ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Federica Bianco - Cross-disciplinary scientist
TED Fellow Federica Bianco is a cross-disciplinary scientist who can't stay still.

Why you should listen

Astrophysicist, professor, professional boxer and TED Fellow Federica Bianco studies stellar explosions, using the same methodologies to understand urban and social problems. She uses data-science to both study the universe and tackle problems on earth, like pollution in New York City, prosecutorial justice and how city lights can create resilient electric grids and.

Bianco splits her time as a professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Physics and Astrophysics (where she runs a lab focusing on light curves), the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and the Urban Observatory, where she uses her astrophysics skills to study urban problems. She is also the coordinator the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Science Collaboration, a network of more than 1,500 scientists. The LSST, under construction in Chile, will go online in 2023 to survey the night sky and image the southern hemisphere sky at unprecedented depth and resolution. The collaboration will study everything about it, from the thousands of changes it will discover in the sky every night to billions of stars and galaxies, many that have never been seen before.

Bianco has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, was a Smithsonian predoctoral and James Arthur postdoctoral fellow and was the recipient of a Department of Energy "Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science" grant. When she isn't doing science, you will find her in the boxing ring, where she has made a name for herself as "The MadScientist." She is known for fighting her heart out both in and out of the ring.

More profile about the speaker
Federica Bianco | Speaker | TED.com
TED2019

Federica Bianco: How we use astrophysics to study earthbound problems

Federica Bianco: Como usamos a astrofísica para estudar problemas da Terra

Filmed:
1,455,854 views

Para estudar um sistema tão complexo quanto o Universo inteiro, os astrofísicos precisam ser especialistas em extrair soluções simples de grandes conjuntos de dados. O que mais eles poderiam fazer com esta habilidade? Em uma palestra interdisciplinar, a Bolsista TED e astrofísica Federica Bianco explica como ela usa a análise de dados da astrofísica para resolver problemas urbanos e sociais, bem como mistérios estelares.
- Cross-disciplinary scientist
TED Fellow Federica Bianco is a cross-disciplinary scientist who can't stay still. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
I am an astrophysicist.
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Eu sou astrofísica.
00:15
I research stellar explosions
across the universe.
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Pesquiso explosões estelares no Universo,
00:19
But I have a flaw:
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mas tenho um defeito:
00:21
I'm restless, and I get bored easily.
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sou impaciente e me entedio facilmente.
00:24
And although as an astrophysicist,
I have the incredible opportunity
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Apesar de, como astrofísica,
ter a incrível oportunidade
00:27
to study the entire universe,
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de estudar todo o Universo,
00:29
the thought of doing
only that, always that,
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a ideia de fazer somente isso, pra sempre,
00:32
makes me feel caged and limited.
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faz com que eu me sinta presa e limitada.
00:36
What if my issues with
keeping attention and getting bored
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E se os meus problemas
em manter a atenção e ficar entediada
00:40
were not a flaw, though?
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não fossem um defeito?
00:42
What if I could turn them into an asset?
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E se eu pudesse transformá-los
em uma vantagem?
00:45
An astrophysicist cannot
touch or interact with
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Uma astrofísica não pode tocar
ou interagir com as coisas que estuda.
00:48
the things that she studies.
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00:50
No way to explode a star in a lab
to figure out why or how it blew up.
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Não tem como explodir uma estrela
para descobrir como e por que explodiu.
00:54
Just pictures and movies of the sky.
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São apenas imagens e vídeos do céu.
00:57
Everything we know about the universe,
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Tudo o que sabemos sobre o Universo,
00:59
from the big bang
that originated space and time,
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do Big Bang que originou
o espaço e o tempo,
01:02
to the formation and evolution
of stars and galaxies,
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até a formação e evolução
das estrelas e galáxias,
01:05
to the structure of our own solar system,
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até a estrutura do nosso sistema solar,
01:08
we figured out studying images of the sky.
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descobrimos estudando imagens do céu.
01:12
And to study a system
as complex as the entire universe,
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E para estudar um sistema
tão complexo como o Universo,
01:15
astrophysicists are experts
at extracting simple models and solutions
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os astrofísicos são especialistas
em extrair modelos e soluções simples
01:20
from large and complex data sets.
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de conjuntos de dados longos e complexos.
01:23
So what else can I do with this expertise?
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E o que mais posso fazer
com esta habilidade?
01:28
What if we turned the camera
around towards us?
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E se virássemos a câmera para nós mesmos?
01:33
At the Urban Observatory,
that is exactly what we are doing.
