TEDWomen Presents: Women leading the future, with Heidi Hammel and Nadia Drake

Nothing says “future” quite like humanity’s quest to understand our cosmic surroundings.

The fourth day of TEDWomen Presents — an online festival featuring interviews with leading women, interactive workshops, specially curated film screenings and more — focused on science and the future, with a conversation between astronomer Heidi Hammel and science journalist Nadia Drake.

Big idea: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most powerful ever built by humanity, has transformed the field of astronomy — and our search for life beyond Earth.

How? JWST has been orbiting Earth since late 2021; its highly sensitive, innovative instruments allow us to see new wavelengths of infrared light with incredible clarity. Beyond the beautiful photography it creates, this breakthrough telescope means we can learn more about the very origins of the universe. “Different wavelengths of light tell you different parts of the story,” says Heidi Hammel, an interdisciplinary scientist working on JWST. In conversation with science journalist Nadia Drake, she discussed the telescope’s construction and how scientists use tools called spectrographs to analyze the colors in the light it captures. Since certain molecules light up differently, they can use these colors to see which molecules are present in a far-off object — molecules like H2O, which could be a sign of circumstances suitable for life. More than this, “We don’t just have a static picture,” says Hammel. Studying the imagery can reveal the molecules’ temperature, pressure and movement, too. “That’s where the real deep science takes place,” she says. All this information will help us fill in gaps in the knowledge of the universe’s history, how our solar system formed and where else life may have evolved. For example, we’ve learned that one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, has more water inside it than Earth does on the surface, and that the dust, gas and existing stars of nearby galaxies interact to create new stars. “It touches us as humans. How did we come to be?” asks Hammel.

Q&A: Following the interview, the TEDWomen Presents audience had the opportunity to ask Hammel questions during a live Q&A, hosted by TED Current Affairs Curator Whitney Pennington-Rodgers. In her day-to-day work, Hammel says she experiences both the mundane and the awesome. While sometimes she can be so deep in analysis that she loses sight of the awe she’s experiencing, other times she’ll get to observe an image that shocks or amazes her. While working on the Hubble Space Telescope, she watched a comet crash into Jupiter, exploding into massive black clouds. And when JWST first launched, she saw Neptune (and its rings) glowing in the infrared. Looking towards the future, Hammel says scientists are already thinking about the next generation telescope — one even larger than JWST — to find another planet able to sustain life. Wherever it may be, Hammel says we might be able to answer the question of whether life exists beyond our planet within this lifetime.

Hammel also spoke on the evolution of gender equity in her field since she first began her career in the 1980s. At that time, there were less than ten women in her field. Now she attends conferences filled with women. “It makes me joyful,” she says, because the attention they’ve put towards including women has created a younger, more diverse generation of astronomers. Today, Hammel does outreach with a broad range of communities, working to change everyone’s understanding of what an astronomer looks like. Yes, a scientist can look “like an ordinary mom!”

Join the TEDWomen Community newsletter list to be the first to hear updates from the community and announcements about TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia — October 11-13, 2023.

From TED2019 speakers: 14 websites and links that you didn’t know you needed in your life

We’re excited about the lineup for TED2019: “Bigger than us”. So excited that we compiled a list of websites, links and pages from this year’s speakers that you didn’t know you needed. But you do.

1. AI Weirdness

Adventures in the often hilarious antics of AI algorithms as they try to imitate human datasets, like firework names or Dungeons and Dragons character bios. Here’s a gem from a neural network doing its best Julia Child impression:

Or perhaps you’re more in the mood for horseradish brownies?

Found thanks to speaker: Janelle Shane

2. One Love

Want to learn how to love better? Peruse this collection of tips, advice and practical resources about building healthy relationships — and spotting unhealthy ones. You can even order a box of chocolates that will give you a “taste” of different relationship behaviors, like manipulation or respect. Because you deserve a healthy relationship and chocolate, too.

Found thanks to speaker: Katie Hood

3. “Cephalopod dynamic camouflage”

Chameleons are the masters of disguise, right? Wrong. This quick overview of the camouflage skills of cephalopods (octopuses, cuttlefish and squids) will make your jaw drop. See how they rapidly camouflage against almost any background: colorful coral reefs, kelp forests, sand, seagrass beds …

Found thanks to speaker: Roger Hanlon

4. The Laughing Room

An interactive art installation meets a social psych experiment. This “artificially-intelligent room” is designed to look like a sitcom set, but with a twist: the room analyzes participants’ patterns of laughter and plays a laugh track based on that data. Jump in at around minute 30 of the livestream and enjoy the awkwardness.

Found thanks to speaker: Jonny Sun

5. Please Feed the Lions

A poetry-spewing lion sculpture in London’s Trafalgar Square. Need we say more?

Found thanks to speaker: Es Devlin

6. “Sleep and Human Aging”

Our sleep patterns change as we grow older. Why is that? This study offers a wealth of answers (and will make you feel better about taking more naps).

Found thanks to speaker: Matthew Walker

7. Please Like Me

You’re probably familiar with Hannah Gadsby’s critically acclaimed Netflix special, Nanette, but have you seen the four seasons of her Hulu series, Please Like Me? If you need a show to fill that 25-minute comedy slot in your TV life, start watching now.

Found thanks to speaker: Hannah Gadsby

8. “Life, Interrupted”

Reflections on family, love and activism from Suleika Jaouad, a young writer diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 22. An invaluable resource for those battling cancer.

Found thanks to speaker: Suleika Jaouad

9. Robogamis

The days of big, clunky robots are over. These folding robots are inspired by origami, can morph into 2D or 3D shapes and we need one to play with.

Found thanks to speaker: Jamie Paik

10. “Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions” (PDF)

The first concrete evidence that phone use may spoil our enjoyment of real-world social interactions. You probably already knew that, but now you have the facts to back it up. So, really: put your phone away at dinner! (You can also listen to the study being read if you want to stop looking at your phone right now.)

Thanks to speaker: Elizabeth Dunn

11. Global Change

The climate is changing. This much we know. But how can we prepare for the human health risks connected to climate change, like heat waves and rising sea levels? Explore this vast trove of resources to find out — and get involved in what could be the public health challenge of the century.

Found thanks to speaker: Kristie Ebi

12. “A digital gangster destroying democracy: the damning verdict on Facebook”

A withering summary of the British Parliament’s 2019 report on fake news and disinformation, from the journalist who uncovered the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica story. Read the parliament’s full report here.

Found thanks to speaker: Carole Cadwalladr

13. “David Deutsch on the infinite reach of knowledge”

Do you like having your mind slightly blown? Good, we do too. This episode of The TED Interview explores how humanity’s ability to attain knowledge first developed — and how it could take us across galaxies.

Found thanks to speaker: David Deutsch

14. “Fireworks”

A remix of the song “Fireworks” by Swedish duo First Aid Kit … as though the song were playing on the radio while actual fireworks exploded in the distance. Surprisingly calming.

Found thanks to performer: First Aid Kit

And a bonus for making it this far: travel back in time to TED7 … how far we’ve come since then!