Susannah Cahalan was just another ambitious New York kind of girl–a fast-rising cub reporter at the New York Post and fabulous gal about town–when something surprising happened. She lost her […]
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The law is supposed to focus on sites considered harmful to children, but critics warn it could be used to block political debate.
Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale has created an expertly delivered whistlestop tour of psychology for the Big Think. The talk outlines the differences between […]
New York City recently became radicalized out of necessity in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Simply put, when systems broke down, New Yorkers improvised, and took matters into their own hands.
By a vote of 131 to 2, the country’s Congress passed a law giving 16- and 17-year-olds the option to participate in elections starting next year.
Update (Jan, 2014): Amir’s patent application (search for no. 12/743357) has been rejected due to prior art by Mathews and MacLeod. Update (Feb, 2013): Following this blog post Amir corrected two […]
This seemingly endless presidential campaign of 2012 will mercifully come to an end on Tuesday (we hope). People will vote depending on a wide range of economic, social, and ideological […]
In an age of hyper-polarization, Norquist represents ideological rigidity at its core. So does this make him a hero or “the roadblock to realistically reforming our tax code”?
Tomorrow is Election Day for all us Americans. And while I normally try to base my arguments on solid evidence, far be it from me to deny everyone the chance […]
In a new co-authored study with John Besley and Sang Wa Oh at the journal Public Understanding of Science,we expand on our recent work examining how scientists as a group perceive and understand public opinion, […]
Our attraction to the unpredictable rewards of inconstant love have deep biological roots in the brain. It is yet another manifestation of the balance between immediate and long-term pleasure.
Consuming politically charged information in a difficult-to-read font tends to disrupt long-held and recently formed biases, suggests new psychological research from the University of Illinois.
The mere presence of an image next to a statement makes it more likely that people will believe the statement. It’s a psychological fact that demonstrates the malleability of our beliefs.
If the pace of technological advance holds steady according to its historical rates, we will be able to upload a significant part of our identity into computers well-before century’s end.
A good thing about ELECTIONS is that they remind us we have a CONSTITUTION. They especially remind us that we’re a really, really constitutional people. Lots of Americans really hate […]
By isolating a group of neurons that influence how the brain experiences time, researchers think it possible that an individual’s sense of time could be tweaked by altering neural signals.
The “Defense of Marriage Act” is going to get a Supreme Court hearing soon, and in Maryland, same-sex marriage is being put to a referendum on November 6. There is […]
• The big news, of course, is that the U.S. presidential election is on Tuesday. Take heart, progressives: although the media and the Republicans are straining mightily to pretend that […]
In the years ahead, new techniques which seek to restore the balance of healthy bacteria in the human gut could form the foundation of a fundamentally new kind of medicine.
A European health organization has publicly castigated an American genetics company for keeping large swaths of genetic data private, perhaps delaying the advent of personalized medicine.
The power to remain healthy despite life’s pressures lies within us, suggests new research out of Penn State. People who become upset today face health consequences in the future.
When the Italian artist Salvatore Iaconesi was diagnosed with brain cancer, he felt dissatisfied with the options given to him for treatment, so he went crowdsourcing online…
American hospitals are increasingly offering competitive pricing on treatments not covered by insurance. They can often beat foreign hospitals on price and quality of care.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t give in very often. During his reign, Bloomberg has pushed for smoking bans in bars, restaurants and city parks. He has wrested control […]
Today Abigail Fielding-Smith published what I think is a fantastic piece of journalism on southern Yemen and Aden. I encourage all of you to read her fine piece. Indeed, as […]
A higher percentage of Americans believed in the British crown in 1776 than the percentage of Americans who trust Congress today. Larry Lessig has an idea to change all of that.
How much infrastructure and training do children need to use a laptop or a tablet? Do they need, for example, schools and teachers? Do they need to have seen computers […]
Samasource founder Leila Janah has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund the development of Samahope, a site described as a kind of “Kiva for surgery.”
Imagine you are a scientist who has just received the latest issue of the most important journal in your field. As you look through the papers published there, you’ll probably […]
A FinderCodes kit contains “smart tags” that, when scanned, put the finder in touch with the owner.