Big Ideas

Celebrating people and innovations changing our world.

By The Culture Desk

Science
First primate born using frozen testicle technique
National Geographic - Maya Wei-Haas
Science & Innovation The new study offers hope for men who face infertility as a side effect of childhood cancer treatments. 4 Minute Read By Maya Wei-Haas On January 15, 2018, doctors at Oregon National
Atoms
Finally! A DNA Computer That Can Actually Be Reprogrammed
WIRED - Daniel Oberhaus
DNA is supposed to rescue us from a computing rut. With advances using silicon petering out, DNA-based computers hold the promise of massive parallel …
Lifestyle (Canada)
A 30-million page library is heading to the moon to help preserve human civilization
NBC News - By Corey S. Powell
The massive archive is aboard Israel's Beresheet spacecraft. When Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft launched toward the moon last week, it was carrying a mysterious cargo. Mission planners called it a time
Science
Spectacular new fossil bonanza captures explosion of early life
National Geographic - Michael Greshko
Science & Innovation Animals from 518 million years ago are preserved down to their softest features, and more than half are new to science. Science & Innovation 5 Minute Read By Michael Greshko A wealth
Caribou
America’s reindeer have quietly gone extinct in the Lower 48
The Washington Post - By Karin Brulliard
This year, in the dead of winter, America’s wild reindeer went extinct in the contiguous United States. After years of dwindling, the last remaining herd of caribou known to roam between Canada and the
NASA
Vice President may tell NASA to accelerate lunar landings
Ars Technica - Eric Berger
"We're tired of generating PowerPoint journeys that don't go anywhere." One of the panelists who will appear at a National Space Council meeting next …
Animals
These bears mimic each other's faces as well as people do
National Geographic - Jake Buehler
Animals The world's smallest bears have a social skill set previously thought limited to apes and dogs, and there may be more species like them. 4 Minute Read By Jake Buehler In social interactions, our
Alzheimer's Disease
New effort aims to study brain diseases in African-Americans
sciencemag.org - Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
Earlier this week, the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, a nonprofit housed at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, …
Science
An Impossible Scenario: Scientists Watch as Heat Moves at the Speed of Sound
scientificamerican.com - Shannon Hall
Ryan Duncan froze. He had just performed a new experiment examining common graphite—the stuff of pencil lead—but the results seemed physically …
NASA
More Boeing problems: Another space vehicle it’s building for NASA is significantly delayed
The Washington Post - By Christian Davenport
The bad news for Boeing has dripped out in a constant stream, day by day. There were revelations that it didn’t do enough to train pilots to a system failure in its 737-airplane line that led to a crash
The Brain
Can We Get Better at Forgetting?
The New York Times - By BENEDICT CAREY
Whatever its other properties, memory is a reliable troublemaker, especially when navigating its stockpile of embarrassments and moral stumbles. Ten minutes into an important job interview and here come
Equal
Equinox v equilux - what's the difference?
BBC News - By Angie Phillips
Most of us are familiar with the term equinox, and Wednesday, 20 March, was the spring equinox which marked the start of astronomical spring. This is when the sun passed over the equator or the equator
Harvard Medical School
Warnings of a Dark Side to A.I. in Health Care
The New York Times - By CADE METZ and CRAIG S. SMITH
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved a device that can capture an image of your retina and automatically detect signs of diabetic blindness. This new breed of artificial intelligence technology
Science
Mozambique's Bushbuck Have Thrived Without Predators
The Atlantic - Veronique Greenwood
In Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, bushbuck lived for years in relative safety, but still reacted to the scent of a lion. There was something odd about the bushbuck, the scientists finally decided.
Science
DNA Clues to an Ancient Canary Islands Voyage
The New York Times - By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
Today the Canary Islands are a tourist hub, a volcanic archipelago with palm trees and azure beaches, located off the coast of Morocco and governed by Spain. But the history of this paradise is marred
Environment
An iconic bird just lost important habitat protections: What it means
