Skip to Content

Big Solutions Issue

November/December 2012

Over a billion people still have no electricity, millions lack clean water, education is inaccessible to many, the climate is changing rapidly, traffic snarls cities, and dementia and cancer can strike any of us. In this issue we introduce you to the technologists who haven’t given up trying to solve problems like these.

Read the issue

Features

  • Categorized in 17041

    The Crisis in Higher Education

    Online versions of college courses are attracting hundreds of thousands of students, millions of dollars in funding, and accolades from university administrators. Is this a fad, or is higher education about to get the overhaul it needs?
  • Millions of the world’s poorest lack power. Microgrids could be a clean-energy solution.
  • Categorized in 17035

    The Dementia Plague

    As the world’s population of older people rapidly grows in the coming years, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will become a health-care disaster.
  • Categorized in 17036

    The Deferred Dreams of Mars

    Officially, the United States plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet in the 2030s. It’s not looking likely. But at NASA, engineers like Bret Drake keep plugging away.

Past issues

    Updated