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Imagine just for a moment; a floating, orbiting and operational laboratory holding several crew members at any given time, weighing over 900,000 lbs.  It’s over 350 feet wide, with solar […]

Because of molecular gastronomists, we have learned more about making food in the past 15 years than we had in the previous 15,000.

Oh, look, Vanessa Grigoriadis has a another very polished but utterly vacuous feature in New York Magazine. She’s marking the 50th anniversary of the approval of the Pill with some […]

Last summer I described how psychologists at Rutgers closed the usual gap between higher boys’ and lower girls’ scores on high-school chemistry tests. When the students used a textbook whose […]

Plastic bags are still legal in California. San Francisco and a handful of other California cities already ban the bags, but California lawmakers rejected a bill brought by Democrats that […]

It has been known for some time that religious belief and behavior affect the brain. But can we pinpoint specific chemicals, genes and clusters of neurons that give rise to religiosity, or to atheism?

Apparently you can teach some old dogs new tricks. In a piece by Digital Planet producer Colin Grant, artist David Hockney discusses his love affair with his iPhone and iPad […]

The USGS/SI weekly volcano update, including a lot of activity in Indonesia, lahars in Guatemala and much more.

Economic researchers are uncovering the chemical triggers in our brains that spark feelings of trust—and using their findings to better understand how markets work.

A conductor is a motivator—his main job is to “bring everybody together and to get them to cooperate.”

Chef Wylie Dufresne believes in playing with his food—but not in the usual sense of the phrase. In his popular New York restaurant, wd-50, Dufresne applies molecular gastronomy, a field […]

In a post today, risk communication expert and AoE guest contributor David Ropeik focuses on how journalists covering common health risks such as mercury in fish or endocrine disruptors in […]

Afters months of waiting, I have finally been able to get my act together enough to post the answers to questions you posed to Dr. Adam Kent. If you remember […]

They might not truly be the "World's Most Deadly Volcanoes", but IAVCEI's "Decade Volcanoes" are a list that shows just intertwined human society and volcanoes really are.

I can’t say enough good things about Deborah Blum’s “The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.” It’s an fast-paced narrative that mixes […]

PopTech–an organization focused on promoting social innovation and the spread of problem-solving ideas–has announced its inaugural class of 20 Science Fellows.  The fellows are early to mid-career leaders in fields […]

Why exactly do fights break out when people are drinking? You might think it’s simple biochemistry—alcohol molecules wreaking changes on brain cells, leading to behavior change, leading to a broken […]

The earthquake swarm underneath Harrat Lunayyir in Saudi Arabia appears to be subsiding and officials say people may be able to return to their homes by the end of the week. What might be happening under the Saudi Arabian volcanic field?

Less than 50 kilometers from the Manila metro area (population 21 million) sits Taal volcano - and it is beginning to show signs it might erupt for the first time since 1977.

“My violin is one of my voices,” says concert violinist and humanitarian Midori Goto. In her Big Think interview, Midori talks about her very personal connection with her 1734 Guarnerius del […]

What's going on chemically in your brain as you feel the pierce of cupid's arrow? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher explains the cocktail of neurotransmitters that cause you to fall in (and out of) love.

Psychiatrist Norman Doidge, author of "The Brain That Changes Itself," discusses how neuroplasticity can be hijacked by an addition to pornography.

Violinist and humanitarian Midori Goto stopped by the Big Think offices today. She played show and tell with her priceless violin, made in 1734, which she said she thinks of […]

Confidence is a trait typically cast as a higher-order function in the brain. It’s at once the act of making a decision, recognizing the decision as thought, and measuring the […]

Released just yesterday, Physics of the Future is my most ambitious book to date. Based on interviews with over three hundred of the world’s top scientists, who are already inventing the […]

What is happening to the neurochemistry of an addict's brain that makes that person so unable to do without cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines?

Many people ask me if science is getting more glamorous. Well, I hope so. The world of Hollywood and the media tell us that if you are beautiful and strong […]

On TV, Neil deGrasse Tyson uses narrative to dramatize the importance of basic research.Last week in San Diego, I participated on a panel at the BIO 2008 meetings that focused […]

Like atoms in a molecule, we’re all linked together. Studying the complex matrix that results can illuminate everything from bucket brigades to Bernie Madoff.

What is the structure of a caldera ... and if Yellowstone's magma was making its way to the surface, what might we expect to see as harbingers of eruption?