Buddy, Can You Spare a Mongoose?

A deadly Egyptian cobra is AWOL from the Bronx Zoo. Anybody got a spare mongoose?[Photo credit: Pandiyan, Creative Commons.]

by

Lindsay Beyerstein

March 27, 2011

Get the Big Think newsletter on Substack

A deadly Egyptian cobra is AWOL from the Bronx Zoo. Anybody got a spare mongoose?

[Photo credit: Pandiyan, Creative Commons.]

Lindsay Beyerstein

Investigative Journalist

Monthly Issue April 2026

The Energy Transition

In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.

1 video 11 articles

Two hands surround a glowing, illustrated sun with a human face, against a green background with radiating lines.

Related Content

What happens when we admit we don’t know?

Kelly Corrigan on why humility fuels curiosity — and how to cultivate these qualities in an age of certainty.

In partnership with

John Templeton Foundation

by Kelly Corrigan & Lee Helland

5 literary conspiracy theories — debunked

A tour of the literary cover-ups, extraterrestrials, and cryptids lurking in the bookish backwoods.

by Josh Browning & Kevin Dickinson

Abstract illustration of two wide eyes with red irises peeking over a pale green, angular shape against a black background.

10 of Big Think’s favorite books in 2025

Revisiting the year’s noteworthy nonfiction.

by Kevin Dickinson

Illustration of a person holding a cup while selecting a book from a shelf filled with various colorful book spines.

Big Think Books

Murder, she measured: The impressive science behind Agatha Christie’s poisons

Kathryn Harkup, chemist and author of V Is for Venom, joins Big Think to discuss why Christie isn’t just a brilliant writer but a unique science communicator.

by Kevin Dickinson

A green skull in the background appears to stare through a glass of champagne centered in the foreground, evoking Agatha Christie poisons, all set against a black backdrop.

Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.

© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.