What is Big Think?  

We are Big Idea Hunters…

We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.

A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think

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.

Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.

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Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.

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Blog Posts

Daylight Atheism

Photo Sunday: Texture

Dabanner
over 3 years ago

Next week there will be photos from my trip to St. Louis, once I've had time to do the normal cropping and processing. Until then, there's this: I'm fascinated by the way the camera reveals unfamiliar-seeming details of familiar surfaces. Fallen timber, Hudson Highlands Nature Center ...

Waq al-Waq

AQAP Denies al-Raymi's Death

Missing
over 3 years ago

I came close to making it through the weekend without blogging, but the new statement from AQAP forced my hand. The statement denies that anyone was killed in the strike on Friday that was alleged to have killed Qasim al-Raymi. This Mareb Press article claims that yesterday numerous al-Qaeda ...

IdeaFeed

Waiting Game

Missing
over 3 years ago

Foreign aid has reached the ground in Haiti but distribution is hampered by destroyed infrastructure and a government vacuum. “As the focus on Saturday turned away from Haitians lost to those trying to survive, a sprawling assembly of international officials and aid workers struggled to fix a ...

IdeaFeed

The New Detroit

Missing
over 3 years ago

Auto plants running around the clock in China still cannot meet the burgeoning demand of a growing middle class in urban and rural areas. “Nissan Motor Co.’s factory in central China is making cars almost 24 hours a day, yet Pan Xiaowei still waited three months for her new Tiida compact to arrive ...

IdeaFeed

Red Into Green

Missing
over 3 years ago

A Red Cross fundraising campaign for Haiti raised record amounts via text messages after a campaign on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. “A 48-hour-old fundraising campaign to help Haiti earthquake victims, done solely through text messages, was already stunning Red Cross officials ...

IdeaFeed

Clever Doctors

Missing
over 3 years ago

After a car crash that crushed her windpipe a Belgian woman kept a donor’s windpipe in her forearm before the transplant occurred. “Linda De Croock, a Belgian woman who had her throat crushed in a car accident a quarter-century ago, received one of the odder-sounding organ transplants we’ve ever ...

IdeaFeed

Retribution

Missing
over 3 years ago

Saddam Hussein’s notorious cousin known as Chemical Ali has been sentenced to death for gassing Kurds at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. “Families of victims in court cheered when the judge handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hassan al-Majid in a trial for the poison gas attack on the Kurdish ...

IdeaFeed

GOP Leading Polls

Missing
over 3 years ago

The Republican candidate aiming to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat from Massachusetts is leading the polls with his vow to kill national healthcare reform. “With the political winds at the back of Republican Scott Brown, pollsters tracking the Massachusetts Senate race are skeptical that ...

IdeaFeed

Yahoo! Speaks

Missing
over 3 years ago

Yahoo! is being criticized now that it has sided with Google against China after keeping quiet about former hacker attacks it had full knowledge of. “Yahoo knew it had been a target of sophisticated Chinese cyber attacks on U.S. firms before Google alerted the company to them, but remained silent ...

IdeaFeed

Open Window

Missing
over 3 years ago

The German government has warned web users that Internet Explorer is insecure after its role in the Google hackings in China. “The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems. Microsoft rejected ...

IdeaFeed

Give and Take

Missing
over 3 years ago

Big banks are working to cap employee bonuses in the face of a $117bn federal tax and public fury over record payout amounts. “Wall Street banks plan to highlight caps on cash bonuses and cuts in the proportion of revenues paid out to employees in a rearguard action against the public and political ...

IdeaFeed

Tata Nano

Missing
over 3 years ago

The world’s cheapest car which sells for $2,500 in India is slowly making its way to Europe and the U.S. “Tata Nano, an itty bitty car with a price tag to match, costs just $2,500 in India. And now, after surprising the world with its minimalism, Tata Motors is ready to let its young vehicle see the ...

Politeia

Being First Sucks

800px-transgender_pride_flag.svg
over 3 years ago

"Being first sucks." That's what Amanda Simpson, one of the country's first two openly transgender presidential appointees, told ABC News. "I'd rather not be the first, but someone has to be first." Amanda Simpson started two weeks ago at the Department of Commerce, where her job will be to keep ...

Brave Green World

Cup Of Joe, Aid To Haiti

Coffee_beans
over 3 years ago

The world’s focus right now is on immediate aid to Haiti, as it should be. But it never hurts to look down the road, too: when the repercussions of Haiti’s tragedy settle down – to whatever extent they do – it will be important for other nations, and consumers in other nations (that’s you), to find ...