Description

Confronted with the astonishing beauty of a total solar eclipse, it is easy to imagine how it terrified our ancestors who had no idea of the simple geometry of our solar system. Through examples from her journey as a child in Jackson Hole, a student, and a scientist, Dr. Laura Danly explains how a scientist’s path to knowledge frees us from fear, moves civilization forward, and inspires us with its beauty. As Curator of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, Dr. Laura Danly is responsible for all public, educational, and telescope programs. She also writes, produces, and directs its planetarium shows. Earlier in her career, Dr. Danly was an astronomer at NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute for ten years, where she was also the first Project Scientist for Education. She has been communicating complex ideas in science to the public for over thirty years. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx