The Curious Presenter

An Amazing Discovery

In a sensational development, NASA announced last week that it has confirmed the existence of Earth-like planet Kepler 452b using the 95 megapixel space telescope Kepler, which was launched in 2009 to do this very thing. Kepler 452b is not the only Earth-like exoplanet to be discovered in recent years, but it is in many ways the most similar to our home world. Said NASA data analyst Jon Jenkins,

“This is the closest thing that we have to another planet like the Earth.”

Kepler 452b is about 60% larger than Earth, 1.5B years older, and has a slightly longer orbit around its parent star. But the amount of energy it receives from its equivalent to our Sun is very similar, and scientists believe it could potentially have once harbored life.

Kepler 452b is over 1400 light-years away. If you’re reading this in 2015, you may not live to see the day that such distant bodies are visible using earthbound telescopes; you can forget about ever visiting. In that sense, the discovery of Kepler 452b is about as impractical as world changing discoveries get — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t extraordinarily important. On the contrary, it could be the breakthrough that finally answers the ultimate question: “Is humanity is alone in the universe?”

When we find out, we’ll owe it all to curiosity.

It’s a far smaller scope, certainly, but can you imagine applying that laser-focused concentration and indomitable spirit to your public speaking efforts? How many people could you inspire? How could you change the world?

Think Like A Scientist

By Being Curious

As a presenter, you have opportunities to influence not only the people who listen to your presentation, but also everyone they discuss your talk with and everyone they discuss it with, and so on. So don’t stop innovating just because you think you’ve discovered what your audience wants to hear. Instead, teach them what they want to hear by expanding your horizons and constantly improving. They will share your enthusiasm.

By Thinking Big

Many researchers, scientists and adventurers spend their entire careers focusing on what happens here on Earth. While that’s no less admirable, and in fact is likely a good deal more tangible, relevant, and useful to most people, it takes a special type of person to look out into space and say “I want to learn more.” That fearlessness and cavalier attitude are essential and, more importantly for our purposes, replicable.  You can (and should) narrow your focus when presenting, keeping in mind that your audience will be able to absorb a limited amount of information. But narrowing your scope, on the other hand, limits your growth as a speaker, and will ultimately cap your success.

By Never Settling

As you read earlier, Kepler 452b is not the first Earthlike planet to be discovered in a so-called “Goldilocks Zone”, and it won’t be the last. In 2013, Astronomers recorded data that indicated the possibility of 40 billion such planets in our galaxy alone. 40 billion! But NASA has continued to collect information, to analyze, to refine their parameters; they aren’t satisfied yet. Neither should you be. There is always room for improvement — if you’ve just given the best presentation ever, resolve to somehow make your next one even better. If your team tells you that your speech just sold a million widgets, then set your sights on 2 million. By never settling, you can achieve what you may have previously thought was impossible.

There is so much to learn from scientists like the ones at NASA, but the thing you take away from the next big discovery may not be science at all. And, like the men and women responsible for putting the Kepler space telescope out into the vast, unexplored universe, you might be surprised where it takes you.





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