All Videos — February 9, 2011

Plate Tectonics: Global Thermostat

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The continental game of bumper cars known as plate tectonics is part of a global recycling system crucial to maintaining long-term temperature constancy—and giving rise to life.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A statue of a thoughtful, seated philosopher on the right seems to be contemplating a calling, while a standing figure holding a lyre on the left adds harmony against the textured background.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: Can you have a “calling” without a caller?

If you’re an atheist with a vocation, who laid that path for you?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

A golden-brown turkey being carefully lowered into a metal pot outdoors, ready for a deep fry amidst the grassy area and wooden fence.

Starts With A Bang

What happens if you deep fry a frozen turkey?

It’s the ultimate setup for a Thanksgiving Day disaster. The physics of water and its solid, liquid, and gas phases compels us not to do it.

The Present

Microplastic overload: Is cutting production the only realistic way to curb pollution?

On November 25, U.N. members will meet in South Korea to cap off a series of meetings aiming to reduce global plastic pollution.

Collage of architectural designs: a detailed stone arch with sculptures reflecting ancient architecture, an ornate geometric pattern, and a faded image of the Taj Mahal.

The Long Game

Why every long-term investor should study ancient architecture

Magnificent time-tested buildings are filled with lessons in resilience and stability — and the benefits for investment strategy can be huge.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Frontline’s The Vaccine War: The Politics of Medicine and Parents

Last week Seth Mnookin, author of the Panic Virus, kicked off the inaugural event in the new Science in Society Film and Lecture series at American University, sponsored by the […]