Guest Thinkers

People in romantic relationships are often tempted to block their partners from seeing attractive alternatives, but a new study suggests that this strategy may backfire.

New fish farms out at sea, and cleaner operations along the shore, could provide the world with a rich supply of much needed protein while using more sustainable methods.

Foreign investors see Africa as a breadbasket. Done well, investment could not only help with African hunger but create food security for the rest of the world.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei says he has no doubt that the transition in Egypt will be accompanied by a transition in the entire Middle East, from Tunisia to Yemen.

Over a long period of time, democratic and quasi-democratic nations change profoundly, but the change is gradual. Dictatorial regimes change in fits and starts, says Judge Richard Posner.

Will anyone run against Barack Obama? With the 2012 election still almost two years away, it’s obviously still early. But at this point in the previous election cycle—with Bush a […]

The link between Super Bowls and heart failure is usually written in guacamole and beer. But we are a social species, whose feelings about group identity have a direct impact […]

For 15 million years, a vast icebound lake has been sealed deep beneath Antarctica’s frozen crust, possibly hiding prehistoric or other unknown life. Now, the lake is about to be unsealed.

Two new books argue that the good book isn’t the squeaky-clean endorsement of no-sex-until-marriage that conservatives say it is. Go forth and spread the good news.

Those of us writers who are not experts on foreign policy have done more reading than writing this week about the tense situation between the Egyptian government and the Egyptian […]

It will not take much to fuel the ire of the Arab Street, as people begin to look beyond regime change in their own countries, and toward what their old regimes did or didn’t do when it came to Israel.

SETI’s search for extraterrestrial life has failed for decades. A likely reason might be they are looking for aliens who look like your neighbors at twilight.

Based on interviews with over three hundred of the world’s top scientists, who are already inventing the future in their labs, I present the revolutionary developments in medicine, computers, quantum […]

Sunday, February 6, will be the centenary of his birth. Looking at the Ronald Reagan presidency from today, can we get any sense of how he rates in history?

For a country that created a special holiday just to remember those who have fought for our freedoms in war, we do a lot of forgetting the rest of the […]

If you’re not a gamer, it’s hard to imagine why 183 million Americans spend over 13 hours a week playing video games.  It’s even harder to see why game designer Jane […]

Many of the fastest growing states—like Nevada, whose population grew at a brisk 35.1%—are also states with large Hispanic populations.

Perhaps it is the fate of political leaders never to receive praise when praise is due. Certainly not in the West, and most certainly not in Anglo American politics. Essentially […]

Media Matters reveals that Lila Rose’s undercover “sting” videos of Planned Parenthood have been doctored: –Why is Live Action Doctoring Its Planned Parenthood Audio? –Latest Lila Rose Video Ends Her […]

We haven’t talked too much about volcanic activity in Africa lately, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening. I had a couple galleries of images come through my inbox in […]

I hesitate to undermine the good will I might have built up with BIG THINK readers by writing about uniter-not-divider topics like movies and happiness.  But Reagan’s birthday is this weekend, […]

Now we are hearing about the memoir. Now, just as we stand shocked and awed before another chaotic call for revolutionary change in leadership, a moment some have claimed confirm […]

It has been a bit of a disjointed yet busy week, so I thought I’d end it with a new Mystery Volcano photo. It might be another challenging photo like […]

Arab cable channels like al Jazeera promotes a pan-Arab identity at the expense of national, or state-centric, political identities. What role has this played in the recent uprisings across the Arab world?

Whether it is the armed forces that take over in Egypt, or a moderate secular democrat, or indeed the Muslim Brotherhood, it will never be the same again for Israel. 

Mayor Mike Bloomberg isn’t the type to forgive and forget. Two years ago, New York’s official Groundhog Day groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, bit the mayor during the annual weather forecasting […]

An Egyptian acquaintance wrote me from Cairo this morning. I’m passing on his warning to journalists and foreigners about gangs of pro-government thugs roaming the streets there. This morning, as […]

Quick updates for today, all centered on the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism ProgramWeekly Volcanic Activity Report, along with this great new MODIS image from the NASA Earth Observatory – both Sakurajima and […]

Did you know that in the world of Wikipedia the word “marriage” is classified as a “contentious issue?” The page has been protected, on and off, for the last four […]

BIG THINK’s great little interview with Danny Rubin got me thinking about the relationship between happiness and mortality.   His very philosophic film is all about our “rightly understood” theme of the connections […]