It’s more than a conclusion that most scientists agree on; it’s the basis for all the science we do now! “Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned […]
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It seems very odd now, but one of the greatest thinkers ever, believed that we could rely on the love of math and its beauty to make us better people. Here’s why Plato thought so…
Mars used to be a warm, wet world, filled with oceans, rivers, and maybe even life. Here’s what happened. “Studying whether there’s life on Mars or studying how the universe […]
Finding direct links between Buddhism and Western philosophy is a difficult task, but they do play out in strange loops.
I attacked a famous artist for no apparent reason.
Is looking for radio transmissions in space like claiming the lack of smoke signals means there are no modern humans? “[W]hat Fermi immediately realized was that the aliens have had […]
Should we get vaccinated? Fluoridate our water? Fight global warming? Believe in evolution? The Big Bang? Dark matter? Find out. “Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has […]
Either there’s an unseen source of mass, or the laws of gravity are wrong. But only one can explain what we see. “The discrepancy between what was expected and what […]
We’ve known for a very long time that our body language influences others. What we’re only now beginning to understand is how our body language alters the way we ourselves perceive the world.
If you’re a recent college grad frustrated that the salary you needed to pay your private student loans never materialized, you have the sympathy of Daniel Altman, Big Think’s Chief […]
And, in general, how would you be able to tell? Image credit: Mahdi Zamani, via http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/guests_photos.asp?ID=5001660. “When I was ten all I knew was that I hated the weird words […]
Where all the structure in the cosmos came from, and we aren’t forming new ones anymore. Image credit: Andreas Berlind, via http://astro.phy.vanderbilt.edu/~berlinaa/work_research.html. “To be loyal to myself is to allow […]
Didn’t get picked to be a Google Glass Explorer? For a limited time, now’s your chance to get your gadget-hungry hands on the Star Trek-like accessory. People in the U.S. […]
At the Pacific Community Ventures annual conference on impact investing this past Tuesday, Executive Director Beth Sirull pointed to the leverage that PCV creates with its donations: $3,300 in grants […]
As with the anecdotally rich discoveries in Freakonomics, practitioners of predictive analytics constantly stumble upon insightful gems such as,vegetarians miss fewer flights.
How virtualization and cloud computing is transforming the business world.
Last night was one of the most exciting Academy Awards ceremonies. Some of the excitement came from the incredible performances—Dame Shirley Bassey singing “Gold Finger,” Barbra Streisand popping up with […]
Poets quite often make the best art critics. The same aesthetic antennae attuned to language and meaning come into play when diving into the meaning of visual art. So, when […]
Recent studies suggest that Americans might be the worst research subjects on the planet. As one writer put it recently, “researchers had been doing the equivalent of studying penguins while believing that they were learning insights applicable to all birds.”
Update (Jan, 2014): Amir’s patent application (search for no. 12/743357) has been rejected due to prior art by Mathews and MacLeod. Update (Feb, 2013): Following this blog post Amir corrected two […]
“We see on the basis of what we believe, not the other way around,” Errol Morris told Big Think in a recent interview. In other words, our relationship to the truth is never neutral nor “value-free.”
“A poem should not mean/ but be,” Archibald MacLeish declared in his poem “Ars Poetica.” We too-often look to the arts to explain life itself as if they function as […]
Before reading please click ‘View Entire Story’. My apologies for the length. Over at the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan wrote an article against abortion. It’s not entirely clear whether Hasan […]
In his autobiography, The Moon’s A Balloon, British actor David Niven writes about an instance when the American playwright and screenwriter Charles MacArthur approached Charlie Chaplin for advice on how […]
Who will you put your money on — Richard Brandson, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk?
We’re a fat nation for the simple reason that we hate bodies.
Jad Abumrad loves collecting sounds and playing with high-tech gadgetry, but he deploys his geekery in service of a higher calling – creating in Radiolab a hybrid medium that is a natural evolution of the ancient art of storytelling.
As Wisconsin voters stream to the polls today in the Gov. Scott Walker recall election, most commentators are warning that a Walker win would be a disaster for the left. […]
The Mind/Body Split in American Acting (and culture) On the whole, and with a few notable exceptions, Hollywood expects its great actors to play themselves in every role. We want […]
In line with my post a fortnight ago, I recently took a second look at another inspiring book. This time I reread Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys […]