Time “flows at different speeds in different places and that is the key to traveling into the future,” writes Stephen Hawking, who speculates about how we might construct a time machine.
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Scientists have discovered that shooting high-powered lasers into the sky can create the germ of a rain cloud, opening the door to eco-friendly cloud manipulation.
John Tierney looks at research indicating that male chimpanzees use “tools” (crackling leaves) to show females that they are ready for sex.
“If the United States is to have a sustainable toehold in Asia, Washington has to start paying serious attention to some countries in the region that are not China or India,” writes Ernest Bower.
When it comes to compliments “we often hear what we want to hear,” writes Elizabeth Bernstein. If we are feeling secure it’s easy to register the praise, but not in times of self-doubt.
Nick Kristof has an idea for fixing the Catholic Church: Turn it “upside down”! Take power away from the “old boys’ club” at the Vatican, where a dark cloud hovers […]
“If a regime is hellbent on turning a journalist into a spy,” Paul Martin writes, “it can simply put him on trial in a closed court, announce a verdict, list […]
The Human Body Shop may be just around the corner: In 50 years, the advancing technologies of medicine and tissue engineering could change everything.
Today marks the first installment of Big Think’s newest series, “Moments of Genius,” sponsored by Intel. We sat down with math and science thought leaders—from the inventor of the very […]
Today Big Think is pleased to welcome the very talented Maria Popova, of Brain Pickings fame, to our regular blogging team. Known for “curating eclectic interestingness” from around (and beyond) […]
“The idea of America is that we all have our own unique voices…and that’s the same as guitar.Guitar is not an instrument that’s stuck in a canon, or stuck in […]
“The secret of excellent proofreading is caring intensely about getting things right and loathing error with an intensity that perhaps only fascism or an alimony-collecting ex-wife deserves,” writes Joseph Epstein.
“The age-old atavistic lust for war … never really goes away,” writes Evan Thomas. “It is too fundamental to the male psyche.”
“Europe used to be, within the living memory of many of us, the cockpit of world power, prosperity and prestige. Today it is raw material for an ouija board,” writes Walter Lacquer.
While acknowledging the progress over the past 50 years that was enabled by birth control pills, Geraldine Sealey thinks we now need new methods beyond hormonal contraception.
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton writes that “It is hard to conclude anything except that the Obama administration is resigned to Iran possessing nuclear weapons.”
New studies indicate that combining exercise activities (like walking or biking) with nature—even for just five minutes—can boost mental health and well-being.
New data suggest a “rebalancing” of the global economy. Domestic spending in the developing world is beginning to replace export-buying American consumers as a growth engine.
“The proper function of spies is to remind those who rely on spies that the kinds of thing found out by spies can’t be trusted,” notes Malcolm Gladwell.
Recent research suggests that people all over the world might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that their lives are improved as a result.
Group theory “bridges the arts and sciences,” writes Steven Strogatz. “It addresses something the two cultures share—an abiding fascination with symmetry.”
How designers are revolutionizing corrective eyewear with low-cost, durable, beautifully designed glasses for the developing world, where lack of access to vision healthcare presents an obstacle to anything from basic safety to education
We love our American President for his gift with words, and we learn from him in how he uses them—in articulating war, in assailing Wall Street, or even in making […]
While people wonder daily about the future of the newspaper, music and publishing industries, the television business seems to be surviving on its own terms. Sure it has lost revenue […]
Morality is an indirect consequence of evolution that balances the needs of individual survival and satisfaction with those of society, writes a contributor at Psychology Today.
Our age’s outright attack on God may just be a reactionary response from an “ideology of reason” that imitates the dogmatic methods it is critical of, says The Spectator.
The supposed infallibility of DNA test results, due to individuals’ unique gene sequences, creates a cult of unaccountability that can lead to false convictions.
The preservation of “fundamental rights” by a nation’s judiciary is an old habit of tempering democracy with aristocracy, writes James Grant of the U of Cambridge.
Fred Donner, a historian at the U of Chicago, has published a history of Islam that demonstrates the faith’s original openness to outside members.
While Europe is no longer the colonial power it once was, and though its politics are mired in seemingly small issues, its social values provide the continent its staying power.