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Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
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Big ideas in the news from around the web
What's the Latest Development? A recent report authored by the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Agency argues that overcoming our squeamishness about eating protein-rich bugs may make the crucial difference in overcoming global hunger. "According to the FAO, more than two billion people—30 ...
What's the Latest Development? Thanks to technological innovations in the past decade, film making has become increasingly decentralized and going to the movies is no longer the go-to entertainment option. Still, Hollywood is dreaming as big as ever and several movie studios are set to begin ...
What's the Latest Development? A recently published study conducted by Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff has found that the more national debt a country has, the greater tendency there is for slow, or negative, economic growth. The study was seized on by fiscally conservative politicians who seek ...
What's the Latest Development? The once-gritty city of Berlin is getting a make over, an afternoon that Barbie would surely approve of. Two interactive, life-size dollhouses launched recently as Barbie maker Mattel's latest effort to expand the doll's franchise. One of the dollhouses in central ...
What's the Latest Development? The public debate over gay marriage in France is decided but a modern group of Catholics who still speak strongly in favor of traditional marriage has emerged as a modern sociological phenomenon. "Today, everyone asserts their identity, why shouldn't we?" asks ...
What's the Latest Development? The concept of empathy—putting yourself into another's shoes—has fueled political and moral thinking of late, inspiring presidents and academics to hail the feeling of another's pain as necessary to curing the world's ills. Crucial to empathy is "victim ...
What's the Latest Development? A partnership between Google and NASA has resulted in the purchase of a quantum computer which both organizations expect to aid in the development of artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning, a branch of AI that focuses on construction and study of ...
What's the Latest Development? Controversy surrounding a Harvard dissertation which claimed a genetic link between race and intelligence has cost its author, Jason Richwine, his job at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. Richwine, who recently wrote on the high costs of ...
What's the Latest Development? In terms of urban landscaping, New York City's Central Park is a major achievement. Built in 1859 to contest Europe's monopoly on sophisticated city-living, the ample greenery of Central Park contributes to the quality of life New Yorkers have come to enjoy. In ...
What's the Latest Development? A team of scientists from Oxford University have shown that zapping the brain with electrical impulses improves its ability to complete mathematical problems. In an experiment, transcranial random noise stimulation (TRNS), in which electrodes placed on the surface ...
What's the Latest Development? Computer scientists and artificial intelligence experts say that a project to create digital roundworms represents an essential stepping stone toward the fusion of life and non-life. The project, called OpenWorm, is an opensource effort to elucidate the principles ...
What's the Latest Development? While only three percent of the world's surface is covered by urban landscapes, more than half of the human population lives in city environments. That's changing human culture as well as human biology, say genetic experts. "The spread of genetic diversity can be ...
What's the Latest Development? Pediatricians are encouraging children to play more video games, as long as those games run on consuls that depend on body movement, such as Xbox-Kinect and Wii, to move the game forward. A new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics has found that such games ...
What's the Latest Development? Biologists at Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities have created an artificial human ear—using a three-dimensional printer, no less—that detects sound better than natural human ears. "The technique lets scientists mimic the structural complexity of the ear ...
What's the Latest Development? University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo has found that social isolation hurts our ability to self-regulate, driving us to eat poorly and exercise less. "In one experiment, participants made to feel socially disconnected ate many more cookies than those ...