I think there are laws out there, and we of course don't understand them at any given time very well but we try. And we try to get closer and closer.

And I'm gonna try and do that within the 18 minute time span that we were told to stay within, and to follow the TED commandments that is, actually, something that creates a near death experience, but near death is good for creativity.

Garik Israelian is a spectroscopist, studying the spectrum emitted by a star to figure out what it's made of and how it might behave. It's a rare and accessible look at this discipline, which may be coming close to finding a planet friendly to life.

Garlic is a common example, a branch of wild rose and hawthorn plant are said to harm vampires, and in Europe, sprinkling mustard seeds on the roof of a house was said to keep them away.

Now, it's often said that getting closer and closer to the fundamental laws by examining phenomena at low energies, and then higher energies, and then higher energies, or short distances, and then shorter distances, and then still shorter distances, and so on, is like peeling the skin of an onion.