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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 team of developers at the MIT Media Lab has created a software system, My Automated Conversation Coach (MACH), that people can use in the privacy of their homes to practice their conversational skills. The system uses the computer's webcam to note facial ...
What's the Latest Development? When it comes to cyberattacks that shut down business servers and steal valuable data, some companies want to take "an eye for an eye" approach, launching counterattacks that could involve malware or covert shutdowns of hackers' computers. Such activity is illegal ...
What's the Latest Development? With unemployment rates among young Europeans remaining high, and amid fears of potential civil conflict, some governments are reconsidering using part of their budgets to fund early retirement programs for older workers. It's one of the ideas that may come up at a ...
What's the Latest Development? A recent spate of kidnappings led a group of friends in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas to form a running group. Through Twitter and other social media, word spread, and now as many as 300 Runners Venezuela members can be seen jogging together three nights a ...
What's the Latest Development? A team of University of Toronto scholars asked 100 students to read either one of several literary short stories or one of several nonfiction essays before completing a survey about their emotional need for certainty. Those who read the short stories received much ...
What's the Latest Development? Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have come up with a quick and efficient way to diagnose serious disease through the use of a highly-sensitive exhaled breath sensor. Made of tin dioxide nanofibers coated with catalytic ...
What's the Latest Development? Since 2005, designers at Carnegie Mellon University have been refining a surveillance system that is capable of tracking over a dozen individuals simultaneously -- just like the Marauders' Map described in the Harry Potter books. The multi-camera setup was ...
What's the Latest Development? Scientists at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have created a prototype of an image sensor that, when built into a digital camera, could make that camera five times more sensitive to light. In low-light or night conditions, such a ...
What's the Latest Development? A team of designers from MIT Media Lab's Mediated Matters Group -- which "focuses on biologically inspired design fabrication tools and technologies aiming to enhance the relation between natural and man-made environments," according to their Web site -- created a ...
What's the Latest Development? In case you're still not on board with the idea of adding insects to your diet, designer Mansour Ourasanah offers this for consideration: A decorative pod that contains all the ingredients necessary for cultivating live grasshoppers and fits comfortably on your ...
What's the Latest Development? The scientists and entrepreneurs behind the Lone Signal project are inviting the public to send them text and photo messages that will be beamed into space -- specifically, to the Gliese 526 star system, about 18 light-years away -- beginning June 17. To achieve ...
What's the Latest Development? A century after becoming all but extinct east of the Rocky Mountains, cougars -- also known as mountain lions, pumas, and panthers, among other names -- are on the move, as evidenced by an increasing number of sightings in 11 Midwestern states as well as in ...
What's the Latest Development? A study published this week in Aeolian Research reveals that since 1994, the amount of dust that's been generated and blown across some parts of the western US has "gone up a few hundred percent," says University of Colorado-Boulder professor and study co-author ...
What's the Latest Development? Vanderbilt University professor Robert Scherrer and post-doctoral fellow Chiu Man Ho have developed a hypothesis on the composition of dark matter that, unlike other attempts at explanation, can be readily tested using existing underground detectors. Their focus is ...
What's the Latest Development? A new report out from the International Energy Agency (IEA) offers an aggressive plan for nations to follow over the next seven years in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The suggestions include imposing tighter energy-efficiency standards on a wide range of ...