Guest Thinkers

While recent advances in software and technology have made remarkable progress in humanoid robotics, one area consistently lagging in comparison to human ability has been the sensitivity of touch. Now, […]

How do you create a communication campaign that reaches every single person in the nation? More specifically, in a world of information disparities and fragmented attention, how do you create […]

Quick post (Department commitments now), but in an attempt to get comments working again, I’ve opened this new thread. I’ll inquire about the problem with the comments – my guess […]

While coal has long supplied energy to the Navajo tribe in Arizona, new inspiration and political will is calling for renewable energy to build the society’s future.

In 1916, Dr. T. Kenard Thomson proposed increasing N.Y.C.’s property value by creating a land bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn and building an island off the Jersey shore.

“The Bible exhorts us to love our neighbors. But what about our colleagues? Do we really need to love the people we work with?” Dr. Paul Zak on why love is essential in the workplace.

“The west still rules—but this will change in the coming decades; indeed, geography may cease to matter.” Ian Morris says the rate of global change is accelerating.

As Foreign Affairs, the sine qua non of policy journals, changes editorial hands, outgoing Editor Jim Hoge has given the world a great gift: a selection of suggestions for What […]

Yesterday’s post ended by suggesting that a single-minded obsession with population actually distracts people from the difficult realities of the quest for sustainability in this century. Lest this sound like […]

In another nod to biomimicry as a potent source of design and engineering innovation, researchers at Princeton University have developed a new sensor that can change the way drugs and […]

The War of the Worlds dramatization that aired October 30, 1938 has been called “the most famous radio show of all time.”

The signs were all there that Merapi was headed towards a new eruptive phase and today at ~6 PM (local time in Indonesia), Merapi erupted. This is a double (possibly […]

At the Washington Post yesterday, staff writer Paul Fahri described several of the emerging areas of research on The Daily Show and similar forms of political parody. The feature emphasizes […]

“Beautifully preserved bees, ants, spiders and other small prehistoric creatures that lived 50 million years ago have been unearthed in a huge amber deposit in India.”

“Governments don’t want to admit the failure of health-care or surveillance systems, and they are afraid of the trade and travel sanctions that may result from a large outbreak.”

“What makes cobras kings is not just their size, or their deadliness…it is that they eat other snakes. How does the king cobra maintain such an apparently high-risk lifestyle?”

For a few decades in the 20th century, it seemed as humanity’s triumphs of public health were turning into an ironic and deadly trap. Because more babies were surviving infancy […]

Many Eruptions readers have been keeping a very close eye on the events at Merapi in Indonesia – you should check out their discussion. The situation at the volcano is […]

(Note: Look for updates on Merapi and Kliuchevskoi later today) I caught an article over the weekend about the potential of recent volcanism on Venus. The study that appeared Geophysical Research Letters found […]

“Writer Hunter S. Thompson, the king of gonzo journalism, was not a skier, so why did he choose to live in Aspen?” The Guardian searches for the ski-resort counterculture.

“As complex families proliferate, the law considers: Can a child have more than two parents?” The Boston Globe reports on the changing legal definition of parenthood.

Buzz Bissinger titled his profile of then-Mayor of Philadelphia Ed Rendell’s efforts to save his city from the brink of fiscal disaster, A Prayer for the City. Philadelphia, my native […]

Tony Blair‘s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having what she describes as a “holy experience” during a visit to Iran.  Journalist and broadcaster Lauren Booth, 43 – Cherie Blair’s sister – now […]

Sexual violence against women in the African nation has become an “incredibly inexpensive tool for controlling and eviscerating the population,” says Eve Ensler, founder of the advocacy group V-Day.

One of the bad things about having a smart phone is, I can now scroll through the headlines of the New York Times before I get out of bed.  This […]

In order to be marketable today and in an increasingly competitive economy, each one of us has to get our creative juices flowing and constantly come up with fresh ideas. […]

Social change often works against generations of tradition, so what accounts for its success or failure? The New York Times looks at examples of reform in China and Kenya for clues.

The industrialized world is aging, but perhaps there is cause to celebrate. Stefany Anne Golberg at The Smart Set sees a future of technological wonder and wise elders.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t,” Polonius says in Act 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet after an exchange with the title character. After encountering the unique sculpture of […]