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The presiding philosophy of the Laboratory for Perception is ultimately more informed by the possibilities of the future than by the past. Eagleman is fascinated by the idea that we could import the technology into human biology to enhance our sensory perception of the world, broadening and deepening our reality.

Take some standard tools for graphing data. Add the power of three-dimensional printing. Result: Data rendered not as a graph or chart, but as an object. A new frontier in […]

The United States of America murdered an innocent man. But this is not the main reason we should be against capital punishment. Carlos DeLuna was put to death in 1989 […]

“Too much experience…may restrict creativity because you know so well how things should be done that you are unable to escape to come up with new ideas.”

A new robotic sailboat aims to set navigation records while collecting data on marine life. In the future, such boats could be used for search and rescue operations and tsunami detection.

Are human beings’ needs and desires evolving faster than start-up companies can respond to them? 

Believe it or not, this post continues with my theme of Cartesian America. As I explained, the Cartesian/Lockean American understands science basically to be technology.  Its point is to make […]

Anxiety Creates Extra Tasks – And Problems Have you ever had one of those ‘super-productive’ days where you burn through all of your tasks and then feel… strangely hollow? This […]

A team of researchers at Brown University have taught a paralyzed woman to move a robotic arm with her mind, enabling her to take an independent sip of coffee for the first time in 15 years. 

“Facebook is worth $100 billion, but all I got was this lousy status update.” That just about sums up the type of public sentiment that has been inundating the Internet […]

Blunt head trauma and traumatic brain injuries are well-known artifacts of war. The Brain Trauma Foundation reports that between 10-20% of Iraq veterans (approximately 150,000-300,000 individuals) suffer from some level […]

It was as though a spontaneous performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream broke out next to us on the sidewalk. My husband and I were on our way home […]

Strictly speaking, a “psychopundit” is William Saletan’s term for a scholar who uses psychology to explain what’s wrong with people who don’t vote for Democrats or recycle or otherwise agree […]

What’s the big idea?There is no shortage of online tools to help us research restaurants, track up-to-the-minute news and even plan out our zombie escape routes, yet there are very […]

Get this: there is a startup called I Dream of Space that is selling posters for $10 that also come with the chance to win a trip to space.  In […]

Big Think hit the streets (the intersection of Wall & Broad, NYC) during the AM rush hour this Friday, May 18th with a guerilla theater piece for Facebook IPO day. […]

There is not much middle ground in the debate over whether life exists beyond planet Earth. Astronomers either believe the odds of life are impossibly rare or mundanely common. 

What’s the Big Idea? Up up down down left right left right B A start. Press these buttons in succession while playing any one of the more than 60 video games […]

In 2005, Thomas Friedman elegantly pieced together the global frontier for readers in The World is Flat. A book that will go down in history as one that was right […]

Mining the moon for natural resources is inevitable, says engineering professor Dr. Leonhard Bernold. He has created a system that avoids potentially crippling efficiency problems.   

I hope that the US authorities are keeping a close eye on proceedings in little old London town involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and that of one of his former […]

An engineer has released incredibly detailed technical specifications for builing a real Star Ship Entreprise which could take us to Mars in 90 days and to the Moon in just three. 

So I’m sorry for yet another relatively pointy-headed post.  I’m still thinking about the twin pillars of our modern, scientific self-understanding—Descartes and Darwin.  For today, I’m thinking about how the […]

Here are hypotheses 10 through 18 on how social media might change your love life. Click here for Part 1… ASSORTATIVE MATING ON STEROIDS Like marries like today. “Assortative mating” […]

We’re sorry to inform you that the space mining position you were seeking has been filled. That’s the message from Planetary Resources, who was inundated with resumes to mine space rocks. 

This weekend, the company SpaceX is set to make a giant leap for the private space industry. It is scheduled to carry supplies–but no people–to the International Space Station. 

A map that highlights A to Z rather than A to B 

These are crazy times, so why should the art market be immune? However, there’s madness and then there’s sheer madness. Only half over, the month of May 2012 might go […]

It must be a terribly confusing time to be a member of the Vatican hierarchy. In an effort to stem the accelerating exodus of Catholic laypeople, they’ve been cracking down […]

Just a quick note: In the past few days, I’ve had several complaints about the auto-playing video ads on the right sidebar. Rest assured, I find them just as annoying […]