that equation.But there's a problem.Can anyone see what it is? A bottle of champagne for anyone that tells me.I'll make it easier, actually, by blowing one of the lines up.Basically, each of these terms refers to some of the particles.So those Ws there refer to the Ws, and how they stick together.These carriers of the weak force, the Zs, the same.But there's an extra symbol in this equation: H.Right, H.H stands for Higgs particle.Higgs particles have not been discovered.But they're necessary: they're necessary to make that mathematics work.So all the exquisitely detailed calculations we can do with that wonderful equation wouldn't be possible without an extra bit.So it's a prediction: a prediction of a new particle.What does it do? Well, we had a long time to come up with good analogies.And back in the 1980s, when we wanted the money for the LHC from the U.K.government, Margaret Thatcher, at the time, said, “If you guys can explain, in language a politician can understand, what the hell it is that you're doing, you can have the money.I want to know what this Higgs particle does.” And we came up with this analogy, and it seemed to work.Well, what the Higgs does is, it gives mass to the fundamental particles.And the picture is that the whole universe--and that doesn't mean just space, it means me as well, and inside you--the whole universe is full of something called a Higgs field.Higgs particles, if you will.The analogy is that these people in a room are the Higgs particles.Now when a particle moves through the universe, it can interact with these Higgs particles.But imagine someone who's not very popular moves through the room.Then everyone ignores them.They can just pass through the room very quickly, essentially at the speed of light.They're massless.And imagine someone incredibly important and popular and intelligent walks into the room.They're surrounded by people, and their passage through the room is impeded.It's almost like they get heavy.They get massive.And that's exactly the way the Higgs mechanism works.The picture is that the electrons and the quarks in your body and in the universe that we see around us are heavy, in a sense, and massive, because they're surrounded by Higgs particles.They're interacting with the Higgs field.If that picture's true, then we have to discover those Higgs particles at the LHC.If it's not true--because it's quite a convoluted mechanism, although it's the simplest we've been able to think of--then whatever does the job of the Higgs particles we know have to turn up at the LHC.So, that's one of the prime reasons we built this giant machine.I'm glad you recognize Margaret Thatcher.Actually, I thought about making it more culturally relevant, but--(Laughter)anyway.So that's one thing.That's essentially a guarantee of what the LHC will find.There are many other things.You've heard many of the big problems in particle physics.One of them you heard about: dark matter, dark energy.There's another issue, which is that the forces in nature--it's quite beautiful, actually--seem, as you go back in time, they seem to change in strength.Well, they do change in strength.So, the electromagnetic force, the force that holds us together, gets stronger as you go to higher temperatures.The strong force, the strong nuclear force, which sticks nuclei together, gets weaker.And what you see is the standard model--you can calculate how these change--is the forces, the three forces, other than gravity, almost seem to come together at one point.It's almost as if there was one beautiful kind of super-force, back at the beginning of time.But they just miss.Now there's a theory called super-symmetry, which doubles the number of particles in the standard model, which, at first sight, doesn't sound like a simplification.But actually, with this theory, we find that the forces of nature do seem to unify together, back at the Big Bang--absolutely beautiful prophecy.The model wasn't built to do that, but it seems to do it.Also, those super-symmetric particles are very strong candidates for the dark matter.So a very compelling theory that's really mainstream physics.And if I was to put money on it, I would put money on--in a very unscientific way--that that these things would also crop up at the LHC.Many other things that the LHC could discover.But in the last few minutes, I just want to give you a different perspective of what I think--what particle physics really means to me--particle physics and cosmology.And that's that I think it's given us a wonderful narrative--almost a creation story, if you'd like--about the universe, from modern science over the last few decades.And I'd say that it deserves, in the spirit of Wade Davis' talk, to be at least put up there with these wonderful creation stories of the peoples of the high Andes and the frozen north.This is a creation story, I think, equally as wonderful.The story goes like this: we know that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago, in an immensely hot, dense state, much smaller than a single atom.It began to expand about a million, billion, billion, billion billionth of a second--I think I got that right--after the Big Bang.Gravity separated away from the other forces.The universe then underwent an exponential expansion called inflation.In about the first billionth of a second or so, the Higgs field kicked in, and the quarks and the gluons and the electrons that make us up got mass.The universe continued to expand and cool.After about a few minutes, there was hydrogen and helium in the universe.That's all.The universe was about 75 percent hydrogen, 25 percent helium.It still is today.It continued to expand about 300 million years.Then light began to travel through the universe.It was big enough to be transparent to light, and that's what we see in the cosmic microwave background that George Smoot described as looking at the face of God.After about 400 million years, the first stars formed, and that hydrogen, that helium, then began to cook into the heavier elements.So the elements of life--carbon, and oxygen and iron, all the elements that we need to make us up--were cooked in those first generations of stars, which then ran out of fuel, exploded, threw those elements back into the universe.They then re-collapsed into another generation of stars and planets.And on some of those planets, the oxygen, which had been created in that first generation of stars, could fuse with hydrogen to form water, liquid water on the surface.On at least one, and maybe only one of those planets, primitive life evolved, which evolved over millions of years into things that walked upright and left footprints about three and a half million years ago in the mud flats of Tanzania, and eventually left a footprint on another world.And built this civilization, this wonderful picture, that turned the darkness into light, and you can see the civilization from space.As one of my great heroes, Carl Sagan, said, these are the things--and actually, not only these, but I was looking around--these are the things, like Saturn V rockets, and Sputnik, and DNA, and literature and science--these are the things that hydrogen atoms do when given 13.7 billion years.Absolutely remarkable.And, the laws of physics.Right? So, the right laws of physics--they're beautifully balanced.If the weak force had been a little bit different, then carbon and oxygen wouldn't be stable inside the hearts of stars, and there would be none of that in the universe.And I think that's a wonderful and significant story.50 years ago, I couldn't have told that story, because we didn't know it.It makes me really feel that that civilization--which, as I say, if you believe the scientific creation story, has emerged purely as a result of the laws of physics, and a few hydrogen atoms--then I think, to me anyway, it makes me feel incredibly valuable.So that's the LHC.The LHC is certainly, when it turns on in summer, going to write the next chapter of that book.And I'm certainly looking forward with immense excitement to it being turned on.Thanks.(Applause)