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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
“A British man convicted of drug smuggling was executed in China early Tuesday, despite appeals for clemency from his family, human rights groups and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to British officials. The man, Akmal Shaikh, 53, was executed in the far western region of Xinjiang ...
“A growing chorus of Republican officials is pledging to push for a full repeal of health care reform legislation, weeks before a bill actually lands on the president's desk for signing. In an email to the Huffington Post, Alex Conant, a former RNC press secretary and an adviser to possible 2012 ...
“Somali pirates hijacked a UK-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on the same day they released a Singapore-flagged container ship, pirates and maritime officials said today. Pirates told Reuters they had received a ransom for the Singaporean vessel Kota Wajar and freed the ship with its ...
“The operator of a popular BitTorrent search site said Monday he will likely challenge last week’s landmark decision by a U.S. judge declaring such sites unlawful and no different from conventional peer-to-peer piracy services. ‘We do think from our preliminary review there are a number of issues ...
“Fans of history and poetry are hoping the city of Methuen gets a $3,000 grant to preserve an attendance log that poet Robert Frost used when he taught grammar school more than a century ago. The bound volume is in need of the care of preservationists and the city has applied for a grant from the ...
“The premise that hunger makes food look more appealing is a widely held belief -- just ask those who cruise grocery store aisles on an empty stomach, only to go home with a full basket and an empty wallet. Prior research studies have suggested that the so-called hunger hormone ghrelin, which the ...
“The newest big thing insolar power is a set of solar panels so small that they could be mistaken for specks of glitter. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratorieshave produced “microcells” that are thinner than a human hair, which are made from crystalline silicon and use 100 times less material ...
“China's new high speed train made its debut Saturday, December 26, 2009, with average speeds of 217 mph. The Harmony Express traveled 683 miles from Wuhan to Guangzhouin less than 3 hours, a trip that previously took 11 hours. Compare that to Amtrak's Silver Meteor - the 641-mile journey from New ...
“In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen. A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top ...
“When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father in Nigeria reported concern over his son's ‘radicalization’ to the U.S. Embassy there last month, intelligence officials in the United States deemed the information insufficient to pursue. The young man's name was added to the half-million entries in a ...
“Security forces in Iran have arrested two prominent outspoken critics of the government in the wake of opposition protests that left as many as eight people dead. Ebrahim Yazdi, who served as foreign minister in the early months of Iran's 1979 revolution, and Emadeddin Baghi, a human rights ...
“The next round of the battle over climate change policy on Capitol Hill will involve more than the usual suspects – way more. Watch soup makers face off against steel companies. Witness the folks who pump gas from the ground fight back against those who dig up rock. And watch the venture ...
“Two cousins of a British man who is due to be executed in China tomorrow have travelled to the country to make a last-minute plea for his life. Akmal Shaikh faces the death sentence — most likely to be carried out by injection — for having four kilogrammes (8.8lbs) of heroin when he flew into the ...
“Scientists know bacteria can become inured to disinfectant, but research increasingly shows the same process may make them resistant to certain drugs. This can occur even with an antibiotic the bacteria have not been exposed to. Writing in Microbiology, the National University of Ireland team, who ...
“Britain yesterday marked the first anniversary of Israel's military onslaught on Gaza by announcing a £50m aid package for Palestinians, including backing for what it called "a drive against extremism" among the territory's young people. The move came 24 hours after Israeli forces killed six ...