With off-the-shelf materials and a little dry ice, you can discover particles that wouldn’t exist unless relativity were real. “The experiments that we will do with the LHC [Large Hadron Collider] […]
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Do border walls keep countries safer, or merely project the illusion of safety?
No, you are most definitely not entitled to your own facts. In fact, you’re required to disclose what evidence would change your mind! “You must remember, my dear lady, the most […]
Unlike social media, email is especially seductive as its content is specific to you. Author Cal Newport offers tips for breaking free from this constant distraction.
If a maternal grandmother smokes, it increases her grandchildren’s risk of autism by 53%.
A new study says there are two main categories of politically correct people – PC egalitarian and PC authoritarian.
From inhospitable volcanoes to life so unique we discovered evolution there, the Galapagos is an incredible scientific story. “I was always amused when overtaking one of these great monsters [a […]
A new study shows that being (and remaining) overweight and having type 2 diabetes is neurological nightmare.
Science (and life) keep hammering nails “into the coffin of the rational individual.” But rationalism and individualism still haunt and systematically mislead—even about where your mind is.
You might think Jupiter is large, but you’ll be surprised at what happens if you try and make it larger! “A few centuries ago, the pioneer navigators learnt the size and […]
As medicine’s interest in psychedelic drugs increases,will a shamanistic brew join your therapist’s list of go to prescriptions?
Maintaining a hopeful, optimistic attitude positively affects a person’s health, academic performance, and relationships. But what makes someone hopeful or optimistic?
There are 400 breeds in total, including 23 distinct “clades” or types.
Is time travel possible? Of course it’s inevitable in some sense, as we always move through the Universe at the “boring” rate of one second per second. But what about […]
“Atheist churches” are popping up across the US and Europe. Is it just a trend?
Scientists create a superfluid with negative mass that accelerates backwards.
Our “one beer an hour” rule of thumb is based on drinking a bottle of Bud. Now that more people are drinking pints of stronger craft brews, how do we adjust this rule of thumb?
Here are this week’s top comments on Big Think content from across the Web.
Not everyone sees color the way you do. There are a suite of tools available to help graphic designers work more inclusively.
Wingland? Flemingia? The indignity of colonisation includes the imposed ignorance of the coloniser
You might think that it should be all black, but then how would we see it? “It is conceptually interesting, if not astrophysically very important, to calculate the precise apparent shape […]
An accidental discovery may lead to a vaccine-like treatment for depression and PTSD.
Here’s how a discovery by a plucky band of sky-watchers changed science.
A study suggests people act aggressively on their prejudices when they have plausible deniability.
Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Architecture critic Sarah W. Goldhagen on how the built environment shapes our minds and cultures.
‘Trump supporter’ is not a synonym for moron. Philosophy professor Daniel Bonevac is a reminder that understanding your opposites, not dismissing them, is the way forward.
The world’s first malaria vaccine will be released in Ghana, Keyna, and Malawi in 2018. While malaria was eradicated in the US by 1951, it still kills over 400,000 people worldwide each year. Will this vaccine help eradicate malaria?
Sometimes, designing a careful experiment and measuring absolutely no effect can be the most important result of all. “It appears, from all that precedes, reasonably certain that if there be any […]
Alain De Botton talks about the danger of succumbing to “status anxiety” that leaves you caring too much how others judge your value.
Wanting there to be something beyond the standard model may be influencing what we actually investigate. “In recent years several new particles have been discovered which are currently assumed to […]