TED Prize winner JR stands in the center of his Panthéon collage. Photo: Inside Out Project

Below, just a few members of the TED community who made headlines this week.

Longtime TEDster Steve Case is hitting the road this summer to find and invest in start-ups that may otherwise be overlooked. His “Rise of the Rest Road Trip” kicked off in Detroit this week and will continue on to Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Nashville, with pitch winners in each city receiving a $100,000 grant. Case hopes other investors will follow his lead. (Watch 10 TED Talks that Steve Case calls “unforgettable.”)

An important new study-of-studies about the pesticides known as “neonics” confirms Marla Spivak’s warning: neonicotinoid pesticides are harming bees, and those who love them. Dive into the Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (WIA) or read the CBC’s great wrap-up of it. (Watch Marla’s talk, “Why bees are disappearing.”)

JR’s latest work: pasting portraits of his fellow French men and women on the floor of the Panthéon, to stunning effect. See what we mean, above. (Watch JR’s TED Prize talk, “Use art to turn the world inside out.”)

In a recent New York Review of Books interview, John Searle grapples with the state of modern philosophy and discusses the philosophical implications of human rights. He closes the interview with a piece of wisdom for aspiring young philosophers: “My advice would be to take questions that genuinely worry you—that really keep you awake at night—and work on them with passion.” (Watch John’s talk, “Our shared condition—consciousness.”)

TED Fellow Paul Wick’s website, PatientsLikeMe, has launched a new service that helps pharmaceutical companies collaborate with patients as they design clinical trials. He hopes it will inspire more patients to actually sign on to be part of trials. As Wick puts it: “It’s all part of our mission to put the patient voice in the decision-making heart of healthcare.” (Read a TED Blog interview with Paul on big data in healthcare.)

Bob Mankoff has written a beautiful obituary for Charles Barsotti, who did nearly 1,400 cartoons for The New Yorker. He writes, “With the minimum number of lines, Charlie could extract the maximum number of ideas.” (Watch Mankoff’s talk, “Anatomy of a New Yorker cartoon,” or check out a gallery of his 11 favorite cartoons ever — which, of course, includes one of Barsotti’s classics.)

Elon Musk’s Solar City is acquiring a startup called Silevo for $200 million. The aim: to make solar power far cheaper than fossil fuel. (Watch Elon’s talk, “The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity.”

Meklit, a TED Fellow, has a new music video, in which a lot of clocks get thrown off a roof. (Read much more about Meklit’s music.)

In a new interview with the MIT Technology Review, Rebecca Saxe discusses the implications of her neuroscience work on social cognition in a variety of fields, from therapies for people living with autism to socially intelligent computers. (Watch Rebecca’s talk “How we read each other’s minds.”)

And finally, TED Fellow Durreen Shahnaz makes the case for a retail impact bond in Asia to The Guardian. (Watch Durreen’s talk from TED@BCG, “How capitalism and philanthropy collaborate to solve big problems.”)

Note: Olivia Cucinotta contributed to this post. 

Steve Case — who became a highly esteemed entrepreneur as the co-founder of America Online — is proof of the success of innovation. Case has been attending TED for almost two decades and feels very proud of its growth.

He writes, “What started as a ‘dinner party for a hundred of the world’s greatest minds’ (which is how founder Richard Saul Wurman first conceived of TED) has now evolved to be a global platform for ‘ideas worth spreading.’ The decision by Chris Anderson to launch TED.com and make the talks available to the world has made TED all the more impactful, not just for the ideas, but for the people sharing them. Ken Robinson, for example, was respected for his views on education, but after his TED Talk was downloaded 14 million times, he became a global icon for creativity, virtually overnight. It has been amazing to watch TED’s transition from party to platform, and from a small gathering for the benefit of a few in Monterey, California to a massive global movement. Choosing my favorite TED talks after so many years was no easy task, but here goes…” Head to the playlist section to watch his picks >>

Brandon Boyd, lead singer of the band Incubus, is a big TED fan. He writes, “Although I have yet to attend TED, the web database has offered me consistent inspiration for years now. I see it as a beacon of both intellectual and spiritual light that speaks to the best of what we do, who we are and where we are heading. I’ve watched some of these presentations and at times felt at ease with the notion of an alien intelligence looking in on us from another locale. I mention that because there have been times in the not so distant past wherein I was nervous about a Pop Phenomena or a TV show’s signal drifting out into open space, and a quasi-irritable species passing by hearing it and deciding in a brief moment of weakness that these couldn’t be the voices of a species in ascendance and perhaps this ‘Planet Earth’ place isn’t worth all the hubbub. Death Ray activated! Zoinks! Splat! Poof…Then in the vertical blink of an advanced alien eye socket, no more Earth. Thanks a lot, Baha Men. But I digress, TED continues to inspire and evoke! I hope to one day perform live music on the moon and perhaps if all goes according to plan we can make a TED Talk out of it! If that doesn’t happen, I’ll fall back on my plan B: developing invisible deflector shields for incoming planet destroying laser beams. Thanks TED, you’re a cool cat.” Head to the playlist section to watch his favorites >>

And a bonus TED-Ed lesson that Boyd adores: John Lloyd: An animated tour of the invisible

Data visionary Hans Rosling has given nine TED Talks over the years, focusing on global trends in health, economics and population growth. His favorite talks, naturally, keep an eye toward these global themes — from business in Africa to youth culture in China. See his selections in the playlist section >>

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A big, huge thank you to Mashable and iTunes for helping us share these playlists around the world. Head to iTunes to download these lists as limited-edition podcasts and to Mashable to see their exclusive additional lists from tech superstars.

And as always, we want to hear about the talks you love. This week, tweet a favorite playlist — or the name of a talk that deeply resonated with you — using the hashtag #topTED.