I’ve never really been a huge fan of undersea exploration, but I did always find it strange that we deploy so much capital (human, financial, intellectual) exploring space while largely ignoring our oceans.

As a longtime subscriber to the TED talks video podcasts (HD podcast), I fell in love with these two presentations, so I thought I would share them here. What’s striking is their ability to make accessible, and even excite those who aren’t normally fascinated by the ocean. I’ve included the links to the HD versions of the presentations. Right click -> Save As to download them.

David Gallo on life in the deep oceans (HD download | TED page)
 

Robert Ballard on exploring the oceans (HD download | TED page)
 

In my opinion, TED is one of the coolest organizations out there, and I think it’s brilliant that they’ve decided to open up their catalog to the general public, for free. Hi-Def knowledge spillover for societal win.