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Are human beings’ needs and desires evolving faster than start-up companies can respond to them? 

I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately about what spiritual development and spiritual attainment actually mean these days. What is the purpose of being on a spiritual path for the most […]

Mitt Romney’s plan for education, released last week, sounds a number of predictable conservative themes: union bashing, continued reliance on standardized testing, expansion of charter schools and reform or elimination of […]

As a Ph.D. student in Harvard’s Government Department in the early 1960s, Joe Nye asked whether Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda would be able to forge an East African Common Market […]

Silicon Valley’s wage gap and income inequality between men and women must surely rank among the worst in the country.

Judging by what I’ve beenreadingonline, BBcreams, an all-in-one treatment/moisturizer/makeup/sunscreen mashup that first gained popularity among Korean actresses and starlets and is now used by almost every other gal in North […]

The conventional wisdom is that China’s economy is based on stealing intellectual property and underpricing it. If we look at aerospace technology, we see a different story. 

MIT engineers have programmed small magnetic cubes to assume the shape of an object they come into contact with. The technology could be scaled down to sand-sized particles. 

Scientists have determined that whether or not you like the smell of pork, a large component of how it tastes, is determined by a gene in your DNA. There is a genetic link to the food we like. 

U of Mass Psychology PhD Tony McCaffrey advises us to seek the obscure in finding a creative solution to a vexing problem. What does he mean exactly? It is a two part process…

New York Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg has drawn together the most cutting edge research on why habits exist and how they can be changed. How can you apply the science to your own life?

While we know superstitious laws are silly, we may be better off obeying them. Doing so will save us the guilt of having gone against conventional wisdom if misfortune should come our way. 

We’re getting older. Not just as individuals, and not just as a country, but as a world.  A census report projects that between 2010 and 2050, the US will face a rapid […]

Not fearing this age’s breakneck technological change, two of the nation’s most prestigious universities are set to offer their classes to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. 

Australian director Baz Luhrmann wants to take 3D films past gimmickry into a new cinema of intimacy. In making “The Great Gatsby”, he faces the double challenge of adapting a formidable novel.

What is the Big Idea? Samir N. Kapadia’s career in Washington D. C. seemed routine in comparison to the exciting jobs his friends had in India, a surging nation in […]

When I heard the news of Jonah Lehrer’s fabrications on Monday — indiscretions that led to an apology and his resignation from the New Yorker on Tuesday — my jaw fell. Like […]

When you’re hiring someone new, the biggest concerns are typically how the person will fit into the organization, and whether his or her experience directly matches the position. The same […]

The questions in this quiz are adaptations of items from research studies from the 1960s to the 1980s, initiated by Daniel Kahneman and his late research partner, Amos Tversky.

If you ever find yourself in a bar that takes art history trivia bets, here’s a sure winner: Who is the only artist to be named by TIME Magazine as […]

I’ve spent the last two weeks getting licensed to work in a new field. Mitt Romney has spent the last two weeks since Rick Santorum dropped out of the race […]

As you may be aware, Leah Libresco at Unequally Yoked had a startling announcement yesterday: she’s converting to Catholicism. I have to admit, though others will no doubt chastise me […]

As I’ve written before, I’m a skeptical of claims, like Jonathan Gottschall’s, about the power of stories to make us better people. Adam Gopnik of The New Yorkeris skeptical too. […]

Happiness is not an unalloyed good, Kant says. Without the correct character and orientation, without a sense of duty, happiness is just an animalistic state of mind. 

During my last trip to San Francisco, I reported on my discovery of a woman who receives messages from God in his actual handwriting. I’m amused to report that I’ve […]

I’ve been contemplating the notion of a graduated return to normalcy for about a year. A few days from election, with Obama’s chances having dimmed considerably, would seem to be […]

A Berkeley physics discussion group asked “the late night big questions of quantum theory” which served to refocus the field of quantum physics. 

Big Think hit the streets (the intersection of Wall & Broad, NYC) during the AM rush hour this Friday, May 18th with a guerilla theater piece for Facebook IPO day. […]

What’s the Big Idea? Peggielene Bartels was an administrative assistant in Washington D.C. when she got a phone call informing her she’d been elected King of Otuam, the Ghanian fishing […]