Harvard Thinks Big (West Coast Edition)

As 10 Harvard faculty members found themselves speaking their minds in what is normally snow-covered Cambridge, Professors Michael J. Sandel, George M. Church, George M. Whitesides '60, and Nicholas A. Christakis managed to find a good excuse to enjoy sunny SoCal doing basically the same thing at the TED2010 conference last week.

The annual TED, or "Technology, Entertainment, Design," Conference is an annual gathering dedicated to disseminating "ideas worth spreading." Under a strict time limit of 18 minutes, speakers ranging from Bono to Bill Clinton share what inspires them to do the unique work they do.

Emerging from under the rock that he calls "spring leave," Sandel discussed moral dilemmas similar to those presented in his course Moral Reasoning 22: "Justice." Urging people to engage their moral convictions in evaluating policy, Sandel instructed those in attendance "to rediscover the lost art of democratic argument." Sandel proposed a return to substantive moral discussions concerning policy issues.

Whitesides discussed how the application of simple problem-solving methods can be used to work out complex problems. Citing the examples of cathedrals built of individual stones and the binary code that allows for computers and the Internet, Whitesides urged attendees to seek simple solutions to their complicated questions.

Church discussed the applications of synthetic biology to increasing food, potable water, and fuel supplies. According to tweets from the event, he also talked about producing better pharmaceuticals and increasing viral resistance among humans and livestock.

Christakis discussed his work analyzing social networks in order to locate clusters of people within the network who display qualities such as obesity and altruism. Christakis also analyzed so-called "happiness" and "unhappiness" clusters, finding happiness clusters in the center of social networks and unhappiness clusters on their periphery.

"If I made you sad or gave you germs, you would cut ties with me," Christakis said.

For some sweet pictures from the event, take a look at TED's slideshow or Flickr. And if you missed out on Harvard's little version of the conference, check out The Crimson's photo gallery or video from that night.