Guest Thinkers

Last month, I had the honor of greeting my colleague, Stephen Hawking, famed cosmologist, in New York, where he was being honored by the World Science Festival for all his scientific […]

In the disputed presidential election in 2000, it was hard to say just who won the vote in the electoral college. But it was clear Al Gore won the national […]

Over the past few months, we’ve looked at how designers are addressing the vision-impaired – from low-cost eyeglasses to Braille-inspired obejcts for the blind to an innovative diagnostic test using […]

This then is one of the most memorable photographs of the 1960s, or at least here, a depiction of one of the most eponymous pictures of that decade. The original […]

It seems the nation that prides itself on doing things just a little differently has succumbed to the newspaper industry’s woes just like everyone else. The French paper of record […]

Some false beliefs, such as paranoia, are ill-suited to evolutionary success, but some, like extreme optimism in the face of insurmountable odds, are a boon, says Scientific American.

“The main concern is that we can’t really predict how ecosystems and human society will respond to climate change,” say scientists who worry carbon levels could overwhelm natural systems by 2200.

“It’s one thing to lose in court. Chicago has to win the daily struggle on its streets.” The Chicago Tribune reacts to the Supreme Court’s decision against they city’s handgun regulation.

Half a million people die annually in the United States from substance abuse or addiction, which represents 1 in 5 deaths overall. One-half trillion dollars are lost annually in the […]

In Scott Turow’s Times Book Review cover piece on Adam Ross’s novel, Mr. Peanut, he recalls the time a revered Stanford writing professor cautioned students against writing about marriage, “the […]

In 2007, papermaker Stora Enso commissioned six leading designers – Paula Scher, Marian Bantjes, Christoph Niemann, Bruce McCall, Michael C. Place and Winterhouse – to create a series of posters around […]

My mother was the valedictorian of her senior class in high school over fifty years ago. She doesn’t remember exactly what she said at graduation, but she does remember having […]

William James was about the only philosopher who didn’t end up a pettifogging nit-picker or overbearing egomaniac with delusions of genius. So says New Humanist’s Jonathan Rée.

Spiegel damns the latest G-20 summit as one of “yet more vague promises”, and says national interests have once again become more important than the big picture.

Facebook’s Open Graph protocol is a shot across Google’s bow, but will the power of the “like” exceed that of the link, asks Mathew Ingram.

A porn-only internet domain, where addresses have the suffix xxx not www, could help end “accidental pornography”, according to Guardian columnist Barbara Ellen.

Do claims of slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon merely reflect cultural misinterpretations? The BBC on the state of Para, where more than 1,000 “slaves” were rescued in two years.

As if further evidence is needed of the sheer parochialism ritually on display here on our media in ‘Little England’, I woke up this morning to hear a BBC reporter […]

Ever since Lafayette, some connection between America and France, however tenuous, has existed. One of the strongest bonds between the two countries is the American love of French art. When […]

Ok, I have to admit it. I did not watch the World Cup match between Germany and England. In fact the only match I have watched was the incredibly dull […]

Football fever surrounds the Fortune Global Forum here in Cape Town, South Africa! Amidst the fascinating discussions about finding high-tech solutions to Africa’s problems, one can’t help but appreciate the […]

“Imagine that right after briefing Adam about which fruit was allowed and which forbidden, God had installed a closed-circuit television camera in the garden of Eden.”

Is American sexual apathy a medical condition or the result of an “anxious, overachieving, white upper middle class?” The New York Times ruminates on the prospect of female Viagra.

Despite a bloated and ineffective American justice system, current state budget cuts affecting front line officers and public defenders deal a blow to due process, says Sasha Abramsky at The Guardian.

“Could natural variability be responsible for the warmer water and bigger storms, instead of greenhouse gases?” Miller-McCune looks at the scientific debate as hurricane season approaches.

The Democrats may not be in as much trouble as everyone thought. Although Pollster still has them trailing Republicans by a point on a generic Congressional ballot—and they have trailed […]

Economists have long touted the importance of research and development (R&D) – investment in science and technology — in driving economic growth and innovation. If you compare the top 20 […]

One of the eerier themes in psychology papers is the extreme susceptibility of people’s thoughts and acts to incidental details in their surroundings. For instance, this paper from a recent […]

My friend and former colleague Dave Weigel resigned from the Washington Post after someone leaked emails he sent to a private listserv. Until today, Weigel wrote a popular and well-respected […]

Yesterday, Congress overwhelmingly—in the Senate, the vote was 99-0—approved new sanctions against Iran intended to punish the country for its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation […]