bigthinkeditor

“Politics is like term papers,” says U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. “You usually get serious right before the term paper is due. That’s the downside of democracy: without friction, there is […]

Can China continue to grow richer without wrecking the global environment? Will China’s carbon dioxide emissions overwhelm the world? China relies on coal for most of its energy.

Are the rise of right-wing parties and the increasing crackdowns on immigrants antithetical to European values?

Many countries felt shocked and cheated when FIFA chose Qatar to host the 2022 football World Cup. But it could usher in a new era for the sport and the region.

The coalition has been unable to communicate to the electorate that the individual student debt they are saddling young graduates with is fairly abstract.

State and corporate players are increasingly using astroturf campaigns that mimic spontaneous grassroots mobilisations, but are in reality organised.

Selling your organs is illegal in every country except Iran. But the WHO says the black market is massive. Can economists make the system more humane and efficient?

Afghans live in fear that the international community will abandon them. Although the Taliban is unpopular, normal Afghans are just trying to survive.

Time Magazine readers chose Julian Assange as Person of the Year so why did its editors go with the safer choice: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?

Shame on Sweden; shame on Interpol; shame on Britain. And lasting shame, given this farcical hijacking of a sex crime law that is scarcely ever enforced…, on the United States.

Glamour magazine dubbed her “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo” in naming Somali Muslim Dr. Hawa Abdi “woman of the year.” She epitomizes courage and compassion.

The anti-slavery researcher and advocate says that slavery and human trafficking are already becoming huge problems in China.

A whole generation of only children is coming of age in China, notes the NYU professor. What will their mentality mean for business, government, and foreign policy?

‘Young Mandel’ is a portrait that is likely to rankle some but Mandela is in no need of more hagiography and Smith’s account makes the hero more fully human.

When Customers Go Ballistic.” Barlow and Moller outline five principles to handle “difficult customers.” Among them are aikido and euphemism.

Why are effective obesity drugs so hard to develop? The brain circuits responsible for appetite overlap with those that control other important functions, raising the risk of side effects.

What did Einstein mean by “God” playing dice, or “us believing physicists”? Was he speaking literally or metaphorically?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke for many when she said on Monday that she had never so admired, so depended on and so cared for someone who drove her so crazy so often.

It’s not just MasterCard and Visa cutting off WikiLeaks’ access to donations, it’s the government and corporate intervention, unsupervised, into the rights of people.

Defenders of copyright law often talk about how copyright is a ‘right’ for artists but ignore that at the same time it often takes away the rights of users.

Do you know what Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo stands for? The Chinese dissident has praised the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and said China should be fully westernized.

The world system is being challenged by two new forces: a rising superpower, called China, and a rising collection of superempowered individuals, as represented by the WikiLeakers.

The father of microfinance, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and folk hero Muhammad Yunus, has been accused of misusing development aid — a claim he says is “a total fabrication.”

The NYU Economist who famously saw the global financial crisis before it happened shares his methods on how he did it, and what he sees next. 

Tests for a specific gene can indicate elevated risk of the disease. But would you really want to know that you may get it?

The Columbia Business School professor thinks the country could be a world leader in solar energy production.

Raising a country from poverty to affluence should make the nation’s population happier, right? Wrong, according to a new study of 54 countries worldwide.

Prehistoric humans, along with Neanderthals and Homo antecessor, made meals of each other, suggests new research on human teeth marks found on prehistoric human bones.

There are predictions that, like Latin before it, English must inevitably lose its global dominance. The Guardian’s Robert McCrum is not convinced.

Everyone yawns, but no one knows why. We start when we are in the womb, and we do it through old age, but the purpose and survival value of yawning remain a mystery.