Guest Thinkers — September 20, 2010

Newsweek Sucks Up to John Boehner

Lindsay Beyerstein

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Shorter Newsweek: A half-witted, mean spirited, quasi-functional alcoholic would be a great Speaker of the House.

[Photo credit: Alli’ Cat’, Creative Commons.]

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

A green skull in the background appears to stare through a glass of champagne centered in the foreground, evoking Agatha Christie poisons, all set against a black backdrop.

Big Think Books

Murder, she measured: The impressive science behind Agatha Christie’s poisons

Kathryn Harkup, chemist and author of V Is for Venom, joins Big Think to discuss why Christie isn’t just a brilliant writer but a unique science communicator.

A man in a suit holds up a Hurricane Dorian forecast map in an office, tracing the storm’s projected path and intensity over several southeastern U.S. states and the Bahamas—echoing the urgent clarity of a 1938 science manifesto defending democracy.

Starts With A Bang

This 1938 pro-science manifesto defended democracy against fascism

As democracy recedes and fascism rises in the USA and around the world in 2025, history provides a lesson in how science can fight fascism.

Bright star at the center of a blue nebula radiates mass energy, surrounded by numerous smaller stars, with diffraction spikes visible from the brightest stars.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: When do stars turn the most mass into energy?

All stars shine due to an internal source of energy. Usually, it’s nuclear fusion: converting mass into energy. What makes them most bright?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: What right do we have to colonize other worlds?

In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Couldn’t COVID-19 have originated in a Chinese lab?

In theory, scientists could’ve produced a deadly virus that accidentally infected lab workers. In practice, we know that didn’t happen.

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