Money & Science
Renowned scientist and author Freeman Dyson’s insightful reflections on how underlying economic motivations often drive scientific inquiry provide lots of great ideas for a great extended essay in economics, geography, ESS, and more.
Category: Extending Wednesdays
Linguistic Diversity
UC San Diego linguist Carol Padden reflects on the impact our modern technological era is having on linguistic diversity around the world.
Greening the Grid
Research ideas related to Prof. Andy Hoffman’s description of concrete measures needed to reinvent our current power grids to make them more efficient and environmentally-friendly.
Crystallographic Conundrums
Research ideas related to Prof. Paul Steinhardt’s Indiana Jones-style discovery of quasicrystals, solids whose atomic arrangements violate centuries-old laws of physics and crystallography.
Computational Complexity
Pioneering quantum cryptographer Prof. Artur Ekert and the notion of computational complexity, a way of objectively distinguishing between “easy” and “hard” mathematical problems.
The Anthropic Principle
Great research ideas related to The Anthropic Principle featuring Noble Laureate Tony Leggett with several areas of investigation highlighted.
The Derveni Papyrus
The story of the Derveni Papyrus, the oldest surviving European manuscript, and the wide range of fascinating related research topics to explore.
Phantom Limb Pain
Research ideas: investigating the phenomenon of “phantom limb pain” which can be used to probe a wealth of issues related to the structure of our brains.
Chinese Characters
Prof. Michael Berry, UCLA, discusses the impact of the decision by the Chinese government to simplify Chinese characters in an effort to raise literacy rates.
The Drake Equation
Interdisciplinary research ideas related to the famous equation that Frank Drake developed to best assess the likelihood of extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe.
Improving Democracy
Fascinating research ideas for global politics with related authoritative Ideas Roadshow IBDP video and print resources featuring renowned political scientists.
Bilingualism and Dementia
Ellen Bialystok describes her fascinating work on the link between bilingualism and Alzheimer’s disease.