Description: When we think of women in video games, it’s often embarrassing. Scantily-clad pixies with enormous weapons that ooze sex. However, that is beginning to change. As more women enter the industry, both as developers and as consumers, the way games appeal to all genders is beginning to change. But even with this happening, why are so many female characters in games stuck in their stereotypes? And why are there so few games that feature female leads?

Bio: Mike Kelly is a game designer and writer living in Brooklyn who works a day job at Rolling Stone. He’s a frequent speaker on video game culture and history.

Description: Our bodies are incredibly fragile. We burst, burn, and break extremely easily, and yet we constantly travel to dangerous places, dive under the ocean, fly, drive, drink alcohol, and otherwise do things that our bodies are wholly unqualified to handle. This presentation discusses the science of human limitation, and what fundamental technologies make it possible for us not to suffocate, freeze, catch on fire, or otherwise die the thousand deaths that our unbelievably dangerous lives whisk us past each day.

Bio: Jake Ward is editor-in-chief of Popular Science, the world’s largest science and technology magazine. He’s written for The New Yorker and Wired, and has hosted television shows for Discovery, PBS and National Geographic. He splits his time between New York and California.