“High tariffs and currency wars cost us big in the 1930s. We can avoid making the same mistakes again.” The Wall Street Journal on the history of the tariff.
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“Two planets similar to Earth have been discovered circling the dwarf star Gliese 581. Using new, super telescopes, astronomers are now searching for signs of life.”
“Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the Internet has.”
“For all the money sloshing around in American politics, you still cannot buy the results of elections.” The Economist says the law of diminishing returns applies to campaign money.
“Saul Bellow’s letters are to be published later this month, five years after his death. Letters to Philip Roth and Martin Amis provide a taster of the much-anticipated collection.”
Global institutions require the leadership of great powers; it remains to be seen whether this century’s powers are up for the task, says Harvard professor Joseph Nye.
Why do some thrive under stress and others fall apart? The Boston Globe takes a new look at why we choke under pressure, and what we can do about it.
Arguments about green technologies tend to focus on what, if anything, the government should do to get people to adopt them. Those who would dismiss them generally argue that global […]
After fuseproject’s sleek WattStation electric vehicle charging stations for GE, Nissan enters the designer charging station market with Solar Tree – a futuristic solar-powered vehicle charging station. The 40-foot concept […]
It is a phrase more often heard in London than Washington, but which has driven British defence policy since the end of the Suez crisis in 1956. It is that […]
Six months ago, in late April, Research teams at the NASA Infrared Telescope facility in Hawaii made an astonishing discovery. They found that both water ice and organic compounds exist […]
“Shortly before the announcement of National Security Advisor James Jones’ resignation, Spiegel spoke to him about the war on terror and the state of Pakistan.”
“The welfare state met its end in Britain this week, when British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne repudiated the concept of the ‘universal benefit.'”
New wireless networks that relay body organ data to mobile devices will allow athletes and at-risk patients to monitor their health more effectively.
“Quantum entanglement—a bizarre instantaneous link between particles—has been proven to occur.” Understanding the phenomenon may result in much faster computers.
“The first economic analysis of growing genetically modified crops on a wide scale has found that the biggest winners were the farmers who decided not to grow them.”
“The Internet has been lauded by Nobel Peace prize-winning Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo as ‘God’s gift to China’.” Xiaobo says activists can use the Internet to their advantage.
“Community is built upon conversations. People like to eat, and they like to talk about it. … The new food movement is still labeled as Do It Yourself, but it’s really Do It Ourselves.”
“The powers that be have yet to agree on how to compare electric cars with conventional ones, making it difficult for consumers to work out how much money, if any, they will save.”
“The impulse to be social is so deep-seated in human consciousness that it’s even evident in the womb, suggests a new study on the interaction of unborn twins.”
“When we talk about the hipster, we’re talking about a cross-subcultural figure who emerges by 1999 and enjoys a narrow but robust phase of existence from 1999 to 2003.”
Today’s New York Times reported on the phenomenon of declining picture book sales—for children. Pictures, apparently, are not advanced enough for our little ones, even when they are still in […]
NASA’s $150-million, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe (WMAP) has been gathering information about the nature of our Universe for nine years and has changed the way we think about it forever. […]
This year Californians will vote on a ballot proposition that would legalize the sale and possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Democrats around the country will be […]
In a front page story at the NY Times today, Bill Vlasic describes efforts by Nissan and the Federal government to cultivate the first generation buyers of the Nissan Leaf, […]
The annual cull of the endangered pilot dolphins just off the coast of the remote Faroe Islands is barbarism.
Many of the guests who we interview at Big Think can be described as “giants” in their fields, but this week we actually hosted our tallest guest ever. John Amaechi, […]
Disability is one of the areas where design can make the most meaningful difference in quality of life. This was certainly true of Amanda Boxtel, who has been confined to […]
This paper in the current issue of the journal Neuron claims to add some MRI findings to the evidence that human empathy and kindness stop at the border between “our […]
Re-election campaigns distract U.S. presidents from their executive duties. Should we eliminate them in favor of longer terms?