As our lives become ever more virtual, retailers are betting there will be increasing demand for virtual goods as well. In the future, gaming and retail will be a fully integrated experience.
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A couple of months ago, we featured the Plumen, a designer CFL light bulb. Now, a new breed of bulb presents more than an aesthetic upgrade. Safer than CFLs and […]
Economic researchers are uncovering the chemical triggers in our brains that spark feelings of trust—and using their findings to better understand how markets work.
For decades, holograms have been seen largely on the screen, in sci-fi movies and TV shows like “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” The famed holodeck on “Star Trek” was used […]
A couple of updates on two of the volcanoes that have caught people’s attention right now! Oh yes, and sorry about the brevity of many of these updates lately – […]
Men who begin their online dating messages with “Howdy” have around a 40% better success rate than those who start with “Hey,” says Sam Yagan, CEO of dating site OkCupid, […]
The physicist explains why other universes in the mulitverse could have many more dimensions—and could comprise Einstein’s “Mind of God.”
Where once only two rocks marked a sleepy border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, recent days have witnessed an escalation in tension between the Central American neighbors over the tiny […]
As rapid prototyping technologies become more affordable and accessible, we could be creating more and more of the products we use every day in our homes.
Yesterday, the LA Times ran a feature describing separate communication efforts by the American Geophysical Union and a small band of climate scientists-turned-activists. The effort by AGU seeks to engage […]
The Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London was packed to overflowing last night with a galaxy of stars – and ordinary footsoldiers – who had all come to pay tribute to the late […]
“A startup called RockMelt on Sunday launched the beta version of an entirely new type of Web browser with an impeccable pedigree.” The Daily Beast reports.
“Blogging is an ego-intensive process.” The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder says he will not miss the navel-gazing—todays is his last day as a blogger.
Military veteran and critic of American militarism, Andrew Bacevich says the future of American foreign policy is bleak should the long war against terrorism continue.
If Republicans want to slash the federal budget to reduce national debt, they should cut America’s massive military spending, says The Economist’s Democracy in America blog.
Universities and computer companies like I.B.M. are making progress on quantum computers, superfast machines that obey the laws of quantum mechanics.
The linguist turned activist says the U.S. is vocal about its commitment to peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories but that its actions suggest otherwise.
British scientists celebrate a groundbreaking experiment that generated temperatures a million times hotter than the Sun’s center, reports The Independent.
Given incentives like product discounts, consumers are proving eager to hand over mobile phone data to businesses that want to track their movements.
The National Interest calls Bush’s memoir a record of how a dauphin took the world’s leading power and left it crippled. Is Bush’s legacy one with the nation’s?
Responding to Zadie Smith’s recent criticism of Facebook, Jonah Lehrer says online networks are evidence of our humanity—our drive to be social with one another.
One frequent question I get is whether we can break the light barrier—because unless we can break the light barrier, the distant stars will always be unreachable.
A quick update on the ongoing eruption at Merapi in Indonesia – the death toll has now reached at least 141 since the eruption started on October 26th. This number is likely a low […]
In the wake of the Midterm elections, perhaps overlooked has been the defeat of California’s Proposition 23, an oil-industry backed measure that would have overturned the state’s legislation limiting greenhouse […]
A former New Zealand Member of Parliament is setting out on a new business venture that she feels will be very popular—a brothel for women. She has even done her […]
Today we’re happy to announce that all Big Think videos are now viewable on the iTouch, iPhone, and iPad. Simply access BigThink.com through your Safari browser and enjoy all of […]
In the wake of the global financial meltdown, economist Bernard Lietaer thinks communities should consider creating their own alternative currencies.
When it rains, it pours, my friends. The fall continues its volcanically noisy pace since late October as news comes in of ash explosions at Bulusan, the southernmost volcano on […]
By elections in Britain have not only become rarer – Members of Parliament tend to live longer these days, and are younger – but for the past decade have often […]