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É exatamente o que fazemos
no Urban Observatory.
01:36
Greg Dobler, also an astrophysicist
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Greg Dobler, também astrofísico
01:38
and my husband,
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e meu marido,
01:39
created the first urban observatory
in New York University in 2013,
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criou o primeiro observatório urbano
da Universidade de Nova York em 2013,
01:43
and I joined in 2015.
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e me juntei a ele em 2015.
01:45
Here are some of the things that we do.
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Aqui estão algumas coisas que fazemos.
01:48
We take pictures of the city at night
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Tiramos fotos da cidade à noite
01:50
and study city lights like stars.
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e estudamos as luzes dela
como se fossem estrelas.
Estudando variações da luz
de acordo com o tempo
01:53
By studying how light changes over time
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01:55
and the color of astronomical lights,
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e a cor das luzes astronômicas
01:57
I gain insight about the nature
of exploding stars.
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tenho uma perspectiva sobre a natureza
das estrelas explosivas.
02:00
By studying city lights the same way,
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Ao estudar as luzes da cidade
do mesmo modo,
02:03
we can measure and predict how much energy
the city needs and consumes
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podemos medir e prever quanta energia
a cidade precisa e consome
e ajudar a construir uma rede resiliente
02:07
and help build a resilient grid
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02:09
that will support the needs
or growing urban environments.
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que apoiará as necessidades
de ambientes urbanos em crescimento.
02:14
In daytime images,
we capture plumes of pollution.
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Nestas imagens diurnas,
capturamos plumas de poluição.
02:18
Seventy-five percent
of greenhouse gases in New York City
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Na cidade de Nova York,
75% dos gases de efeito estufa
02:21
come from a building like this one,
burning oil for heat.
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vêm de um edifício como este,
que queima óleo para seu aquecimento.
Podemos medir a poluição
com sensores de qualidade do ar.
02:26
You can measure pollution
with air quality sensors.
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02:28
But imagine putting a sensor
on each New York City building,
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Mas imaginem colocar um sensor
em cada prédio na cidade de Nova York
02:32
reading in data from a million monitors.
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e ler dados de um milhão de monitores.
02:35
Imagine the cost.
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Imaginem o custo.
02:38
With a team of NYU students,
we built a mathematical model,
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Com uma equipe de estudantes da UNY,
construímos um modelo matemático,
02:41
a neural network that can detect
and track these plumes
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uma rede neural que pode detectar
e rastrear as plumas no céu da cidade.
02:44
over the New York City skyline.
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02:46
We can classify them --
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Podemos classificá-las:
02:48
harmless steam plumes,
white and evanescent;
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plumas de vapor inofensivo,
branco e evanescente;
02:51
polluting smokestacks,
dark and persistent --
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fumaça poluente, escura e persistente;
02:54
and provide policy makers
with a map of neighborhood pollution.
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e fornecer mapas da poluição
para os fiscais ambientais.
02:59
This cross-disciplinary project
created transformational solutions.
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Este projeto interdisciplinar
criou soluções transformadoras.
03:05
But the data analysis methodologies
we use in astrophysics
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Mas a metodologia de análise
de dados usada em astrofísica
pode ser aplicada
a qualquer conjunto de dados,
03:08
can be applied to all sorts of data,
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03:10
not just images.
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não apenas em imagens.
Fomos convidados a ajudar
um promotor da Califórnia
03:12
We were asked to help
a California district attorney
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03:14
understand prosecutorial delays
in their jurisdiction.
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a entender os atrasos
judiciários na jurisdição dele.
Há pessoas em liberdade condicional
ou presas em cadeias,
03:18
There are people on probation
or sitting in jail,
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03:21
awaiting for trial sometimes for years.
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em alguns casos esperando
pelo julgamento há anos.
03:24
They wanted to know
what kind of cases dragged on,
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Eles queriam saber
que tipo de casos se arrastavam,
e tinham um grande conjunto de dados
para exploração e análise,
03:26
and they had a massive data set
to explore to understand it,
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mas não tinham a habilidade
03:29
but didn't have the expertise
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03:31
or the instruments
in their office to do so.
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ou os instrumentos
em seu escritório para fazer isso.
03:33
And that's where we came in.
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E é aí que entramos.
03:35
I worked with my colleague,
public policy professor Angela Hawken,
