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Americans (and most everyone else in the world) are getting bigger. Yes, obesity is BIG news. Many of us have grown so large that the New York Times reports that […]

Diane Ravitch tells Big Think what really matters when it comes to learning, inside schools and out. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not K-12 teachers who are most responsible.

The international body that controls decisions over how to count time may decouple atomic clocks from the movement of the Earth around the Sun. That could mean problems down the line.

What’s more offensive than crushed heads and mangled limbs? Exposed female nipples, according to Facebook’s criteria for deleting user content, published for the first time on Gawker two weeks ago.

Engineers at MIT have discovered a new way of gathering depth information that could be used to create 3D cameras requiring only the modest processing power of a smartphone.

(The following piece was written Sunday evening. There is news since then about what might have led to the sinking, news that chillingly bears out the thoughts offered in the […]

When we think family, we often think values, tradition, averages: 2 parents, 2.5 kids. But the concept of what makes up a family is anything but stable, says Sonia Arrison, a policy analyst who studies the impact of new technologies on society. And due to an unprecedented recent increase in longevity, it’s changing again.

New, free navigation apps with an emphasis on social features and crowdsourced data are providing competition for premium providers such as TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot and Navigon.

By producing medically useful amounts of endoderm cells from human stem cells, Canadian scientists have overcome a major hurdle in developing treatments for diabetes and liver diseases.

The brain is hardwired for storytelling. What stories give us, in the end, is reassurance. And as childish as it may seem, that sense of security – that coherent sense of self – is essential to our survival. 

The Institution for Economic Affairs, a free-market British think-tank, has released a freely-downloadable edited volume titled … and the Pursuit of Happiness, packed with papers summarizing the public-policy implications of […]

 

The last thing I ever wanted to do was to write a word about Newt Gingrich’s sex life. But, alas, ABC’s “blockbuster” interview with Newt’s ex-wife Marianne, airing tonight on […]

–Guest post by Xiao He, American University graduate student. Developments in Web marketing and social media provide new platforms and strategies for pharmaceutical companies to interact with investors. Among the […]

It’s no secret that Americans spend too much. So what can they learn from China, a country where households save over a third of its income for a rainy day?

Changing social and battlefield landscapes require a new kind of soldier, says retired Navy officer Dr. Amy Fraher. Emotional intelligence must supplement technical knowledge.

Amid widely-publicized corporate scandals, global environmental threats, and powerful advances in biotechnology, says ethicist Paul Root Wolpe, big companies find themselves tromping through an ethical minefield, and desperately in need of guidance. 

“Daddy, who was Alec Baldwin?” my future daughter may ask me one day. “He was a terrific actor,” I will reply. “In fact, let’s watch one of my favorite episodes […]

It’s not always best to be polite. Steering around the truth to spare someone’s feelings can cause confusion and even have dire consequences when a person’s safety is at risk. 

If managed intelligently, efforts like Mark Tercek’s with the Nature Conservancy may succeed in funding ambitious environmental projects that would otherwise remain on the drafting table, and transforming the way industry understands its relationship with the Earth.

Evidence shows that heavy alcohol use modifies the structure and physiology of the brain, although the extent of recovery after years of abstinence is remains uncertain.

What is purpose? Why – particularly in business – does it matter?

There’s Judy the teenage bulimic, devout Catholic Salamoe, gay Ken and over 100 more. Artist Kim Noble talks about living with multiple personality disorder. 

We now have the power to map the brain, peering into the human mind to decode words from silent thoughts. But what will human consciousness look like, if we ever finally catch a glimpse of it? Neuroscientist Joy Hirsch kicks off the debate.

I was reading a trade publication about industry forecasts for bathroom fixture trends some time ago (don’t ask). “Large bathrooms are in,” the experts said. It’s true. American bathrooms have […]

I just read this great essay by Ari N. Schulman in that indispensable journal THE NEW ATLANTIS with the telling title “GPS and the End of the Road.”  One of Schulman’s […]

–Guest post by Judy Millili, American University graduate student. In today’s technologically-driven digital age, consumers are constantly inundated with drug advertisements that encourage active engagement in making decisions related to their […]

I don’t usually watch the Black In America series, but I will tonight because one of the entrepreneurs in The New Promised Land- Silicon Valley episode is Angela Benton, a […]

I’m not happy at work. That is what more and more workers around the world are saying today. In fact, according to a new survey, between 28% and 56% of […]

— Guest post by Luis Hestres, American University doctoral student. To say that new information technologies are revolutionizing political activism has become a tried and true cliché. It also happens […]