Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

A Constructive and Innovative Use of Twitter

There are a lot of Twitter dismissives among science bloggers, but the mobile technology has promise, journalists and others just have to understand how to structure its use successfully.

One such constructive application was pioneered here at American University by journalism professor David Johnson and used by students and collaborators in last year’s November election. Read or tweet about Twitter Vote Report, an application that is cleaning up among this year’s journalism and technology awards.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Like-Minded Discussion and Attitude Extremity about Science

Several colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have a new study out that shows not surprisingly that like-minded conversations drive attitude extremity relative to science policy. Analyzing data from a […]