Project Icarus is a five-year study into the possibility of sending a unmanned ship to another star. The project recently outlined expected scientific benefits, including the search for life.
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As grasslands diminish on prairies and savannas around the world, an innovative ranching technique that reverses the environmental damage of desertification makes its way to the U.S.
Virtual schooling is a good idea. Over the past decade or so, online education has proven itself a valuable component of the learning system, from elementary to post-secondary. I personally […]
Big Data can become the key to unlocking growth for smaller companies throughout the U.S. economy.
Singularity University has spawned a group of start-ups with the ambitious goal of impacting one billion people in ten years. Big Think contributor Michael Raymond del Castillo profiles this group of entrepreneurs who are looking to change the world.
The Earth could end up with a permanent junk belt that could make space too dangerous to fly in, a situation a new start-up plans to address with laser technology.
Before history is quickly re-written and the essentials forgotten, the vote that took on Monday night in the House of Commons on whether British voters should be allowed a referendum […]
The fascinating billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel (a Facebook guy, the PayPal guy etc.) seems to be carrying the day against the educational establishment in answering this question negatively. He’s teamed up […]
This past week Big Think published a post by Mark Roeder that compared the financial system to epilepsy. After reviewing reader comments, Mr. Roeder has published a corrected version, which […]
Earlier today Aaron Zelin over at Jihadology pointed me to a new release on the forums. Ansar al-Shariah, the group we first heard about earlier this spring in a talk […]
Robert Scoble on why it’s more interesting on Google+ than Twitter or Facebook: because it’s for finding, and talking with, the people who are interested in the same thing you are.
Winning a second term will be almost impossible for Obama without continued support from voters aged 29 and under—one key reason he needs a stronger social media strategy.
Dell predicts that IT managers will move to the sort of model that film studios use: big temporary teams that come together to solve a problem then disband.
Amazon, aggressively expanding its publishing efforts, can sell a lot of books. But many writers don’t want to publish to an algorithm, they care about making culture and art.
Pay for a fast food lunch with your credit card then see weight loss ads next time you’re online. That kind of outcome is likely under moves Visa and Mastercard are studying.
At the New York Times’ Opinionator blog, Steven Mazie urges Occupy Wall Street to take inspiration from the late, great political philosopher John Rawls: Rawls’s boldest claim — that inequality […]
The plural of Texas? My money’s on Texases, even though that sounds almost as wrong as Texae, Texi or whatever alternative you might try to think up. Texas is defiantly […]
Allen Ginsberg, you fearless old goat, you shrewd, batshit agitator, you hedonist Buddhist, where are you now? Following Occupy Wall Street in the news has made me want to invoke […]
On October 19th, there was an event on Apple’s campus celebrating Steve Jobs’s life. This event was not secret, but the live video feed that connected all employees of Apple […]
I just got back from a vacation and during that time I got to do something I love – read all sorts of intellectually stimulating stuff. It re-affirmed some simple […]
–Guest post by Declan Fahy, American University. The interactive horror-themed websites Hotel626.com and Asylum626.com are the cornerstones of a complaint filed last week by a coalition of four consumer and […]
Margaret Cho, the “Patron Saint of Outsiders” reveals the secret to overcoming barriers.
Have you seen “Miss Representation”, the documentary that challenges the sexist, demeaning way the information and entertainment media depict women? See it. It’s important, and spot on…even if it is […]
How could you possibly accept Herman Cain’s position on abortion if you are a conservative? I like Herman Cain’s position on abortion because he takes the government out of the […]
UNESCO could soon grant the Palestinians membership, a move that would see the U.S. resign and could spur a chain of similar situations. At what cost to the U.S.?
Public opinion about climate change, observes the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin, can be compared to “waves in a shallow pan,” easily tipped with “a lot of sloshing but not […]
The world’s population is about to reach seven billion. Can we handle that many humans, let alone the three billion more expected to be added by the end of this century?
Readers in the Washington, DC area may be interested in this free event coming up at American University this week Thurs. Oct. 27 and sponsored by the School of Communication. […]
Digital communication, such as via Tweets, worsens the unhealthy popularity of curt, rapid opinions. Is comment, like a strangler-fig, getting stronger than the politics on which it feeds?