Big Ideas!

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When President Kennedy said in 1961 that America would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade, NASA had just barely sent its first astronaut into the lower strata of space. After years of failure, the moon seemed far beyond reach. And yet, eight years later, Neil Armstrong took his first lunar steps.It's hard to imagine a recent U.S. administration making such a bold pledge (let alone succeeding), but countless people, organizations, and companies are working to come up with the next big idea that will reshape our world. Though many will fail, it is the striving and struggling to make real the seemingly impossible-"Pushing the outside of the envelope," as NASA's first astronauts liked to say-that leads us to watershed events. Constantly reaching slightly beyond our grasp is what steers us to the best ideas, and leaves us ready to face the yet-unknown challenges of tomorrow.

Welcome to the wonderful world of things to come, conveniently arranged in alphabetical order. We'll be adding to this list every day until it's complete.A: ARK, LUNARB: BABY BONDSC: COIN FLIPPING ISN'T FAIRD: DELOREAN REVIVAL plus the Big Ideas GraveyardE: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE plus Big Thinker: WENDY KOPPF: FAMOUS PEOPLE SELL MAGAZINES plus Big Thinker: DANNY DeVITOG: GUM, EASILY REMOVABLE plus Big Thinker: MARIO BATALIH: HUMAN TERRAIN SYSTEM plus Big Thinker: SAMANTHA POWER

H: HUMONGOUS CHURCHMeet Joel Osteen, America's most popular pastor.I: IBRAHIM INDEX OF AFRICAN GOVERNANCEJ: JERUSALEM, DIVISION OFK: KILLER ROBOTS IN IRAQL: LARGE HADRON COLLIDER and more Literally Big IdeasM: MUSEUM OF NATURE plus Big Thinker: JELLY HELMN: NUCLEAR ENERGY GOES GREEN plus Big Thinker: LAWRENCE LESSIG

O: OFFSETS, CARBONSeparating fact from fiction in the world of buying and selling hypothetical gas.P: PAPER SAVING plus Big Thinker: CAMERON SINCLAIRQ: QUANTUM HIPPIES

R: RUSSIAN DEMOCRACYFormer chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov talks to GOOD about his bid for the Kremlin.

S: SECESSIONChristopher Ketcham explores the possibility of modern secession in Vermont.T: TED EFFECTU: USEFUL VOIDV: VERICHIPW: WITNESS VIDEO HUB

W: WHALE HUNTIn a remote Alaskan town, Jonathan Harris chronicles an Inupiat whale hunt in 3,214 photos.X: X PRIZE plus Big Thinker: PETER DIAMANDISY: YOUPORNZ: ZEPPELINS, LUXURY