The soot emitted when fossil fuels are burned, known as “black carbon”, could have a bigger impact on climate in some parts of the world than greenhouse gases, new research reveals.
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Australians are outraged at government plans to censor the internet after trials found that filtering a blacklist of banned sites didn’t slow the web down.
Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button has mystified users by leading to an unexplained countdown clock – with no obvious purpose…
An ice-making kit which urges drinkers to recreate the sinking of Titanic using ice cube replicas of the ship and surrounding icebergs has been branded “sick” by consumers.
Thousands have been evacuated from the areas surrounding the Mayon volcano in the Philippines after it began oozing lava and shooting plumes of ash.
Iran may have tested a key component of atomic bombs as recently as 2007 according to diplomats – a claim that undermines Iran’s insistence its nuclear development is civilian.
There’s always a lot of chaos and confusion surrounding a physical assault made on a political figure, but yesterday’s attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has the potential to […]
Textbooks–and perhaps, uniquely, economics textbooks–are not known for their literary brilliance. Why should they be? Does math need metaphor? In college when we think about numbers we think about things […]
Rarely has so much buzz surrounded a Big Think guest. It was our pleasure today to have historian of technology Dr. Rachel Maines in to discuss her bestselling 1999 volume, […]
After President Obama’s recent speeches—one at West Point proposing sending more troops to Afghanistan and one accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo—commentators have been quick to articulate the “Obama […]
Today at 2:00 EST, Big Think’s President and Co-Founder Peter Hopkins will host a live interview with the prominent author and economist Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the […]
There was no small amount of irony in the fog that delayed the flights of the Wall Street bankers scheduled to meet with President Obama this morning. For many Americans, […]
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has tackled a wide variety of subjects, from jazz to baseball to war, but all have one thing in common: they cut somehow to the heart […]
Graphic novel “Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth” is surprisingly fun, despite the book’s subject being analytical philosophy’s search for the foundations of mathematics.
Computer viruses which “attack your dignity” have been rampaging through social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, sending embarrassing messages to friends and co-workers.
Last night the world’s most prolific “annual cosmic fireworks show” twinkled across the night sky with the peak of the Geminid meteor shower.
Astronomers claim to have accurately measured the distance from Earth to a black hole for the first time and have found it is much closer than initially presumed.
Debt-laden Dubai will receive a welcome cash injection from neighbouring Abu Dhabi, which has agreed to provide $10bn in financing to help steer the region out of difficulties.
The Italian Prime Minister Silivio Berlusconi is recovering in hospital after being left with a broken nose and teeth in an assault by a crowd member during a political rally.
US President Barack Obama told talk-show-host Oprah Winfrey last night that he feels he deserves a “good, solid B+” for his first 11 months in office.
Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested several people in connection with the destruction of photographs of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Paper could be used to power your laptop according to scientists who have developed a high tech battery from the standard writing surface by coating it in special materials.
Leading climate change scientists have trounced studies claiming global warming is a natural phenomenon connected with sunspots rather than man-made emissions.
Amidst a recession and against the rigid political order that dominated New York in the early 1980s, Ed Koch managed to pass a landmark bill for New York City prohibiting […]
You don’t need to leave a carbon footprint (plane ticket to Copenhagen) or submit to the press pass racket ($250 to declareyourself a journalist) to get access to the political […]
An openly gay woman who doesn’t toe the business establishment’s line was elected the mayor of Houston yesterday.
Several conservative commentators are looking to establish themselves as the conservative Huffington Post.
Some critics admire Disney’s new entrepreneurial black princess and her interracial relationship with the frog prince.
Hair samples from ancient Peruvians contain hormones that indicate they suffered from stress just like we post-moderns do.
Tomorrow President Obama is expected to challenge national banks to lend more to small businesses, cut predatory credit card rates and support financial reform.