Are children in America are being over-diagnosed and over medicated by doctors, parents and schools more concerned to make them better behaved than for their wellbeing?
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The mother of a young South Carolinian shared her daughter’s story earlier this week on a political blog I frequent. Her daughter was pretty upset about the “poor people” around […]
March 24th, for the past two years, has been a new kind of holiday: one created on the Web, with most celebrations occurring online, using technology to turn an eye […]
For generations, the topic of invisibility has been of great interest. Although it was once dismissed as science fiction, it has now become reality on a small scale. Physics textbooks around the […]
The passage of the health care reform bill has understandably gotten most of the attention this week. We’re going to hear a lot more about it through the fall elections. […]
When Benoit Mandelbrot first began the work that led to the birth of fractal geometry, there was “an explosion of interest” from his colleagues. “Everybody in mathematics had given up […]
Is it time to accept that plenty of cancer-screening in the developed world is motivated by psychological needs, rather than fact? Screening addresses our fears of statistically unlikely horrors, which […]
In light of a new tussle between Google and the Chinese government, it’s an interesting time to consider the role of the internet in political mobilization, particularly in countries where […]
Why do we act irrationally? Does free will exist? These are the questions that philosopher Alfred Mele sought to answer when he sat down with Big Think.The Florida State University […]
Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, came by Big Think today to share his unconventional wisdom about highly intelligent people and their preferences. Liberals, he […]
Should abortion be permitted until the fetus’s birth? Bioethicist Jacob Appel believes so, arguing that any other guideline is too arbitrary to be legally justifiable, or enforceable. Indeed, his actual “philosophical […]
Monday the 22nd, World Water Day, marked the launch of World Water Week 2010 – not a bad time to check in on the liquid state of things here on […]
I am not one to endorse stereotypes based on ethnicity, nation or religion. Especially not the ones from the earliest Star Trek series, in which everyone in the galaxy either […]
Suspended animation, where an animal’s metabolism is slowed to seeming death, is no longer the stuff of Star Trek, says scientist Mark Roth who is pioneering research into it.
This week around 200 experts will gather in California to work out how research into the possibilities of geoengineering the planet to combat climate change should proceed.
The New Yorker’s David Remnick remarks that Israel seems to view Barack Obama rather suspiciously and says the President’s customary cool has not warmed the countries’ relations.
Australian car manufacturer Holden is hoping to develop a car fuelled by household waste such as food scraps and dirty diapers within the next two years.
A key component in a popular Indian spice could delay liver damage and cirrhosis, according to a new study published in the research journal “Gut.”
While consolidating medical records into electronic databases might cut down on loose paper and red tape, one doctor argues the efficacy will be diminished because of privacy concerns.
Portion sizes in paintings of Jesus’ last supper have grown exponentially in the last 1,000 years in a strange parallel of changing eating habits, showing that art imitates life.
Forget Rahm Emanuel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has “earned the badge of the toughest nut in F***nutsville” and is one of history’s most skilled vote-getters, writes Richard Adams.
In a break with diplomatic custom, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netinyahu held closed-door talks yesterday in an attempt to smooth US-Israeli relations.
Carl Varjabedian, a photographic maverick, captures the surreal beauty of the American West in a manner worthy of tall tales and American dreams, writes NPR.
The press didn’t just do a lousy job of explaining the stakes during the healthcare debates, they failed us on a much more fundamental level. According to the Columbia Journalism […]
Edmund White’s eloquent consideration of Cheever in the new New York Review of Books remembers the late author’s connections with Chekhov, his love/hate relationship with Catcher in the Rye, and […]
Set against last weekend’s Washington jamboree organised by pro Israeli AIPAC, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, the meeting of senior officials of the United […]
This week’s installment of “The Future in Motion” features a clip from an interview with Dr. Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at CalTech. He and his team are busy developing […]
This is my 100th post on Mind Matters. Hence the cake in the pic, which was made for a wedding by Seattle’s Jet City Cakes, using H.R. Giger’s designs for […]
Physics is a process of rigorous, exhausting intellectual inquiry, but it does offer occasional moments that are “kind of fun.” For Harvard’s Lisa Randall, one such moment came when she […]
I have often been asked about my thoughts on the recently increased storm activity and global warming. The fact is, you cannot judge a book by its cover, so you […]