UC Davis Postdoc's Talk Featured on TED.com
Mike Gil is used to spreading the word about his love of science through his nonprofit sciall.org and its YouTube channel, but he’s about to get a bigger audience. His TED Talk, recorded last summer, was posted today on TED’s main channel. Only a fraction of talks given at TED conferences are posted to the main website, which has millions of subscribers.
“Who here is fascinated by life under the sea?” he asked the audience in his opening line. All hands go up.
Gil is a marine biologist, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UC Davis, a TED Global Fellow, and—this just in—a newly named National Geographic Explorer. He was one of 18 change-makers from around the world invited to deliver their talks last August from the TEDGlobal stage in Arusha, Tanzania.
His roughly 4.5-minute talk explores how fish communicate and what that means for the future of coral reefs. It’s based off his recent research about the social lives of fish.
“I spy on fish,” he tells the TED audience. His spying is helping to show how the copying behaviors of fish hold big implications for coral reefs. It’s also helping to uncover better ways of managing the reefs.
In addition to conducting science, Gil is passionate about making science accessible, and conveying the adventure, fun and discovery of the field. With his YouTube channel, he takes viewers with him as he explores the world, diving among the reefs and using self-deprecating humor to show the mishaps that can come from field work.