Guest Thinkers — December 28, 2010

The Battle for Africa’s Mines

An Australian-based firm’s $3.9 billion bid for a coal mine in Mozambique says much about its ambitions and the battle that giant mining firms will face in securing Africa’s resources.

bigthinkeditor

Coal prices are surging. China’s hunger for energy turned it into a net importer in 2009 of the thermal coal that fuels power stations, a trend that is set to continue. And steelmakers, fearful of the rising prices of raw materials, are hunting for captive sources of metallurgical (coking) coal as well as iron ore. Booming commodity prices are a burden as well as an immense boon for big miners. Rio, BHP Billiton, Vale and others are planning on vast increases in capital spending in the coming years, and have the bumper profits to finance it, yet there is only so much fruitful investment to be made in their current mines.

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.

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7 min

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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

Technology & Innovation

America’s Crumbing Infrastructure

In the next five years, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States will have to spend more than one trillion dollars simply to sustain what we already have.