Technology & Innovation — April 22, 2010

All About the Benjamins

The U.S. Treasury has unveiled a redesigned $100 bill, with new features "aimed at thwarting counterfeiters armed with ever-more sophisticated computers, scanners and color copiers."

bigthinkeditor

The United States Treasury has unveiled a redesigned $100 bill, which includes a 3-D security ribbon that contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as handlers tilt the note. The changes “are aimed at thwarting counterfeiters armed with ever-more sophisticated computers, scanners and color copiers.”

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.

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Surprising Science

Martian Chronicles

There is a lot of evidence suggesting life exists on Mars, says astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch. "It’s actually more scientifically outrageous to think that Mars is and always has been sterile."