People have been thinking strategically forever, but game theory as a real science dates back less than 100 years to the mathematician Joseph von Neumann.
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“You put super in front of eruption and I don’t imagine it makes it better.” – FEMA Sec. Wendy Reiss in Supervolcano. This week in my Freshman Volcanoes class here […]
Inventor of the cellular phone Martin Cooper explains his moment of genius in which he devised the radical idea of mobile communication.
English Lessons is a new blog celebrating writing we love, and illuminating why we love it—and what we can learn from it. Poetry, fiction, editorials; Presidential speeches, classic texts, popular […]
With some training, good will and modern technology I think it is pretty safe to state that anyone of us can become really good at learning facts and therefore basically […]
Managing large numbers of personal computers represents a significant dollar amount on a company’s budget. Cloud computing may change all that as employees bring their own computer to work.
In the U.S. and Japan, people who have trained at great length and expense to be researchers confront a dwindling number of academic jobs, and an industrial sector unable to take up the slack.
Yesterday, we passed the birthday of Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889). So let’s take a moment to reflect, something that becomes increasingly important as the memory of his infamous reign […]
If you haven’t yet enabled encrypted backups for your iPhone or iPad, now is definitely the time to start, says Ars Technica, after the revelation that Apple devices track users’ whereabouts.
A leading nanotechnology scientist has raised questions over a billion dollar industry by boldly claiming that there is a limit to how small nanotechnology materials can be mass produced.
Inspired by the likes of Apple and Google, which were created in home garages, biotechnology hobbyists and hackers are asking tough questions and changing how science is done.
We are living in an unprecedented era in which personal data about our digital identity, our online activity, our financial dealings, our geo-location and even our Social Graph – is widely available […]
The journal Nature ran a lead editorial today on the Climate Shift report: In just over six months’ time, officials from the world’s nations will meet under the auspices of […]
The revolutionary applications of mobile phone technology today are derived from advances that were a long time in the making. This biography of an idea explores key moments in the cell phone’s development.
While cell phones offer liberating possibilities for the world, they also threaten personal privacy. Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain takes this Devil’s Advocate position.
Cell phones are being used in many ways today that transcend their original intended function. Big Think Delphi Fellow Aydogan Ozacan is applying this technology to breakthroughs in medicine.
We are currently living in the “learning decade,” according to entrepreneur Sam Herring. Here are some of the most exciting startups that are trying to capitalize on the new currency of ideas.
A brief update today on the activity at Taal in the Philippines. There has not been a significant change in the behavior of the caldera, with the latest PHIVOLCS update […]
With tuition spiraling upwards as the cost of learning paradoxically plummets, higher education is on an unsustainable course.
Like most people, I hate paying taxes. I’d love to keep all the money I earn, and receive government services for free. But I nevertheless have argued that if anything […]
Physicists have proposed that there could be dozens of dimensions in addition to the normal three we experience in daily life. But where are they?
The Earth has 657 more barrier islands than previously thought, according to a new global survey by researchers from Duke University and Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.
The Earth has a long shelf life, but it is, alas, temporary. Before the Sun explodes in 5 billion years, there are a number of extraterrestrial threats to our planet, from rogue black holes to magnetars.
Environmental groups spend more money on climate-change and clean-energy activities and campaigns than sceptical right-wing groups, according to a report by U.S. social scientist Matthew Nisbet.
UPDATE: Read the Nature editorial which dubs Climate Shift “essential reading for anyone with a passing interest in the climate debate.” Nature magazine has posted a news story about the […]
For humans, life around the Gulf has largely returned to normal one years after the B.P. oil spill. Questions linger about the health of wildlife, however, as several species continue to suffer.
N.A.S.A. is turning to private companies to replace the space shuttles, and it will give four proposals from the likes of Boeing and SpaceX $269 million this year to develop space taxis.
In a country referred to as “the worst place to be a child”, for five years now, Abraham “Abramz” Tekya has been using hip hop and breakdance to empower, rehabilitate, […]
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Some of the most enthusiastic about the upcoming Royal Wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William are American friends of mine. We have already despatched […]
So the most honest and penetrating book I’ve read about American higher education in a long time is HIGHER EDUCATION: HOW COLLEGES ARE WASTING OUR MONEY AND FAILING OUR KIDS–AND […]