TEDxJohannesburg explores the past, present, and future of life on Earth.
TEDxJohannesburg explored the connection between Earth’s past and future through Palaeoscience on 27 October 2022, at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
A lineup of accomplished speakers ranging from palaeontologists to ethnomusicologists and everything in between presented from the stage. They delved into a string of fascinating topics: ancient life, time machines, Cape Mountains, pre-colonial sounds, dinosaur bones, dead plants, the age of rocks, the Karoo, dinosaur eggs, Jurassic giants, traditional Ugandan music, reading fossil remains, fire, children’s education, and the magic of ochre.
These turned out to be entry points into even bigger concepts, from the co-evolution of Earth and life, the aftermath of the breakup of supercontinents, climate change, mass extinctions, and evolutionary insights, to ancient civilizations, diversity in academia, the value of exploration and discovery, the role of engineering in human evolution, the power of play, and the birth of human culture.
The programme aimed to captivate experts and enthusiasts through insightful talks, powerful performances, and jaw-dropping exhibits. GENUS, Africa’s leading Palaeosciences network, supported the event.
Read, watch, enjoy.
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Jaganmoy Jodder | Earth shaped life then life shaped Earth
Dr. Jaganmoy Jodder opens his talk by stepping onto the TEDxJohannesburg stage carrying a rock containing fossilised traces of life from billions of years ago — ancestors of all life forms on Earth today! And with that, he asks a surprising question: how would life from elsewhere in the universe (if any) identify us? Would it view humans as distinct from animals, insects, reptiles, trees, and other organisms? He describes the co-evolution of life and Earth in dramatic detail, explaining how ancient geological processes interacted with biological entities to shape our Earth. Who we are is undeniably intertwined with where we live.
José Braga | How studying the past can reveal our future
Prof. José Braga studies fossils from The Cradle of Humankind in South Africa. In this talk, he passionately shares his belief that paleosciences are a helpful way to understand how time changes species and societies, including humans. Through these disciplines, we can understand the engineering process of life and predict the probable consequences of our behaviours. His research suggests that particular causes often have the same effects in different societies. By exploring our past, we can learn about our future.
Rob Muir | Priceless gifts from an everlasting mountain range
Long before Africa, when the supercontinent Gondwana was still assembled, an enormous mountain range rose along its southern edge. These mountains’ formation and exceptional endurance have given the world three unique gifts: the spectacular fossils of the Karoo Basin, the incredibly diverse Cape Floristic Kingdom, and a home where early humans could thrive. Dr. Rob Muir recalibrates the tectonic events that occurred during the breakup of Gondwana to determine how affected African landscapes have changed through time.
Lee Watkins | How pre-colonial sounds inform modern music
Dr. Lee Watkins poses fascinating questions in this compelling talk about what we might learn by excavating pre-colonial sounds: Can we draw parallels between the history of sound and palaeontology? What do pre-colonial cultural expressions tell us about the lives of our ancestors — did they know how to have a good time? To what extent have their sound artefacts impacted the shapes and forms of contemporary music and performance?
Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan | What dinosaur bones reveal
Our planet looked very different 150 million years ago. Dinosaurs walked the Earth, and reptiles dominated the skies and the oceans. Our closest living relatives were small, rodent-sized mammals. And then, 65 million years ago, seventy-five percent of all life was wiped out when a colossal catastrophe occurred and set in motion one of the most significant extinction events in the history of the planet. By studying what’s left of the bones and teeth of the dinosaurs that died in that fateful period and throughout the rest of history, Prof. Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan deciphers their health and growth patterns, drawing critical lessons for all living forms.
Bongekile Zwane | How studying plants can help us thrive
The relationship between humans and plants goes back millions of years. Early humans used plants, among other resources, to gain a competitive advantage over other living things. During the Stone Age, humans used plants in practical ways that we have mostly discarded but can still recover through archaeological investigations. Plants’ long evolutionary history is also crucial because it provides a direct climate record of our planet. Can we learn something from studying plants to help us adapt to our ever-changing world? Dr. Bongekile Zwane believes that the answer is yes.
Brian Pobinar | Building bridges between evolution and faith
A recent Gallup poll showed that for the first time since 1982, a slim majority of Americans included some flavour of evolutionary thinking in their beliefs about the origin of humans. But why is this figure so low when discoveries in human evolution consistently garner widespread press coverage? What are the barriers to acceptance of evolution, and how can they be overcome? The non-conflict approach that Dr. Briana Pobinar and her team practice at the Smithsonian seems to be showing promising results.
