Search Results

“We are children when we talk about the cosmic scale of energies throughout the entire universe,” says theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. But with a little (okay, a lot) of human ingenuity, we may one day have the ability to harness the energy of the stars.

Since moving to Big Think, there’s a viewpoint I’m encountering more and more often. This belief holds that the New Atheism is tilting at windmills, because most religion is moderate […]

Get in to the holiday spirit by listening to Robert Pinsky read Dante’s Paradiso.

Has the Internet elevated political conversation by increasing interaction between average citizens? Or is it plunging the country into an abyss of partisanship and ignorance?

— By Victoria Bassetti, David Norton and Alan Rosenblatt Now that Mitt Romney can claim two wins in the Republican primaries/caucuses, where do his rivals go?  We know physically: South […]

Descartes’ dualism argued that the mind was entirely distinct from the body. More recently, the computational theory of the mind said it was a rational computer. Neither is accurate. 

You’re better off buying directly from a local farmer you know rather than rely on all the useless paperwork that accompanies certified-organic produce to market. Either that or just buy regular food.

My first introduction to newspaper reading was the Sunday comics. Stretched out on the floor beside my Dad, both of us propped up on our elbows, we read everything from […]

Politicians and commentators use the word “green” to discuss just about anything. Renewable energy, on the other hand, is clearly defined and does not exist as such.

Rumor has it that 80% of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter followers were purchased and as a result are fake and/or useless. This may be an exaggeration, but the evidence is clear […]

If astronomers spot a big one headed our way, our risk perception will switch to “It COULD happen to me, and SOON” and we’ll take the threat more seriously.

What happens when the complexity and magnitude of the problems facing our civilization “simply exceed our biological capabilities”? 

Francis Tapon is the author of the new book, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us. This article is an adapted excerpt from the chapter on Slovenia.

It was a year ago that Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globe Awards and joked The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) accepts bribes. That joke certainly ruffled some feathers since a […]

As soon as 2025, large parts of the world could experience perrennial water shortages, says Dr. Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center and a leading expert on hydroclimatology, climate change adaptation, and risk analysis.

While the purpose of sleep is still not perfectly clear, neuroscientists increasingly believe we need sleep to rest the brain, restoring neurons to a restful state in order to learn better. 

Boo!Scared you, didn’t I? I’m guessing not really. If you’re a grown-up, Halloween has probably lost its edge. Or at least its scary edge. The old tricks simply no longer […]

I was going to update my previous post, but this got long, so I’m spinning it off into a separate post. Read the other one first if you need more […]

As we are rapidly getting closer to the end of 2011 which has been quite an exciting year for the education startup scene, I want to take a quick look […]

–Guest post by Francesca Ernst, American University graduate student. As we draw closer to November 2012, pundits, columnists, and reporters alike are all discussing the ways President Obama must transcend […]

Well, I’ve been on Big Think for about two weeks now, and I’m starting to get used to the place. It’s a different experience from my old site, no doubt […]

Love is an epiphany. Maybe that’s the sweetest romantic dream of all. By the big bang theory of mate selection, our soul mate is out there somewhere, and they’re going […]

If you are in the throes of a metaphysical hangover, we offer you the cure: a whimper over the Mayan prophecy of apocalypse in the year 2012, followed by a shattering meditation upon the various ways the world might end.  

The social contract is clear: if you commit a violent crime, you go to prison. But what if you commit a violent crime because you have a brain tumor in a region of the brain that controls good judgment? 

People who think they can learn from their errors have a different brain reaction to making mistakes than people who think intelligence is fixed. The former group bounces back better. 

Joe Therrien, an OWS activist and semi-employed drama teacher, has become infamous since the Nation included him in an article on “The Audacity of Occupy Wall Street,” which began like […]

Probably.

Tim Harford, Britain’s answer to Malcolm Gladwell, explains how one of the biggest turnarounds in Broadway history, Movin’ Out, teaches us a fundamental lesson about our ability to adapt.

Big Think’s newest blogger and atheist-in-residence, Adam Lee, asks magician and author Penn Jillette how he reconciles his atheism with his libertarian philosophy.

You are on a date with a wonderful man/woman. He/she is speaking, but you are gazing lovingly into his/her eyes thinking how lucky you are having finally met your perfect […]