Guest Thinkers

In November 2009, nine researchers from MIT’s prestigious Media Lab were among the eleven authors of a paper* that espoused the value of programming as an essential skill for all.  […]

Up until just a few hundred years ago most people thought that the Universe was a stable, static place that had been here forever and would continue forever. Today we […]

Americans of European descent have a moral obligation to advocate for legal Mexican immigration because their ancestors once benefited from the same land, writes Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic.

Prince Charles, England’s royal environmentalist, believes that the Quran teaches important environmental lessons such as being one with nature and living within the environment’s limits.

Leave it to an Italian art publisher to do an American artist right. Skira’s Edward Hopper, distributed in the United States by Rizzoli, may be the finest single volume visually […]

Following on the somewhat silly Times cover piece on how distracted we all are, itself in opposition to Steven Pinker’s brilliant Times Op-Ed today, Walter Kirn’s contribution to The Atlantic’s […]

A funny satire on the Helen Thomas story jokes that Ari Fleisher, who appeared on cable news shows to condemn Thomas, is, politically speaking, a completely irrelevant person. But when […]

The Senate defeated a bill that would have prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Large greenhouse gas emitters, like […]

Abe Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defemation League, stopped by Big Think today to talk about the state of anti-Semitism in America today. Among other things, we asked him if it […]

There was a philosopher once who had no patience with geekish hype about information technology. This application, he wrote, would never make people smarter or better. In fact, it made […]

Urban farming has been one of the biggest socio-environmental trends of late. But, so far, it’s been a fairly high-commitment, high-maintenance game requiring a demanding amount of time, resources and […]

Today I review Deborah Rhode’s excellent book, “The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Work” (Oxford University Press, 2010) for Working In These Times. Here are a […]

Sustainability obviously means a lot to the founder of the Copenhagen Climate Council. But Erik Rasmussen, also the CEO of Scandinavian’s leading independent think tank Monday Morning, isn’t sugar coating […]

Instead of bows and arrows, Brazil’s Surui people are using the Internet, GPS and Google Earth to stop the destruction of rainforest, reports Juliane von Mittelstaedt

A major surprise from two genetic surveys — and of great interest to historians — is the genetic closeness of Europe’s two Jewish communities, explains Nicholas Wade. rn

“South Africans live in separate but parallel worlds, and old divides continue to exist, 16 years after the end of apartheid.” Ullrich Fichtner on the violence, victories and hope.

One in eight people fled their homes in Northwest Pakistan in 2009 because of the war in Afghanistan; the area is a “human-rights free zone” according to a new report from Amnesty International.

Incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) narrowly managed to hold off a labor-backed challenge in the Democratic primaries from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Ben Smith reports that after the election a […]

Speaking of green prefab houses, how many square feet, exactly, do you require before you’ll call it home? What about 220? I realize that, as a recently apartment-searching New Yorker […]

In just under a month’s time – July 7th to be precise – many Londoners will have cause to stop, think and remember that terrible summers day five years ago […]

Bottled water is one of the environmental movement’s biggest scapegoats – and for a reason: Only about 10% of plastic bottles are recycled; the rest end up in landfills, or […]

Having your body freeze-dried instead of cremated may reduce carbon and mercury emissions, Helen Knight finds in her look at how to make funerals more eco-friendly.

The latest Global Peace Index shows the world has become less peaceful in the last year. Liz Ford asks if the rankings should prompt donor governments to rethink aid strategies.

Has how we think about lofty things – like the meaning of life – been hijacked by a deep-pocketed foundation that successfully combines elite research and broad dissemination?

There was brief speculation in the media about using nuclear weapons to seal up the raging oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I think this is a bad idea, […]

Here’s a shocking bit of news: Plans for a big, shiny Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem are not going smoothly. This multi-part attack last month in the newspaper Haaretz blames […]

BP should fire its advertising consultants. Today. By the close of business. A 50 million dollar advertising campaign that includes full page ads in newsrags like the New York Times […]

After working in Tanzania, a British doctor reflects on the pitfalls of expressing excessive amounts of sympathy, even in the face of abject poverty.

Every year, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards a $100,000 prize to a project that has the potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems and significantly improve human quality of life. The […]

Green pre-fab is getting a lot of attention right now in New York City. Hop downtown to the Financial District, and you’ll notice, amidst the suits and skyscrapers, a peculiar […]