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Take a glimpse into the blackness of deep space, and here’s what you’ll find. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal […]
A new social media service designed by a Mumbai teenager promises to allow users to “hear the world speak.”
Words of wisdom from the 32nd president of the United States: “More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.” FDR’s words are inspiring, but are they feasible?
Why look for rare, precious metals on Earth when you can find them here? “Well, this is a thing unheard of. An Elf would go underground, where a Dwarf dare […]
A prominent performance artist accuses Big Oil of focusing more on cleaning up their image than their business’ collateral damage… and charges cultural institutions that take Big Oil sponsorship money as accomplices to that crime.
The first injury accident involving a Google self-driving car was — surprise, surprise — the fault of an oblivious driver in the other vehicle. Self-driving technology offers a potential future where these sorts of incidents hardly ever occur.
Detroit, Chicago, and Oakland have all suffered from the terms presented by the finance firm.
Infants whose mothers used drugs during pregnancy are often born already addicted to those substances. After birth, an analysis of the detached umbilical cord can determine what severe physiological withdrawal symptoms can be expected.
“What was scattered, gathers.What was gathered, blows away.” –Heraclitus When you think of our Solar System, you think of planets (and other object) orbiting our central star, with moons (or […]
We surprise the world’s brightest minds with ideas they’re totally unprepared to discuss. This week on Big Think’s podcast, we’re joined by poet and educator Clint Smith.
For all we make about our disagreements with each other, we are bound to have more in agreement by the nature of conservation.
Optimism, like imagination, is childish in the best sense of the word.
A plant with twice the nutritional value of kale, reported to taste like bacon when cooked, could soon be entering the U.S. health food market, possibly expanding its reach even wider.
Division of labor creates a need for others. And it logically connects your interests with the interests of those needed others (which complicates evolutionary trade-offs).
Since 1979, middle-income workers have seen their wages rise 6 percent. That’s an average raise of 0.167 percent a year.
At some point, a star’s core runs out of fuel. Then what? “Man loves company — even if it is only that of a small burning candle.”–Georg C. Lichtenberg You normally think […]
Not everyone has the opportunity to ride a bike to work or school, but those who do would improve their health and save quite a bit of money.
How do you win a cyberwar against an Internet-savvy enemy like ISIS? One prominent researcher has suggested a troll-based battle strategy. That’s right: internet trolls. Could World War III be fought with memes?
Most reporting about risk hypes the danger but doesn’t provide all the information the reader needs to put the actual threat in perspective. So when balanced risk reporting shows up, it should be praised.
Marijuana might steal the headlines, but psychedelics are making headway in the American consciousness. DMT: The Spirit Molecule producer/director Mitch Schultz discusses this trend.
If every great story is a journey, then few are more in need of a road map than True Detective.
A tour de force article by The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz details a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that could leave a region home to millions of people in absolute ruins.
Researchers have discovered that the measles virus erases the body’s natural immunity to other diseases.
More than a million Americans per year elect to go abroad for expensive medical procedures, building a vacation that, in total, costs less than being treated at home.
Objective truth is fine if we want to know the weather conditions, but to live as a human in a human society, a more nuanced approach is needed to knowledge and understanding.
Smarts Don’t Guarantee Success. Only a Hunger to Win Can. Take it from a 19-year-old college graduate. Brandon Adams says that most poker players, like financial traders, have sharply analytical […]
Anxiety is typically a helpful evolutionary tool, but it can sometimes become a pathology.
History is littered with prejudiced ideas that use Darwin to claim legitimacy.
Now that New Horizons has flown by the Plutonian system, can it be considered a planet after all? “Words are the source of misunderstandings.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Back in 1930, […]