Guest Thinkers

So the most honest and penetrating book I’ve read about American higher education in a long time is HIGHER EDUCATION: HOW COLLEGES ARE WASTING OUR MONEY AND FAILING OUR KIDS–AND […]

Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below […]

The more educated you are the more likely your marriage will be a happy one. 

UPDATE: See additional reponse to statements made by Joe Romm. Last night marked the release of the report Climate Shift: Clear Vision for the Next Decade of Public Debate, part of a […]

The latest installment of the BigThink Global Roundtable on the Future of Economic Competition asks about the future of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency — and what […]

Let’s get to some updates on volcanic (or possibly not) rumblings around the world: Philippines: PHIVOLCS are watching Taal closely, but at least over the last 24 hours, seismicity at […]

When someone these days is exposed publicly for perpetrating an act of racial bigotry against African Americans, somewhere during their non-apologizing and excuse making, you are almost certain to get […]

Yesterday I had a very pleasant talk with Tim Ridgway of Califone which once more showed how broad the transition period we are currently go through actually is. Califone develops […]

They say that you’re not supposed to apologize for not blogging. Instead, you’re supposed to just start back up again. But I’m usually much more prolific online and have been absent for […]

Forget the mouse and keyboard, and even the swipe, pinch and touch – the next generation of human-computer interactions will be the gesture, the body movement and even thoughts from […]

“What happened to Africa?” an art-world friend of New York Times writer Holland Cotter asked. “It disappeared.” What that friend was alluding to, and what Cotter analyzes in a recent […]

Today, I was planning to write about memory in decision making, but when I came across this new review in Current Directions in Psychological Science, I felt like I had […]

Activity at the Philippine caldera Taal continues to increase. The latest update on Taal from PHIVOLCS reports 21 earthquakes under the volcano in the 24 hours between April 17-18, meaning […]

A leaked report says the Sri Lankan government shelled hospitals, fired on civilians in no-fire zones and attacked the U.N. and Red Cross in the last days of civil war two years ago.

I always chuckle at the old joke about the dyslexic atheist holding up a sign saying, “There is no Dog!” Whenever talk turns to revelations and apocalypses, we all seem […]

Just so you don’t think I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth … I have been at the 2011 Keck Geology Symposium for Undergraduate Research at Union College for […]

Reflections on Rapture, Ecstasy, and Technology BY JASON SILVA “All things physical are information-theoretic in origin, and this is a participatory universe.”. – John Archibald Wheeler Sober, immersive reading is […]

Two decades after creating the World Wide Web, in a speech at an MIT symposium, Tim Berners-Lee said that “access to the web is now a human right”. Probably not many […]

The Strange Death of Radical Journalism  And so to another inconvenient truth that should trouble anyone interested in the clash of ideas, real passion in journalism, polemic and a radicalism […]

Looking at the language of critical response to the novel, there are parallels. This is not to say that David Foster Wallace cared for Hamlet. But he seemed to care […]

A (Gallup) study shows that only 35% of our independents now approve of the work our president is doing. There are a variety of reasons for that.  But here’s the one that […]

This semester, 22 undergraduate and graduate students from a diversity of majors at American University have participated in a new course that I created titled “Science, Environment and the Media.”  […]

Technology has changed the way that men buy sex making it possible for a greater share of sex workers to work indoors. This may sound like workers are moving off […]

By manipulating eight strands of D.N.A. that control the production of a crucial hormone linked to old age, scientists believe they could slow down the ageing process and ward off age related conditions.

In a guest post today, Samantha Miller probes the relation between perceptions and reality in the organic food marketplace.  Miller is a graduate student in Journalism at American University.  She […]

It is a rare day when the US budget, or US domestic politics at all for that matter, is featured on Waq al-waq.  But today is that day.  Over at […]

“The budget is a profoundly moral document,”  former Clinton advisor Paul Begala told Greg Sargent. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be.” Budgets, after all, reflect our priorities. […]

With the recent publication of Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein, it’s hard to avoid someone, somewhere (the New York Times is a safe bet) writing on the ins and outs […]

Last week, Simone Lewis-Koskinen contributed a valuable guest post on the communication challenges facing scientists and leaders hoping to elevate public concern over ocean acidification.  In a follow-up post today, she […]

David Brooks of the New York Times delivered a lecture at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky last night. It was definitely the highlight of this trip to S.’s alma mater. […]