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Trabalhei com minha colega, professora
de políticas públicas Angela Hawken,
03:38
and our team first created
a visual dashboard
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e nossa equipe criou um painel visual
03:42
for DAs to see and better understand
the prosecution process.
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para que os promotores entendessem melhor
o processo de acusação.
03:46
But also, we ourselves
analyzed their data,
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Mas nós mesmos também analisamos os dados,
03:49
looking to see if the duration
of the process
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procurando ver se a duração do processo
03:52
suffered from social inequalities
in their jurisdiction.
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sofria por desigualdade social
na jurisdição deles.
03:56
We did so using methods
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Fizemos isso usando métodos
que eu usaria para classificar
milhares de explosões estelares,
03:57
that I would use to classify
thousands of stellar explosions,
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04:00
applied to thousands of court cases.
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aplicado a milhares
de processos judiciais.
04:03
And in doing so,
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E fazendo isso, criamos um modelo
que pode servir para qualquer jurisdição
04:04
we built a model that can be applied
to other jurisdictions
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que esteja disposta
a explorar suas tendências.
04:07
who are willing to explore their biases.
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04:09
These collaborations between
domain experts and astrophysicists
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Estas colaborações entre
especialistas da área e astrofísicos
04:13
created transformational solutions
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criaram soluções transformadoras
04:15
to help improve people's quality of life.
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para melhorar a qualidade
de vida das pessoas.
04:19
But it is a two-way road.
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Mas é uma via de mão dupla.
Uso minha formação em astrofísica
para a ciência urbana
04:20
I bring my astrophysics background
to urban science,
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04:23
and I bring what I learn in urban science
back to astrophysics.
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e levo o que aprendo sobre ciência urbana
de volta para a astrofísica.
04:27
Light echoes:
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Ecos de luz:
04:30
the reflections of stellar explosions
onto interstellar dust.
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reflexos de explosões estelares
em poeira interestelar.
04:36
In our images, these reflections appear
as white, evanescent, moving features,
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Nas imagens, estes reflexos aparecem
como brancos, evanescentes, móveis,
04:41
just like plumes.
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assim como plumas.
04:43
I am adapting the same models
that detect plumes in city images
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Estou adaptando os mesmos modelos
que detectam plumas em imagens urbanas
04:47
to detect light echoes
in images of the sky.
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para detectar ecos de luz
em imagens celestes.
04:52
By exploring the things
that interest and excite me,
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Ao explorar as coisas
que me interessam e me empolgam,
04:55
reaching outside of my domain,
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indo além do meu domínio,
04:57
I did turn my restlessness into an asset.
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transformei minha impaciência
em uma qualidade.
05:01
We, you, all have a unique perspective
that can generate new insight
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Nós, vocês, todos possuímos
perspectivas únicas
que podem gerar novas descobertas
05:06
and lead to new, unexpected,
transformational solutions.
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e levar a soluções transformadoras,
inovadoras e inesperadas.
Obrigada.
05:10
Thank you.
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(Aplausos)
05:12
(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Federica Bianco - Cross-disciplinary scientist
TED Fellow Federica Bianco is a cross-disciplinary scientist who can't stay still.

Why you should listen

Astrophysicist, professor, professional boxer and TED Fellow Federica Bianco studies stellar explosions, using the same methodologies to understand urban and social problems. She uses data-science to both study the universe and tackle problems on earth, like pollution in New York City, prosecutorial justice and how city lights can create resilient electric grids and.

Bianco splits her time as a professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Physics and Astrophysics (where she runs a lab focusing on light curves), the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and the Urban Observatory, where she uses her astrophysics skills to study urban problems. She is also the coordinator the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Science Collaboration, a network of more than 1,500 scientists. The LSST, under construction in Chile, will go online in 2023 to survey the night sky and image the southern hemisphere sky at unprecedented depth and resolution. The collaboration will study everything about it, from the thousands of changes it will discover in the sky every night to billions of stars and galaxies, many that have never been seen before.

Bianco has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, was a Smithsonian predoctoral and James Arthur postdoctoral fellow and was the recipient of a Department of Energy "Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science" grant. When she isn't doing science, you will find her in the boxing ring, where she has made a name for herself as "The MadScientist." She is known for fighting her heart out both in and out of the ring.

More profile about the speaker
Federica Bianco | Speaker | TED.com