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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

IdeaFeed

Booby Trap

Missing
over 3 years ago

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed by bomb in a booby-trapped motorbike which exploded outside his home in a suburb of Tehran. “State television blamed ‘Zionists and American agents’. No specific motive was suggested for the attack, though it described Dr Ali-Mohammadi him as a ‘staunch ...

IdeaFeed

Missile Interceptor

Missing
over 3 years ago

China has “successfully tested a missile interceptor” according to state media – with officials insisting the technology is “defensive” and “not targeted at any country”. “The announcement came amid repeated complaints from Beijing over the US sale of weaponry including Patriot PAC-3 air defence ...

What's New at Big Think

Seeking a Job, But Not Any Job

Picture_90
over 3 years ago

Historian Nancy Koehn sat down with Big Think to talk about the future of business. In this video, she addresses the matter as it pertains to our workforce's youngest generation: the Millennials. A professor at Harvard Business School, Koehn interacts with students on a daily basis. For the last ...

Novel Copy

Media News Roundup

Media_news_roundup
over 3 years ago

The Nation says public subsidy can save journalism in America. The Columbia Journalism Review predicts public outcry at impending Wall Street bonuses. The U.K.’s Digital Economy Bill could grant Google Search copyright immunity and require that ISPs issue warnings to illegal downloaders ...

What's New at Big Think

Master of Catastrophe

Earthwarming
over 3 years ago

Paleontologist Peter Ward, professor of biology at the University of Washington and an expert on mass extinction events, stopped by Big Think today to discuss nothing less than the fate of the planet. How is it looking? Not too rosy, says Ward, who has just returned from measuring CO2 levels in ...

Waq al-Waq

Gone Fishin'

Missing
over 3 years ago

I am traveling the next couple of days, and blogging will likely be sporadic until I return to Princeton on Wednesday just in time for a talk. In the meantime here are some articles to read. First up is the text of President Salih's interview (H/T: The Majlis.) Next is an interview with the ...

Mind Matters

No, Fort Hood Was Not "Islamic Terrorism"

800px-guiteau_s_pistol
over 3 years ago

Jury selection starts this week in the trial of Scott Roeder, who has confessed to the assassination last May of George Tiller, a doctor vilified by pro-lifers for performing late-term abortions. (There's a trial because Roeder pled "not guilty''; since he considers abortion to be murder, he doesn ...

Eruptions

Turriabla mini-update for 1/11/2010

Missing
over 3 years ago

The streaming crater of Turrialba in an image taken in mid January 2010. I have a moment to spare here at WMU, so I thought I would pass some of this confusing news along concerning Turrialba. Some of the latest reports refer to a "crack" in the crater of the volcano ... specifically ...

Picture This

Whose Art Is It Anyway?

01-11-2010_van_gogh_night_cafe
over 3 years ago

The fight over who owns art might have just gone nuclear, and Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting The Night Cafe is at the center of it. The descendents of the Russian industrialist who bought the painting in 1908, only to see Soviet Russia “nationalize” the painting and sell it in the 1930s, are ...

As I Please

Media Versus Politics: Who Wins?

120px-big_ben_i_house_of_commons__londres__2008
over 3 years ago

From my own observation of having lived and worked in both the United States and Britain the main difference between media coverage of politicians in both countries is that of deference, or an almost complete lack of it amongst the British media. Or should I qualify such a bald statement? After all ...

Daylight Atheism

On Sexism and Consciousness-Raising

Dabanner
over 3 years ago

I've written in the past about religion's harm to women, and the way modern sexism is aided and abetted by ancient religious prejudices that still survive today. Every major holy book has sexist verses, but some of the most misogynistic and the most virulent can be found in the books referred to by ...

IdeaFeed

Toxic Toys

Missing
over 3 years ago

Product safety officers are launching an investigation into the presence of the toxic metal cadmium in children’s jewelry import from China after evidence of the substance was found. “The promise to ‘take action as quickly as possible to protect the safety of children’ followed by hours the release ...

IdeaFeed

Buying a Heineken

Missing
over 3 years ago

Heineken is planning on buying the beer operations of Mexican brewers Femsa in an all-share transaction valued at $7.6 billion. “The move will make Heineken a ‘more competitive player in Latin America, one of the world’s most profitable and fastest-growing beer markets,’ the chairman and chief ...