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In Guantánamo Files, the New York Times coverage of Guantánamo from WikiLeaks documents, one piece in particular caught my attention: a discussion of the difficulty of judging detainees’ risk of […]

Have you ever seen the French film Trop Belle Pour Toi? It’s the story of a married car dealer who has an affair with his very ordinary secretary. Doesn’t sound […]

The Allen Telescope Array, a set of 42 radio telescopes that has been searching for alien signals and conducting astronomical research since 2007, has been shut down due to budget cuts. 

The discovery of the so-called “God Particle” won’t have any practical implications in your life—at least not anytime soon—says one physicist.

Amy Davidson’s post about the WikiLeaks Guantanamo release is an excellent example of writing short, with feeling—and meaning. One reason so many of the New Yorker blogs work well with […]

We know that teens text a LOT: the average teenager sends 3,339 texts a month. Many adults are worried about the potential negative impacts upon youth of all of this texting. […]

At what point does a robot become so lifelike that it becomes a human? And vice-versa, at what point does a human with robotic enhancements no longer become a human?

A limited-edition map celebrated the coincidence of a patriotic occation with a pig-centric one.

One of the major strategic communication battles that took place during the debate over cap and trade legislation was the advertising war between the Clean Coal Coalition and Al Gore’s […]

Another fine feature of REAL EDUCATION by Hacker and Dreifus is its sensitive and altogether unideological treatment of professors who become legends. Among the legends they mention, one is still […]

This semester, as part of the course on Science, the Environment and the Media at American University, four graduate students in the class have focused their group project on the […]

The first thing you hear from him is a complaint: He’s talking, but the other guy isn’t listening. The last thing he does is announce he’s not going to talk […]

Psychology can and should do more than reduce mental suffering, argues positive psychology guru Martin Seligman in his new book. It should encourage optimism about life, he says.

Collecting life stories and human brains is the business of the University of California San Diego's brain bank. Donal Trump's would be a good fit, says brain bank neurologist Jacopo Annese.

How about a lamp that provides you with free and environmentally friendly energy.. forever! All you have to do is water it. Literally. Soil Lamp is an invention of the […]

Exercise is a necessity for cancer patients and survivors, but their condition poses some unique challenges. Personal trainer Josie Gardner recommends four exercises tailored for cancer patients.

My favorite lines of Shakespeare have no poetry about them, and no style. They’re simple words, uttered in desperate circumstances. They remind that life is not, for the most part, […]

On the anniversary of William Shakespeare's death (and possibly his birthday too), Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley wrote this personal reflection for Big Think.

It has been a couple weeks since I posted the USGS and Smithsonian Institute’s Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report – being busy with work every day for the […]

So the third suggestion of Hacker and Dreifus in HIGHER EDUCATION concerns avoiding PLAGIARISM.  Plagiarism is easier than ever these days–thanks to the abundant resources on the web.  And the ingenuity […]

People without a conscience don’t need to satisfy the drive to bond and can focus entirely on the drive to acquire, making them more likely to seek leadership positions.   Well the question becomes you know, do these people without conscience, let’s call them PWOC’s is a rather shorthand way for that.  Talking about them getting into leadership positions and they probably get into them out of all proportion to a percentage often population, we estimate they maybe 2% to 4% of the population are such people.  And we think they get into the leadership positions maybe 8% or 10% of the time, but you know, any percent is a mess because they can wreak havoc in exploiting other people.  They probably get there more than others because it’s the only thing they’re looking for in life. You know we got normal people ha

“You put super in front of eruption and I don’t imagine it makes it better.” – FEMA Sec. Wendy Reiss in Supervolcano. This week in my Freshman Volcanoes class here […]

English Lessons is a new blog celebrating writing we love, and illuminating why we love it—and what we can learn from it. Poetry, fiction, editorials; Presidential speeches, classic texts, popular […]

With some training, good will and modern technology I think it is pretty safe to state that anyone of us can become really good at learning facts and therefore basically […]

Inspired by the likes of Apple and Google, which were created in home garages, biotechnology hobbyists and hackers are asking tough questions and changing how science is done. 

We are living in an unprecedented era in which personal data about our digital identity, our online activity, our financial dealings, our geo-location and even our Social Graph – is widely available […]

Cell phones are being used in many ways today that transcend their original intended function. Big Think Delphi Fellow Aydogan Ozacan is applying this technology to breakthroughs in medicine. 

Physicists have proposed that there could be dozens of dimensions in addition to the normal three we experience in daily life. But where are they?

The Earth has a long shelf life, but it is, alas, temporary. Before the Sun explodes in 5 billion years, there are a number of extraterrestrial threats to our planet, from rogue black holes to magnetars.

For humans, life around the Gulf has largely returned to normal one years after the B.P. oil spill. Questions linger about the health of wildlife, however, as several species continue to suffer.