As privacy rights gain greater focus in the European Union, one group says that giving individuals the right to remove personal material from the Internet would complicate historical record-keeping.
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A massive urban development program, in which the Chinese government aims to relocate 250 million peasant farmers to burgeoning urban centers, is set to begin in earnest this fall.
For some years now I’ve been involved with a small community group. It’s a shoe-string organization that depends entirely on volunteers. These curious creatures have a predictable life-cycle. It begins […]
It is just an extremely satisfying and wondrous moment when you think you’ve unlocked a secret of nature.
Figuring out how to build a brain is a very powerful intellectual exercise for sure, but the project is a long way off.
Until the late 20th century, Western approaches to mental well-being focused mainly on treatments directly affecting brain function (via surgery, electric shock or pharmaceuticals, for example) or insight-oriented psychotherapy intended […]
The population boom of the modern era–there are about seven billion people today living on the planet, up from two billion in 1920–has resulted in an aging world population.
If the Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov has his way, we will be able to trade our bodies in forholograms and have computerized brains in 32 short years.
Taking questions from readers online at The Guardian today, whistleblower Edward Snowden said the government can’t stop the truth from getting out, even if he is jailed or murdered.
The world faces a difficult task in brining energy to poor populations while mitigating the effects of climate change, which is why creating innovative energy programs must be a global priority.
A seemingly unintentionally ironic paper has just been published in Science titled “A HUMAN RIGHT TO SCIENCE“. I presume it’s an important paper because the title is in BLOCK CAPITALS. […]
I think we should all take a moment to consider the news that everyone who continues to protest in Istanbul’s Taksim square is to be considered a terrorist. Let’s just […]
The surveillance state is here, and it is apparently here to stay. The question moving forward is how effective the U.S. constitutional system and democratic culture will be in keeping the American version from slipping into Chinese mode.
I was pretty disappointed to read a post from fellow Big Think blogger, Steven Mazie. The backlash has been substantial, he has already had to rehash. His post begins with […]
Big Idea: Micro-Loans/Micro-Financing
Professor Benjamin Ginsberg of Johns Hopkins, the nation’s leading critic of administrative bloat in higher education, has a modest proposal worthy of Jonathan Swift himself. If we’re going to have the […]
Toddlers’ speech patterns were thought to lack the grammatical architecture used by adults, but new research suggests that children just learning to talk have already begun obeying grammatical rules.
As we move toward a more cashless society, the dangers of credit transactions are becoming more apparent as those vulnerable to abusing credit also increase in number.
‘Midway in the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost. Dante Alighieri was about 35 and suffering from what […]
New research suggests that the father-child bond is remarkably similar to the mother-child bond in terms of the essential physical communication that takes place during a child’s infant years.
During a crisis, the demonstration of wealth via the purchase of luxury items is more effective at exhibiting qualities favorable to survivability than such purchases in favorable economic times.
The vastness of our scientific ignorance is especially evident when it comes to explaining how life arose on earth.
Study after study tells us somewhat disturbing things about the solidity of human character: There is no single version of “you” and “me” even though we talk as if there were.
In 2013, an American prisoner fought for an execution: “for” not “against”. The question is whether we should have allowed him to commit suicide and/or receive help in doing so. In […]
In experiments on non-human primates, biologists are working to switch off the gene, controlled by proteins myostatin and activin A, that keeps muscle mass between certain boundaries.
By injecting a virus with a normal gene directly into the retina of an eye with a defective gene, researchers have successfully restored some sight to more than a dozen people with a rare inherited eye disease.
The Supreme Court has ruled against a Utah-based genetic testing company in a decision which defines the legal limits of ownership over the building blocks of life.
MIT developers have created a system that uses a computer-generated face and specialized software to help people with social phobias and others practice their interpersonal skills.
Retaliation is illegal in the US, but businesses and organizations tired of being vulnerable to cyberattacks are reviewing what counterattack options they do have.
by Suzanne Ehlers, for Population Action International A walk to her local clinic may take several hours. She may have to wait in line. She may have to go back […]