bigthinkeditor
Growing GM engineered disease resistant crops is comparable to a triple-A-rated mortgage bond, fabricated to prevent credit risk. But can such protections really work?
Scientists have discovered a remarkable species of octopus whose exceptional powers of camouflage mean it can successfully imitate flounder fish in the Atlantic Ocean.
Can the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in The Hague, which resumed this week after he boycotted for four months, be prevented from descending into a farce?
The means by which scary black holes at the centers of most galaxies suck up gas from their surroundings by overcoming centrifugal force has now been pinned down by astronomers.
The New Republic reviews “Heather Has Two Mommies,” one of the first books aimed at young children to tackle the taboo of depicting same-sex partners as parents.
Whether it’s deciding what to drink, what to wear or whom to marry, The Salon’s Thomas Rogers asks if America’s decision-obsession is always for the best.
Senator Scott Brown’s committee assignments include joining the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs; a posting which tilts too far toward defense for some.
New research suggests that a large space rock exploded over Antarctica thousands of years ago, leaving a scattering of tiny meteoric particles and a layer of extraterrestrial dust.
You can ruin your child by inflating their self esteem and giving themtoo little sleep, according to the The Washington Post’s George F. Will, so do them a favor and pipe down.
A Chinese homeless man from the city of Ningbo has caused a sensation for the rag-tag but well co-ordinated clothes he wears, drawing legions of internet fans.
“Religion is not an adaptation,” Robert Wright says in his Big Think interview. “That is, it’s not here because it was conducive to the replication of the genes underlying it.” But […]
People who think that journalist Ryszard Kapuściński was a liar are missing the point, writes one Guardian blogger, who says there is no sharp frontier between literature and reporting.
While the rest of the world is shuddering at the debt pile mounting up on its balance sheets India is the elephant in the room as one of the few regions to have had a “good crisis.”
Scientologists defied copyright law for their latest promotional video, using clips from “Star Wars”, “Braveheart” and “Independence Day” to fire up its Las Vegas staff.
Four decades after the publication of Germaine Greer’s seminal feminist work “The Female Eunuch,” it has provoked an astonishing attack by a fellow Australian writer Louis Nowra.
It’s the perfect pairing, writes Salon: Sarah Palin and Jay Leno, who share a common foe in David Letterman, teamed up to deliver a blow to his ratings on Tuesday night.
The son of the founder of the Palestinian military group Hamas has admitted to spying for Israel for a decade, feeding information about Hamas’ terrorist plots to Israel’s Shin Bet.
Tut tut Nicolas Chartier, producer of Oscar nominated film ‘Hurt Locker, whose scathing emails about other nominees have landed him in hot water and banned from the awards.
Today Obama is due to make remarks indicating a willingness to work with the Republicans on some areas in exchange for their support in getting the health care reform bill passed.
The 1915 massacre of over a million Armenians by Ottoman Turks was a terrible tragedy, but getting it classified as “genocide” by the US could cause further damage to reconciliation.
Being underestimated was not a misfortune for Clint Eastwood, who used it to his advantage to forge an astonishing career which is still going, writes the New Yorker.
In the third installment of our new series, The Future In Motion, we sat down with Burt Rutan, famed aerospace engineer and winner of the Ansari X Prize. In this […]
A curfew on Chile’s earthquake-ravaged Concepcion has been extended until midday today in a bid by troops to contain looting from damaged shops and buildings by panicked residents.
The university professor at the heart of the “Climategate” row over leaked emails admitted yesterday that some of his correspondence had been “pretty awful.”
Director of a Washington theatre company Ann Norton will never be able to portray the drama of her life’s tragedies on stage as they are “too melodramatic” to be believed.
Going on marches, signing petitions, staging rallies and other political activism could actually improve your health and general well-being, according to two new studies.
Water has been found on the moon after scientists detected ice deposits near the Moon’s North Pole, confirming decades of speculation about Moon rivers and oceans.
The first evidence of a snake eating a dinosaur has been found by scientists who discovered a 67 million-year-old fossilised serpent coiled around dinosaur eggs and newborns.
Attention has been drawn once again to President Barack Obama’s struggle to stop smoking, more than a year after the habit threatened to blight his clean-living campaign image.
Severely corroded sea walls dating back to the time of Napoleon are being blamed for the deaths of at least 50 people in violent storms that ravaged the western coast of France.