--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 12 description: Why we must protect whistleblowers, finding the brain's pain center, getting FDA approval for Apple's new health apps and more. canonical: https://time.com/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T16:01:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:06.118Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: Why we must protect whistleblowers, finding the brain's pain center, and more og:url: https://time.com/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/ 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: Why we must protect whistleblowers, finding the brain's pain center, and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 12 > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 12, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 12, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Protecting whistleblowers protects national security.**](https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/protecting-intelligence-whistleblowers-protects-national-security) By Mike German at the Brennan Center for Justice **2\.** [**Could we treat pain by switching off the region of the brain controlling that feeling?**](http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-10-ouch-zone-brain-identified) By the University of Oxford **3\.** [**Small businesses are booming in China, and it might save their economy.**](http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/chinas-big-boom-in-small-companies/39516) By Steven Butler and Ben Halder in Ozy **4\.** [**Not so fast: Apps using Apple’s new health technology could require FDA approval. That doesn’t come quick.**](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/03/will-the-iphone-transform-medicine-the-fda-may-have-something-to-say/) By Jonathan M. Gitlin in Ars Technica **5\.** [**We might feel better about driving electric cars, but they’re still not good for the environment.**](http://qz.com/360513/electric-cars-are-still-not-good-for-the-climate/) By Bobby Magill in Quartz  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 12","datePublished":"2015-03-12T16:01:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:06.118Z","description":"Why we must protect whistleblowers, finding the brain's pain center, getting FDA approval for Apple's new health apps and more.","url":"https://time.com/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/","keywords":["Innovation","Apple","climate","Small Business","Brain","apps","China","iPhone","FBI","health","Pain","justice","Electric Cars","Neuroscience"],"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/3742331/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-12/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 12"}}]}] ```