An engineer has created plastics that contain a network of liquid-filled channels. When the plastic cracks, the liquid fills the gap and solidifies, repairing the damage.
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Google’s wearable Trekker device will allow its team of explorers to take 360-degree pictures of areas that aren’t reachable by vehicle.
We all know that America (and everyone else in the world) is aging. Aging thus far has been a story of ‘more’. More older adults, the need for more services, […]
Last week the rocket broke apart in Earth’s orbit, creating a cloud of debris that has observers concerned about its possible impact on other spacecraft in the area.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning a pilot study of cancer risks near six nuclear power plants, out of suspicions about the dangers of uranium even when the plants are operating normally.
A study investigating the presence of potentially harmful chemicals in the lake has added a new one to its list: sucralose, known commercially as Splenda.
What is it about hot yoga? While many of my friends are real fitness addicts, none compete at the level of those I know who are into Bikram Yoga. They […]
Here is the Milky Way Galaxy as you have never seen it before. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has just released a zoomable image representing the central concentration of stars […]
NASA’s new X-ray telescope chanced upon a rare flare-up taking place in the center of the galaxy, home of the Sagittarius A black hole.
Every week, Dr. Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section […]
It has recently occurred to me that I’m Martian. My friends have taken to smiling and nodding when I talk about this. Some of them have been persuaded. Some of […]
Dealing with social radicals in the Republican party is beginning to feel like the movie Groundhog Day. It’s the same depressing thing every damn day. Each day brings another outrageous […]
Fall is a busy time, school starts and big books you’ve been waiting to read for months finally get published. For myself, and by extension Waq al-waq this fall has […]
A new report documents, for the first time, the public health impact of industrial pollutants on local populations in developing countries.
Not content with publishing a fake newspaper, producing a fake news channel, and delivering the best satire on the Web to millions of genuine fans, the staff of The Onion […]
Of the 303 million people living in the United States, half or so are registered to vote. It’s rather impressive to think that a good proportion of the 150 million […]
As you probably know by now, my friend Greta Christina was diagnosed with cancer last week, and she’s having surgery today. In the grand scheme of things, it could have […]
Once Roy Lichtenstein started painting Ben-Day dots in 1961, could he ever stop? After a tour of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, you […]
Songkick, a music promotion site, has added a feature that follows the Kickstarter model to let fans book a tour.
In the umpteenth example of the Onion-ification of reality—the collapse between real life and parody–Jezebel gives us this item on a University of Chicago neuroscientist who was attending a professional […]
Apple announced the new iPad Mini today and as so often the rumors and leaked pictures of prototypes we have seen over the past couple of months were pretty accurate. […]
Several years ago Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid teamed with violinist, composer and neuroscientist Dave Soldier to explore popular music preferences in the United States. They determined what music people […]
After two wonderful years at Big Think, Dollars and Sex has found a new home at MarinaAdshade.com. Please visit me there to keep up with my blog and to get […]
So the best reason to read a “great book” is that you might learn a lot from it about who you are and what you’re supposed to do. In that […]
“Oy vey!” a Big Think blogger wrote to me yesterday. “Is BigThink.com down?” Oy yey, indeed it was. And we certainly weren’t alone. Amazon in recent years has moved beyond […]
MeetMe’s new Photoboard feature will be tested in more than 500 bars across the US. Users who are within a quarter-mile of a bar can have their picture uploaded in a matter of seconds.
So that’s it: the presidential debate season is over. Romney won the first, Obama took the second and…who won the third? Some say the San Francisco Giants, playing opposite the […]
First launched on October 9 and ending later today, this experiment in variable pricing for e-book bundles has made $1.1 million for authors, charities, and the creators of the idea.
A court in Italy has convicted six scientists and one civil defense official of manslaughter in connection with their predictions about an earthquake in l’Aquila in 2009 that killed […]
A Swedish startup launched a Kickstarter project today to raise money to help bring its “lapel-camera” to market by early next year.