“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”-J. R. R. Tolkien (born on this date in 1892)
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How a new year, a new platform, and the same core cosmic principles are coming together to bring you the greatest stories the Universe tells us about itself. “Beauty is everywhere […]
Many characteristics of the sociopathic personality—charm, ambition and impatience, an ability to attack problems with cold-hearted logic (not letting emotions get in the way)—are useful to society.
If we want to fail fast and fail hard, we should be sure to be mindful about disrupting gurus of innovation.
What the entire natural history of everything would look like compressed down into a single calendar year. “[D]on’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live […]
Now we’re starting to see how genome research is fulfilling the promise of why we pursued the Human Genome Project in the first place.
It is surprising that, given how widespread hangovers are (especially on New Year’s Day), there is not more scientific consensus on what causes the phenomenon.
This looks like a pretty standard map of a bit of Denmark. In fact, it is no such thing. For there isn’t really a town called Köbstad in Denmark, […]
The vast majority of New Year’s resolutions, by some counts 88 percent, fail. Without a mechanism to encourage compliance, without some self-conniving, the natural tendency you have not to comply with your resolution (which is why you need to “resolve” to do it in the first place) will almost always win out.
This mathematical fantasy landscape was created by expanding on the Mandelbrot set of fractals to three dimensions.
At one second past midnight on Tuesday, the day will change to Wednesday, a normally unremarkable transition that happens every day, with no significance. But somehow this change, which […]
As genomics becomes relevant to medical care, regulatory agencies like the FDA are going to be watching this and making sure it’s being done properly.
The auroras appear mostly green, as high energy particles hitting the Earth’s atmosphere cause the air to glow as electrons resettle into their oxygen hosts.
Spirit worship and possible side-effects TOKYO AND BEIJING – Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, shocked East Asia by visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine which hosts about 2.4 million […]
So now that he’s been named Time‘s man of the year and all, it might be safe to say something good about Pope Francis on BIG THINK. Liberals like the […]
The teachings of the Buddha dissect existence into fundamental elements. Contrary to René Descartes, this dhamma is not pure bricks and mortar, or pure materialism; it describes the make-up of all reality in a holistic, all-encompassing way.
With the goal of developing cheaper drugs for humans, Chinese scientists injected pig embryos with DNA from a jellyfish.
Guest post by Tyler Gayheart.(Cross post from http://www.TylerGayheart.com) Do you feel the Internet is an easy to navigate space for developing a strong literature base for academic research? Or are your […]
Across the long distance of a clear Atlantic Ocean, the Blundell Hunter lands on the shore of Old Harbour, Jamaica. The ship had docked two days prior in Morant Bay, […]
It’s an impressive project that can push the frontiers in one field, a new crowdfunded project looks set to make a splash in three. Until now, the research grade EEG […]
In this end of year roundup I present the top ten of my posts from the last year, selected by your mouse clicks, along with a “too long, didn’t read” […]
A few weeks ago Mayor of London Boris Johnson said some questionable things about IQ tests and the benefits of greed, income inequality and shaking boxes of cornflakes. Dorothy Bishop wrote an […]
In order to better visualize the Martian moon Phobos, images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter have been combined to create a virtual rotation movie.
The awareness that we can choose our future is new to us as a species.
Eric Green: I predict, starting over the next few years, women will opt to just simply give a little bit of blood which they’re giving anyway as part of their clinical care.
Is therapeutic cloning the biggest scientific breakthrough of 2013?
Five insights that give us the scientific understanding to move into the twenty-first century in a knowledgeable way and to begin to choose the future that we want.
Be prepared for the fact that the upcoming year won’t be free of distractions and problems no matter how hard you work on your goals, but the most important thing is to stay within the routine you establish and don’t attach yourself to the results.
According to computer scientist Jaron Lanier, the right way to understand the famous “Turing Test” is to understand that it “began in the mind of somebody who was very close to suicide.”
Does it reveal the location of the doldrums?