Despite extensive research, biofuels are still not commercially competitive. The breakthroughs needed may be tougher to realize than previously thought.
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Lasting change doesn’t come from the top. Systems that no longer work must be rebuilt from the bottom up, says Fred Hassan.
Welcome, all, to the new Daylight Atheism! I’m pleased to be officially joining Big Think as a blogger-in-residence. Whether you’ve just come across this site or are a long-time reader […]
Energy derived from oil reaches, quite literally, every aspect of our lives. From the food we eat, to how we move ourselves around, without oil, our lives would look very differently.
This past spring semester, American University hosted an event featuring Roger Pielke Jr., a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder and author of The Climate Fix: What […]
According to psychologist Dan Ariely, Google’s policy of giving employees free reign over 20% of their work week – one full day out of five – makes for happier, more passionate workers and a better, more creative company.
Like many others, I was not very enthusiastic about the launch event of the iPhone 4S. The expectations where simply too high, and the whole event seemed to lack the […]
Since, at its heart, Occupy Wall Street is a conversation about values that is leading to direct action — a beta test for a better society — people should not despair that it is a “leaderless movement.”
83 year old T. Boone Pickens’ C.V. reads like that of a small-to-medium-sized nation. How does he remain extraordinarily productive past the age when most people retire?
More women than ever are choosing to pursue a life in science, but high-ranking positions are still held disproportionately by men. What does it take to rise to the top – and why do so few make it?
The genetic mutation that drives evolution is random. But here’s a list of some beneficial mutations that are known to exist in human beings
Despite high hopes for a new physics from the world’s largest particle collider, beyond a handful of unusual events, the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider are frustratingly ordinary.
–Guest post by Patrick Riley, AoE Culture Correspondent If you believe your emotions can affect your health, nutritionist-author Nora Gedgaudas would say that’s only part of the story – because your emotions […]
When friction makes machines less efficient, we grease the gears, but that macro solution doesn’t work with nanotechnology. Researchers are learning to shake nanomachines instead.
Legendary oilman and billionaire entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens will visit Big Think’s studios next week. Submit your questions for the tycoon in the comment section below. Our editorial team will […]
The Fukushima nuclear disaster has offered the world a lot of important lessons. We can only hope that one of the most important…a lesson that’s staring us all in the […]
A special task force is about to report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about whether America’s 104 nuclear reactors could handle the challenges that led to partial meltdowns at […]
For some strange reason, I ended up watching the new movie The Help yesterday, less than twenty four hours after viewing Driving Miss Daisy for the first time. The most […]
Could ‘peace talks’ end the ‘climate war’? A call for a meeting of moderate minds as a means to ending the climate debate stalemate.
M.I.T. researchers have created a new battery prototype that promises to be more efficient than existing car batteries by using electro-chemical fuel that, once spent, can be recharged.
The vast majority of Earth’s water is too salty for humans to drink and desalination has, until now, proven too inefficient to be practical. A German engineering company has a new solution.
Last Friday, I posted a piece in The Stone at The New York Times suggesting the work of philosopher John Rawls as an intellectual touchstone for the Occupy Wall Street […]
“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said of Federal Reserve […]
A healthy dose of skepticism and a realistic look at the odds you’re up against can do a lot more to help energize you toward a goal than a rosy image of a successful outcome.
Why the urban model of widely separated high-rise towers in single-use residential districts—the “tower-in-a-park” model invented in the 1920s in Europe—is inefficient.
80 is the new 40: With life expectancy and the retirement age creeping inexorably upward, how are you planning to spend your eighth decade? Starting a new company? Writing your memoirs? Or […]
The Paris Air Show, one of the oldest and biggest events of its kind, gets under way at Le Bourget on June 20th with many of the exhibitors keen to promote greener aviation.
If humans hope to achieve long-distance space travel, a fusion powered space craft currently holds the most promise. Adam Crowl of Project Icarus says we may source its fuel from Uranus.
Through the launch of his 20 Under 20 Fellowship initiative, billionaire entrepreneur and hedge funder Peter Thiel is engaging in one of the most radical experiments yet about the future […]