It seems that our attention is being brought back to Iceland every few months when it comes to volcanism – and this shouldn’t be any surprise, the north Atlantic island […]
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The next-generation spaceship chosen to fly American astronauts into orbit and back may look a lot like N.A.S.A.’s soon-to-be-retired space shuttle—and it even has N.A.S.A. roots, too.
The world’s insatiable demand for the rare-earth elements needed to make almost all technological gadgets could one day be partially met by sea-floor mining, says a new report.
Oil leaked from an Exxon Mobile pipeline near Laurel, Montana, has spread fifteen miles from its source, five miles further than previously thought, contaminating the Yellowstone River.
While carbon dioxide emissions have risen steadily from 1998 to 2009, global temperatures have not. Scientists say Chinese coal-fired power plants that release sulfur have cooled the planet.
One of the strangest theories to come out of theoretical physics is that the universe is a projection of a two-dimensional shell. New evidence suggests this hologram theory is false.
As N.A.S.A.’s space shuttle program prepares for its last launch ever, some say the political compromise that initiated the shuttle program also compromised decades of research.
When I found out today about the death of American artist Cy Twombly at age 83, I quickly ran a gauntlet of reactions: one, I have to write about him; […]
Which scientific idea–offered up by experts such as Ray Kurzweil, Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking and others–will impact our world the most? See our top contenders and vote for your favorite.
Dr. Gary Small says in the future you will wear a headband that will read your thoughts, so when you think a thought it will be translated wirelessly.
Ken Auletta’s profile of Sheryl Sandberg in The New Yorkeris an excellent companion to Sandberg’s TED speech of last December. The latter was passed like a Dead bootleg among a […]
I was talking to a friend’s son this weekend about his love life. He is tall and handsome so I figured that at the age of 17 he probably has […]
We are now in the heart of the summer after the long weekend (well, at least here in the US) … and it means that I’m within a week of […]
A Guardian newspaper investigation in Britain has revealed that one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, the mass selling tabloid, ‘News of the World’, hired a private investigator to hack into the […]
After hacking Sony’s corporate headquarters, the hacker group Lulz Security became infamous for its blend of humor and unapologetic data theft. New Scientist interviews one of its members.
After Google pulled its popular search engine out of mainland China, its rival Microsoft has struck a deal with the biggest Chinese search engine to offer Web searches in English.
Laptop orchestras transcend “old world” performances by offering a new way for people to make music together, challenging the notion of what’s considered a musical instrument.
The State Department is hosting technology camps in regions of the world with dictatorial governments, teaching protesters how to keep safe while using social media.
New research from Cambridge University indicates that a third of people have felt overwhelmed by new communication technologies, though children still prefer face-to-face interactions.
“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” Percy Shelley wrote in 1821. Not surprisingly, this claim has earned some snickers from people who think of poets as barely able […]
People who can name only one painting in the world usually name the Mona Lisa. For better or worse, Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of (probably) Lisa del Giocondo rises above […]
It only has one job: instil map readers with fear and revulsion.
Pity the poor Fifth of July. Americans don’t love it the way they love its neighbor, the loud and flag-bedazzled Fourth of July. The Fourth is hard to beat. A […]
Well, I’m really not. But a lot of BIG THINKERS must be, because we have nary a post so far talking up THE AMERICAN HOLIDAY. So HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! […]
Treasury Secretary Geithner warns that if Congress doesn’t act to raise the federal debt ceiling, it would be “unthinkably damaging to the economy.” As Ezra Klein reports, the governments options […]
Greece will default on its debt—the only question is how. Either its lenders will accept “voluntary” rollovers or risk an economic collapse similar to Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Politically and economically exhausted, Europe and America are no longer very capable of imposing their values and interests through costly military interventions in faraway lands.
One calculation puts China’s sovereign debt at 150 percent of its G.D.P., a bigger percentage than Greece’s. As China is buying up more European debt, could it be at risk of defaulting?
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman reviews a new book on the history of overreach by American financial institutions and notes that each crash has been bigger than the last…
The government wants to double the fuel efficiency standards of cars made in America. If successful, it would bring the U.S. in line with Europe and Japan, creating a global car market.