Ellen Stofan, NASA’s chief scientist, saw her first rocket launch at age 4. Her father worked at NASA as an engineer, and the thrill of space explo...

There’s a World Turtle Day. A Bubble Bath Day. And even a Talk Like Shakespeare Day. So about a year ago, Wendy Diamond found herself wondering: Wh...

Revolutions are messy, confusing, and brutal. Only afterwards are they recast into neat – and often flawed– narratives. Revolutions are less a test...

“How does revolution happen?” asked Janine Wedel. “Maybe it doesn’t,” mused Lawrence Lessig, evincing a mild case of political resignation that the...

The post-Snowden world is a little like a new parent suddenly worrying about the security of its baby…data. Governments, companies, and citizens al...

Too often, I find myself looking at this or that new map on the happiest places to live in the United States, the states with the most craft beer, ...

“Okay, Rebecca, it’s your turn to find the bomb.” That’s what Tech Sergeant Edward Canell at Buckley Air Force Base said to Rebecca Frankel, a jour...

While they seem to come from different centuries, the makeshift IED of an insurgent and the cutting-edge aerial assets of the world’s largest milit...

If the idea of Black Friday crowds makes you want to stay home and curl up with a good book instead, New America’s got you covered with a cornucopi...

When you hear ‘online predator,’ you probably conjure an image of a sexual predator – perhaps a middle-aged man targeting oblivious kids through va...

For a lot of American families today, the dinner table can feel a minefield, haunted by the ghosts of _Leave It To Beavers _past and the present-da...

What’s the secret to convincing the world to back a movement? Figure out how it could impact the global bottom line. Economic reasoning is part of ...

The Richland, WA, school district is phasing out swings on its playgrounds. As the district's spokesman recently told KEPR TV: "It's just really a ...

We’re down to the wire. The November 24 deadline for the Iranian nuclear deal is looming. In this final week, negotiators from the P5 +1 and Iran a...

It was the latest setback for women’s empowerment. But you probably haven’t heard about it. Part of the gender equality goal set to replace one of ...

Why is Thanksgiving dinner always late, and why does it last so long? It’s one of the last refuges of irreducible inefficiency, a throwback to the ...

In the expensive briar patch that is American healthcare, generic drugs have been key to keeping costs down. But intellectual property provisions i...

Douglas Ollivant, ASU Future of War Senior Fellow at New America, explains that as we observe Veterans Day, we should also remember that the childr...

The United States and China—the world’s biggest contributors to climate change—just produced a game changer. Leaders of the two countries jointly a...

When the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, some say our world order cracked wide open. This month’s twenty-fifth anniversary of that miles...

A casual reading of human history (or a high school textbook) might suggest the crucifixion of Jesus, Matthew Perry’s opening of Japan, and D-day a...

If we can end the elitism and teach more science fiction to teenagers and young adults, we can change the world. This assertion, while bold, may no...