Robyn Pickering | It’s time to change human evolution research
Dr. Robyn Pickering uses uranium-lead dating to determine the age of rocks found in caves and discern how old the fossils they hold are. Having grown up in South Africa, she left to study abroad and returned after a decade to find that, despite the end of Apartheid in 1994, the university classrooms were diverse, but the faculty was still predominantly white. Determined to change this, she co-leads a research institute at the University of Cape Town to promote diversity and inclusion in academia, focusing on human evolution.
Bruce Rubidge | The Karoo: The Cradle of Mammals
It is impossible to write a text on the history of life without referring to the South African fossil record, widely known for its wealth of gems. The rocks of the Karoo Supergroup, covering two-thirds of the country’s surface area, take up the lion’s share of that reputation. Research has revealed a new therapsid fauna showing that South Africa — the Karoo in particular — hosts the most time-expansive and complete record of early mammal ancestry. Prof. Bruce Rubidge argues that this makes the Karoo Basin the Cradle of Mammals and, ultimately, humans. Bruce focuses on the Karoo fossil record and its significance in understanding the origin of mammals.
Kimi Chapelle | The surprising discoveries hiding in dinosaur eggs
Palaeontologists have discovered the world’s oldest dinosaur eggs outside Clarens in the Free State, South Africa. Inside the eggs are complete, tiny baby dinosaurs. Dr. Kimi Chapelle has digitally reconstructed every bone in these fossilised embryos to study them. She found that the pattern in which bones developed in baby dinosaur skulls is similar to that of most animals today. Remarkably, this pattern has remained unchanged for 250 million years! Kimi’s babies have taught us that evolution does not mess with a good thing.
Jonah Choiniere | Becoming a giant in the Jurassic
Dinosaurs started off small but, over time, evolved to be massive creatures. The earliest dinosaurs weighed only about 10kg — the size of a giant watermelon. They would eventually grow ten times larger than the largest African elephants. They accomplished this primarily by developing thicker leg bones and adopting a four-legged posture. Prof. Jonah Choiniere shares insights on this evolution in an engaging talk.
Elijah Madiba | Majestic royal court music from Uganda
Ethnomusicologist Elijah Madiba plays traditional Ugandan music with Albert Ssempeke, a virtuoso Ugandan performing artist and the son of the legendary royal court musician of the former Kabaka Muteesa II of Buganda. They play four short songs on a variety of traditional Ugandan instruments, including the Endigidi (one-string bowed lute), Endongo (bow lyre), Enanga (trough zither), and Amadinda (long-xylophone).
Keneiloe Molopyane | Exploration is the key to discovery
Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane is the Principal Investigator for Gladysvale Cave, an important fossil site within The Cradle of Humankind. The Cradle is a UNESCO World Heritage site 50 km northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. After 20 years of inactivity at Gladysvale, with new eyes, Keneiloe and her team returned to the cave site, hoping to make new discoveries and further the narrative as told by the fossils. Two weeks into the expedition, they had found nothing new. Then suddenly, something happened…
Jessica Thompson | How humans harnessed fire to transform the world
Asst. Prof. Jessica Thompson studies how humans evolved from a species embedded in the ecosystem to one increasingly taking control of its evolution. She asserts that what humans have done is uniquely different from what has ever happened before. What sets humans apart from other species? Engineering. We have not just used complex behaviour, cooperation, and tools to engineer our evolution but also to transform the world around us. Of those tools, the most transformative has been fire.
Rongedzayi Fambasayi | The power of a children’s museum without walls
Climate change has put humanity on course for an extinction phase. For Rongedzayi Famabasayi, the solution to this existential crisis lies in an intergenerational dialogue. He believes we must be deliberate about teaching and preparing children for what lies ahead. To this end, he and his team at Play Africa are pioneering a children’s museum and educational maker space to nurture creative, innovative, future-proof minds capable of discovery and problem-solving from an early age.
Tammy Hodgskiss | Ochre and the dawn of human culture
In a captivating talk, Dr. Tammy Hodgskiss describes the prominent role that ochre, an iron-rich rock that users can turn into a colourful powder, has played in the human evolutionary journey. In addition to being used as a pigment in rituals, ochre has several other practical applications, including sunscreen, mosquito repellent, and medicine. Ochre is especially intriguing because it appears in the archaeological record around when Homo sapiens became “human.”
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TEDxJohannesburg | LIFE: Past. Present. Future inspired us to dig deep into Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history and cast more than a cursory glance at the far future. We got to explore just how connected we all are, how the past impacts the future, and what we can do to protect our planet today and beyond.
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TEDxJohannesburg is an independently organised TEDx event, operated under license from TED. Our next event, TEDxJohannesburg Countdown takes place on Thursday 30 March, 2023, at Shepstone Gardens, in Houghton, Johannesburg. Learn more.
