While Americans observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the historic swearing-in of President Barack Obama to a second term today, using the bibles of Lincoln and MLK, across the […]
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Most people agree that our technology is getting smarter, but most don’t realize just how smart.
Good morning, everyone! It’s a fresh new year, and the winds of change are blowing once again. This is my last post on Big Think. Effective immediately, Daylight Atheism is […]
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli youth, but a slight drop in participation has caused the current administration to create several promotional programs.
Not for the first time, health-conscious Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempts to influence citizens’ eating habits by recommending that the popular staple be replaced with whole wheat bread.
With the global income gap continuing to widen, Oxfam International releases a statement that focuses on the rich rather than the poor.
A debate is raging between economists: Some say the world has picked the low hanging fruit of innovation while others say a new era of unimaginable innovation is yet to come.
New research suggests that loneliness acts on the body similarly to physical stress by causing the inflammation of certain proteins associated with conditions like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
A study which followed 200 British medical patients diagnosed with depression found that the use of self-help books, coupled with counselling sessions on how to use the books, alleviated depression.
A new consumer study concludes that the happiness derived from anticipating a new purchase is often greater than the emotional benefits received from the material good itself.
Sadly, much of the passion and intimacy of new love is bound to fade. Still, there are concrete ways to maintain positive feelings and warmth in long-term relationships, say psychologists.
I just got back from leading a 9-day meditation retreat in the wild and cactus-filled desert of Arizona. And I feel exuberant, inspired, and powerfully awake to the presence of […]
Recently I had occasion to browse my collection of yellowed “second-wave” feminist paperbacks, from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I bought most of them at used book stores in […]
A new technique which asks patients to move their eyes rapidly while recalling past traumatic events successfully relieves symptoms of the disorder, but psychologists don’t yet know how.
The development of cooking technology has both benefited our health and caused surprising physiological changes, such as prompting the emergence of the overbite, which all humans now have.
Because such a wealth of personal information on nearly everyone is now available online, a person’s anonymous genetic information is enough to identify an individual’s full name.
By making adult skin cells behave like a specific class of stem cells called pluripotent cells, scientists are looking to establish the field of regenerative medicine and test drugs in new ways.
The ability of food to affect all of our senses, and recent technological developments that have made cooking a more precise exercise, have caught the attention of the professional art world.
So what will you be doing Sunday night? My advice: Watch more TV! Now you innovative and disruptive BIG THINK readers might think you don’t have the time. But that’s […]
Never mind remembering creative strings of data: Google is researching small devices — a USB card, a wireless “smart ring” — that will automatically log you into a Web site or database.
An algorithm developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University easily deciphers long passwords that make grammatical sense.
Who could have saved us from the global financial crisis? In a word, women. The release of the Federal Reserve’s transcripts of policymaking meetings up to 2007 has shed new […]
Surveys that compare student test scores from different countries often fail to take socioeconomic differences into account, say the authors of a new study.
Researchers mined data from 8 years’ worth of comments on a road rage complaint Web site and created a taxonomy of behaviors that could be helpful in new driver education.
Enjoy the inauguration of Barack Obama, Democrats: it may be the last opportunity to cheer a president from your party for quite a while.
The president won reelection with the help of the science of mass persuasion, a very particular, advanced use of predictive analytics.
How can we train our brains to think like Sherlock Holmes? We need to develop the core skill of mindfulness.
Nearly 40 percent of high school and college students surveyed say they will own a gun in the future, and an additional 20 percent say they’ll consider it.
For many in my parents’ generation, the half century between now and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 seems like the blink of an eye. The […]
Hey all, I have a couple of commitments that have been demanding a lot of my time this week, so blogging has been light. Bear with me – I’ll be […]