You're listening to a special archive presentation of TED Talks audio.

This talk features astrophysicist Jedida Isler, recorded live at TED Fellows Retreat 2015.

Great things happen at intersections.

In fact, I would argue that some of the most interesting things of the human experience occur at the intersections. In fact, I would argue that some of the most interesting things

of the human experience occur at the intersections.

In the liminal space,

whereby liminal, I mean the space in between.

There's freedom in that in between,

freedom to create from the indefiniteness

of not quite here, not quite there, a new self-definition.

Some of the great intersections of the world come to mind, like the Arc de Triumph in Paris or Times Square in New York City,

both bustling with the excitement of a seemingly endless stream of people.

Other intersections like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama,

or Canfield Drive and Copper Creek Court in Ferguson, Missouri,

also come to mind

because of the tremendous energy at the intersection of human beings,

ideologies and the ongoing struggle for justice.

Beyond the physical landscape of our planet,

some of the most famous celestial images are of intersections.

Stars are born at the messy intersection of gas and dust, instigated by gravity's irrevocable pull.

Stars die by this same intersection,

this time flung outward in a violent collision of smaller atoms,

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