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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

Brave Green World

Top 10 Green Building Trends For 2010

Green_home
over 3 years ago

Losing sleep over the bleak future of real estate? You might do well to look into hooking your home (new or old) up to use geothermal energy. Experts are saying that actually, while the rest of the market spiraled down the toilet last year, sustainable and energy efficient building did relatively ...

Waq al-Waq

Something to Read

Missing
over 3 years ago

Three new articles on Yemen (in English) that you should read. 1. Bernard Haykel in the National 2. Fawaz Gerges for CNN 3. Michael Knights for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Waq al-Waq

To be anonymous

Missing
over 3 years ago

I have often wondered what I would say if I could say something without my name being attached to my comments, I'm still not sure. But I would certainly request anonymity if I said this: "The similarity between Yemen and Somalia is that they are tribal societies, they have conservative social ...

Picture This

Target Practice

01-07-2010_noland_beginning_1958
over 3 years ago

The American art scene lost one of the great, yet forgotten artists of the twentieth century last Tuesday with the passing of Kenneth Noland at 85 years of age.  One of the Color Field painters, the abstract art movement christened by influential critic Clement Greenberg as the true successor to ...

What's New at Big Think

Of Parasites and Men

Parasite
over 3 years ago

How many parasites live inside us? What is the relationship between internal parasites and allergies? And could one parasite even have affected our brain chemistry over the course of millennia? Science journalist Carl Zimmer ("Parasite Rex") stopped by Big Think this week to discuss these and a ...

Waq al-Waq

More Self Promotion

Missing
over 3 years ago

I feel like this blog is now essentially serving as a PR agent. But here is a new column that pretty much is a basic overview of what we've been saying here. I also think the picture attached makes me look like a younger Christopher Hitchens. I am not totally sure how I feel about that.

Waq al-Waq

The most dangerous family in the World

Missing
over 3 years ago

For those of you who have been closely following the reports out of Yemen lately it appears as though either A.) the al-Haniq family of Arhab is the most dangerous family in the world or B.) the entire composition of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is drawn from this family. And, since we know ...

Daylight Atheism

William Dembski on Faith Healers

Dabanner
over 3 years ago

Most of you have probably heard the name of William Dembski, one of the prominent advocates of intelligent-design creationism. Like all ID advocates, Dembski claims vehemently that his work is scientific and not in any way motivated by his religious beliefs, which is why he's currently a professor ...

IdeaFeed

Survivor Dies

Missing
over 3 years ago

The only official survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs in Japan has died of stomach cancer in his nineties. Tsutomu Yamaguchi witnessed at close hand the nuclear devastation of two Japanese cities, and lived to tell the tale. Now it will be left to others to tell his incredible ...

IdeaFeed

Fat And Bone Mass

Missing
over 3 years ago

Fat mass is important for increasing bone size in girls according to researchers who found that excessive dieting in young women greatly increases the risk of osteoporosis. “According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ...

IdeaFeed

Kan Yen?

Missing
over 3 years ago

Japan’s new finance minister Naoto Kan has said it would be “nice” to see a weaker yen in order to aid the recovery of the Japanese economy, during a press conference “His predecessor, Hiroshisa Fujii, was criticised for tolerating a strong yen, which hurts Japan's exporters. Japan is currently ...

IdeaFeed

“Certain Shock”

Missing
over 3 years ago

Americans will feel “certain shock” when a report detailing the intelligence failures that could have prevented the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing is published today. “In an interview Wednesday with USA Today, White House national security adviser James Jones said President Obama ‘is ...

IdeaFeed

Threatening Peace

Missing
over 3 years ago

A major upsurge in violence in Africa’s Sudan is threatening the country’s 2005 peace agreement according to a coalition of aid agencies based in the south of the region. “’’Sudan is at a crossroads,’ the 10 agencies say in a report released Thursday, ‘and the next 12 months could determine the ...