Today at the Ovation Theater the velvet rope was rolled out for a very different reason.
Bakersfield put its own spin on the worldwide Ted talks. Topics ranged from science. "DNA is the blue print of life," said Dr. Joseph Bondy-Denomy a microbiologist. To turning waste water into drinking water.
"We all have drank water that was once dinosaur pee," said Sandy-Scott Roberts a professional engineer managing the improvement of drinking water in southern California.
Controversial topics like drug control were also a point of discussion. "If you jail a serial rapist crimes go down. If you jail a burglar crimes go down. It’s not the same thing with drugs.”
A topic important to Bakersfield, the farming industry, was also discussed and how children can help change that industry with science. "How do we get kids, the thinkers of tomorrow to think about how to help farmers?” We teach them stem through agricultural techniques.”
And some speakers touched on why they got into the career fields they did. "I got into engineering due to a recommendation from a science teacher,” said Scott-Roberts.
“Microbes were fascinating to me because they are everywhere on the planet. And some of them can make us very sick even though we are much bigger and more complex than them,” said Bondy-Denomy.
Bondy-Denomy wanted to leave the audience with a thought. "The power of being curious of how the world works and how that can be used to discover unexpected new findings that could contribute to curing all kinds of diseases.” At the end of the day Ted X hoped to present ideas worth spreading.
