--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 19 description: How global tensions might spur a new nuclear age, psychological barriers to scientific progress, mumbling as data compression, and more. canonical: https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-19T17:01:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:33.028Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: How global tensions might spur a new nuclear age, psychological barriers to scientific progress, mumbling as data compression, and more og:url: https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: How global tensions might spur a new nuclear age, psychological barriers to scientific progress, mumbling as data compression, and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 19 by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 19, 2015 5:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 19, 2015 5:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**Are rising tensions between nuclear powers and an increased risk of rogue actors getting weapons spurring a new nuclear age?**](http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/02/19/the%5Fgreat%5Fnuclear%5Fweapons%5Fcomeback%5F107636.html "undefined") By Rod Lyons in RealClearDefense **2\.** [**Psychological barriers — not science — are holding back progress on treating wastewater, improving crop yields and more.**](http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/recycled-water-problems-disgusting-solve "undefined") By Maria Konnikova in the New Yorker **3\.** [**Massive computing power and better tools are making it harder to hide submarines. Are they becoming obsolete?**](http://nationalinterest.org/feature/are-submarines-about-become-obsolete-12253 "undefined") By Harry J. Kazianis in the National Interest **4\.** [**It’s too soon to celebrate a win in the Net Neutrality battle.**](http://recode.net/2015/02/10/no-broadband-champagne-yet/ "undefined") By Blair Levin in Re/code **5\.** [**Mumbling isn’t lazy speech. It’s data compression.**](http://nautil.us/blog/mumbling-isnt-a-sign-of-lazinessits-a-clever-data%5Fcompression-trick "undefined") By Julie Sedivy in Nautilus  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 19","datePublished":"2015-02-19T17:01:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:33.028Z","description":"How global tensions might spur a new nuclear age, psychological barriers to scientific progress, mumbling as data compression, and more.","url":"https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/","keywords":["Innovation","Psychology","russia","Iran","U.S.","Science topic","Nuclear Weapons","FCC","Net neutrality","Verizon","GMOs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3714923/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-19/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 19"}}]}] ```