The confidence we crave in our leaders compromises their ability to help us avoid risk.
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Future clothing will make you look dazzling with amazing special effects.
Once the emergency is over, maybe it’s time we drew a different map of Louisiana – however shocking it may be.
If you gazed up at the Perseids, you’ll want to appreciate the fact that we’re still here. “Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say ‘what […]
The placebo effect is real. Why don’t many people agree?
Professor Patrick McGovern, a world authority on ancient alcoholic beverages, describes how alcohol had a profound effect on early societies.
If perfected, Gene therapy promises to heal in one shot, without complications or side effects.
Radioactive crystals left behind by ancient bacteria tell us about a long-ago supernova nearby.
Could the Universe loop around on itself, and might you come back out the other side? “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned […]
University of California, Irvine physicists may have discovered a new fundamental force of nature.
A Washington think tank raises concerns that U.S. nuclear weapons stored at a military base in Turkey can fall into the wrong hands.
The director of the National Museum of Natural History offers an under-three-minute joyride through the history of life on earth.
The 750 GeV particle that the LHC thought it saw? A sham. And we all should have known. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are […]
We know the benefits about positivity. What about grumpiness?
Silver medalists are likely less happy than Bronze medalists, because our minds have a tendency to dwell on “what could have been.”
You know what self-driving cars will help reduce? Phantom traffic jams. You know the ones, where traffic seems to just halt. You see no accidents, no construction, no state trooper—everything has just slowed for what seems like no reason at all.
The Global economic midpoint is returning to Asia – at increasing speed.
A shining bauble among a diffuse cloud of stellar debris has a tremendously interesting physics story behind it. “Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; […]
The brain seems to be orderly arranged in ever complex and elegant ways, unique to each individual.
Will economies and societies continue to innovate, finding new ways of increasing agricultural efficiency or will insufficient resources lead to catastrophes? In a 1958 work, Aldoux Huxley offered an answer.
Positive thinking all by itself is more destructive than helpful, but when combined with realism and strategy and planning, can be turned to good use.
New psychology study finds people of higher intelligence to be much less physical than non-thinkers. You can take the utilized Need for Cognition Test yourself here to see if you’re a thinker.
Danish scientists use a new dating technique to find startling estimates for the age of the world’s longest-living vertebrate species.
Psychologist Kevin Dutton points out that psychopathic traits are not only common among great athletes, they may be required.
46 billion light years in all directions in just 13.8 billion years? Here’s how it’s done! “They say the universe is expanding. That should help with the traffic.” –Steven Wright There are […]
Science’s signature moves share something with good poetry. Good metaphor-making can make geniuses of both kinds. But bad metaphors can mislead whole fields.
Spontaneous, deep talk on surprise topics. On this week’s episode of Think Again – a Big Think podcast, National Book Award-winning Author Jacqueline Woodson and host Jason Gots discuss collective amnesia, organized religion, the power of photographs, and why never being bored is bad for for kids.
This is a cyborg stingray. It’s as big as a penny, guided by a laser, and moves on its own when exposed to blue light. And it’s the brainchild of Kevin Kit Parker.
The Perseid meteor shower is at its peak—a stellar show that occurs every August and can be seen by anyone living in the Northern Hemisphere. But what if we didn’t have to wait till August or the next meteor shower–what if we could create our own?
Using incomplete facts to spin a false narrative and mislead the public is the modus operandi of a political liar. “I’m not a natural leader. I’m too intellectual; I’m too […]