bigthinkeditor

Professor of physics at Drexel University, Dave Goldberg analyzes wormholes and cosmic strings to determine if time travel might be an achievable goal.

Can constitutional democracies generate the motivational resources that nourish them and make them durable? The Immanent Frame on the new writings of Jürgen Habermas.

“Train wrecks are said to be attractive. Though I don’t agree when it’s my country that’s both the train and the wall.” The Pulitzer Prize winner at The New Yorker.

After T.S. Eliot carried poetry and criticism to unbelievable popularity, literary culture itself seems to be slowly but decisively shutting down, says Joseph Epstein.

The Guardian’s Kevin Gallagher says that by depressing U.S. interest rates, quantitative easing forces developing countries to defend their currencies at crippling cost.

Researchers say talismans work by attaching a hope or wish to a physical object which induces the placebo effect. The objects demonstrate the power of the mind.

In its obsession with online speed, Google has released free software that could make many sites load twice as fast. Technology Review explains how it works.

The Guardian’s Matt Parker will introduce seven of mathematics’ most intractable problems. To win a million dollars, all you have to do is solve one.

A revolutionary surgery has helped three blind patients to see following the implantation of an artificial retina. The operation brings hope to thousands of blind people.

Professor of evolutionary paleobiology at the University of Cambridge, Simon Morris says one of Darwin’s detractors still raises interesting questions about human uniqueness.

Physicist James Kakalios, author of The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, wants people to know what quantum physics has done for them lately.

After years of supporting gene patents, the federal government has unexpectedly challenged controversial applications on naturally occurring DNA sequences.

While Oscar Wilde is famous for his wit and literary inventiveness, he was also a serious scholar of the classics. The New York Review of Books on his time at Oxford.

“Biophysicists have calculated natural system couldn’t get faster, more sensitive or more efficient without first relocating to an alternate universe with alternate physical constants.”

“Data-mining techniques reveal fake Twitter accounts that give the impression of a vast political movement.” Technology Review uncovers an online political scandal.

Are biotechnology and sustainable agriculture complimentary or contradictory? The Economist moderates an online debate between experts in the field.

“Obviously, we’re not nearly as rational as we like to believe, which is why we binge on subprime mortgages.” Jonah Lehrer on how neuroscience can improve economics.

“Researchers find that associating an object with anger actually makes people want the object — a kind of motivation that’s normally associated with positive emotions.”

“The economic struggles of the middle and working classes…were not primarily the result of globalization and technological changes but…policy changes that favored the very rich.”

“For all his swashbuckling assaults on what he called the ‘booboisie’, Mencken was the first important writer to probe and relish middle-class American life.”

“If al-Qaida terrorists are stuffing PETN into underwear or packages, that must mean that they do not have access to cutting-edge biological research or nuclear bomb components.”

“That there are seemingly endless metaphors and universal life lessons that can be gleaned from baseball is one of the many things that make the game so interesting.”

The immune system has been found to target viruses inside cells, suggesting new strategies against infections including the common cold and winter vomiting bug.”

“Female politicians, candidates and leaders face blatant sexism and misogyny in both corporate media and parts of the blogosphere.”

Spiegel sees the U. S. as despondent, hopeless, pessimistic and with a political system plagued by lobbyism and stark hatred, and incapable of reaching consistent decisions.

“We are at a crossroads in the music business… But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on.”

“The pieces of our universe fell into the places where they are, not because of a guiding hand and a grand design, but through mere accident,” says physicist Victor Stenger.

“A democracy is strengthened when its citizens are confronted with the raw truths that follow from the choices of their elected leaders.” The New Yorker on WikiLeaks.

“England’s economic crisis is a great deal like ours; its response has been dramatically different.” Judge Richard Posner on the U.K.’s austerity measures.

Could life on earth have come from outer-space? NASA finds that the universe is filled with giant carbon buckyballs that might have fallen to earth a long time ago.