National Geographic - Hannah Nordhaus
Environment A rule rollback will allow more oil and gas drilling to occur on nearly nine million acres of lands crucial for the species’ survival. 4 Minute Read By Hannah Nordhaus Last week, the Trump
World News
A geostorm will give residents in the Northern US and Canada a rare chance to see the aurora borealis
CNN - By Paul P. Murphy, CNN
(CNN) — Many Americans and Canadians have a great chance to see the northern lights on Friday night and early Saturday morning. A solar flare that erupted on March 20 is set to slam into Earth on Friday
World News
An Elusive Whale Is Found All Around the World
The New York Times - By KAREN WEINTRAUB
Salvatore Cerchio stunned the small world of whale science in 2015 when he found examples of a new species in the wild for the first time. Now, he’s mapped the habitat of that species, called Omura’s after
NASA
Planet Jupiter: Spectacular picture of Jupiter's storms
BBC News - BBC World
This beautiful picture of Jupiter was assembled from three separate images acquired by Nasa's Juno spacecraft as it made another of its close passes of the gas giant. The probe has a colour camera onboard
Wildlife
Porcupines are being poached for their stomach content
National Geographic - Peter Yeung
AnimalsWildlife Watch Wildlife trade experts warn that Southeast Asian porcupines may become endangered. 5 Minute Read By Peter Yeung Porcupines are being hunted for onion-shaped masses of undigested material
Science
These machines pull clean drinking water out of thin air, and they might be a solution to the global water crisis
Business Insider - Aria Bendix
World Water Day aims to raise awareness of the global water crisis, which could leave one in four people with a recurring water shortage by 2050. As the global population continues to climb, that means
Joel Sartore
Healthy frogs can mysteriously reverse their sex
National Geographic - Douglas Main
AnimalsWeird & Wild Frogs have been shown to reverse their sex in polluted suburban ponds. Now, the same has been shown to happen in more pristine forests. 4 Minute Read By Douglas Main What determines
University of London
Planet Venus: Hopes rise of new mission to the hothouse world
BBC News - By Paul Rincon
The longstanding idea that Venus is geologically dead is a "myth", scientists say. And new research may be on the verge of ending that perception forever. Hints of ongoing volcanic and tectonic activity
Honey Bees
How honeybees get their jobs—explained
National Geographic - Richie Hertzberg
AnimalsVideo With brains the size of sesame seeds, honeybees have to work together in different capacities to maintain a healthy nest. AnimalsVideo 4 Minute Read By Richie Hertzberg Every honeybee has
Global Warming
Harvard scientists want to limit how much sunlight reaches Earth's surface in order to curb global warming
Business Insider - Melina Seiler, Ruqayyah Moynihan, Business Insider Deutschland
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges mankind has faced up until now. How we'll be able to curtail global warming and its devastating consequences is still very much a hot potato among politicians
Birdwatching
Prehistoric birds were born ready to run, fossil shows
National Geographic - John Pickrell
Science & Innovation A new look at a very old animal backs up the notion that dinosaur-era birds had to be quick on their feet. 4 Minute Read By John Pickrell By shining lasers on one of the smallest fossils
Business
F.D.A. Approves First Drug for Postpartum Depression
The New York Times - By PAM BELLUCK
The first drug for women suffering postpartum depression received federal approval on Tuesday, a move likely to pave the way for a wave of treatments to address a debilitating condition that is the most
Magnetism
Humans—like other animals—may sense Earth’s magnetic field
sciencemag.org - Kelly Servick
A study published today offers some of the best evidence yet that humans, like many other creatures, can sense Earth’s magnetic field. But it doesn’t …
Contract Bridge
For the first time, mathematics' most prestigious prize has been awarded to a woman, Karen Uhlenbeck
CNN - By AJ Willingham, CNN
(CNN) — Karen Uhlenbeck, a mathematician and professor at the University of Texas, has been awarded this year's Abel Prize, a mathematics prize modeled after the Nobels. It's the first time the prize gone
Science
See the first supermoon on the spring equinox in 19 years
National Geographic - Andrew Fazekas
Science & InnovationStarstruck Look up while it lasts: This particular cosmic coincidence won't come again until 2030. 2 Minute Read By Andrew Fazekas Assuming spring showers stay at bay, sky-watchers