Guest Thinkers — August 16, 2010

WHERE DOES “AMERICA’S MAYOR” STAND ON SCIENCE? Facing Pressure from Conservatives, Among Social Issues, It Would Be Easiest for Giuliani to Move to the Right on Stem Cell Research

The Washington Postprofiles Rudy Giuliani’s prospects

for the GOP nomination. If “America’s Mayor” has to bolster his support from conservatives, on which social issues is it easiest for Giuliani to move to the right?

Given his past record as mayor of NYC , it will be difficult for him to shift position on gay rights or on sex ed.Yet it is still possible for him to carve out a position on embryonic stem cell research that would be in line with President Bush’s policy of restricted funding.” Not only would evangelicals support the move, but adopting Bush’s position would also appease conservative Catholic leaders.

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

DEBATING THE INTERNET AND COMMUNITY, PART B: American University Students Examine ‘Virtual’ Society

This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that Americans are using the Internet to alter the nature […]