An orchestral symphony has a lot of instruments, but you tend to concentrate on the soloists.
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In honor of Bastille Day, we are looking at five French ideas and how they have influenced the world.
Through the worst portions of the global financial crisis, the price of gold skyrocketed from $300 per ounce to $1,900 as investors looked for a foothold in the rocky economic terrain.
The second annual Maker Camp, a free online program targeting kids and teens already bored with summer break, started Monday (July 8). Among other things, it promises to teach campers how to make 30 new things in six weeks.
Perhaps the most powerful contribution of cognitive psychology to human understanding has been its careful mapping out of the many ways in which we self-deceive. Our minds are expert confabulators, […]
Walter Russell Mead, one of the most expert bloggers around, gives the most realistic explanation I’ve seen on how MOOCS—those massive online courses—will affect higher education. They won’t, in fact, […]
Extrinsic motivators like status and money tend to be back-end loaded, they tend to be delayed. And so, as Robert Kaplan points out, we need short-term rewards.
Taking a clue from the mobile computing industry, major automakers are either designing or thinking about designing customized apps that a driver can download from their car’s monitor.
The coup that ousted Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood suggests that Islam still has no stable footing on which to shoulder the responsibilities of modern governance, according to professor Olivier Roy.
“You can’t live or die every day thinking about redemption,” a self-reflective Eliot Spitzer told Big Think in 2010.
For many career seekers, “follow your passion” can be a terrifying piece of advice, mainly because the word passion conjures up images of intense, frenzied activity better suited to an […]
The increasing desertification of Africa, thought to be a product of climate change, creates resource shortages which in turn give rise to armed militas intent on controlling their distribution.
The technology that will enable vehicles to drive themselves has shown much promise. So much promise, in fact, that industry experts believe private drivers as well as industry will inevitably adopt them.
Talent isn’t everything. In fact, some of the most robust findings to come out of developmental psychology over the past decades have identified self-control – the ability to harness, train, […]
Theo Caldwell recently appeared on FOX, telling Tucker Carlson that he could no longer make fun of Canada as “our socialist little buddy to the north.”
There is no ironclad guarantee that signing up to hurtle your body at 500+ mph several miles above the ground will result in safe passage to your destination.
Resilience can help your life in a general way to be more productive.
One factor that is involved in resilience is having a moral compass, a set of beliefs that few things can shatter.
This image was taken with a 50 mm lens by members of Expedition 36 aboard the International Space Station, the latest in a series of stunning images released to the public.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”—truer (and more gender, class, and race specific) words were never written by a group of rich, white, […]
Control. Without a sense of control, we feel less safe. With a sense of control – whether we actually have that control or not – we feel safer. A […]
Princeton scientists have found that mice are less anxious about experiencing stressors, such as entering a pool of cold water, when they are allowed regular exercise.
Individuals who meditate benefit from an increased flow of oxygen to the brain. Now scientists believe that meditation can confer benefits on others, even if they do not meditate themselves.
Scientists have located the specific brain region involved in the spread of ideas. Called the temporoparietal junction, it could help clarify why some ideas fall flat while others go viral.
What is lost in our rush to personalize solutions to societal problems, says Evgeny Morozov, is the fact that broad political solutions, such as regulation of industry, can prove very effective.
If you occasionally think your phone is vibrating when it’s actually not, you are among the 80 percent of people who make the same mistake. But this error in perception is not an impending sign of madness.
The afterlife, in the words of Tennyson [1], is “that untravell’d world whose margin fades / For ever and forever when I move”. Death is the ultimate one-way trip, its […]
A city slicker attends a real Independence Day parade (a Praxis photo essay).
Researchers have found that most people confuse foods which manufacturers label as “healthy” with low-calorie meal options. As a result, it is easier for people to overeat without knowing it.
Nearly a year after going off their antiretroviral drugs, two men previously infected with HIV are still showing no signs of the virus thanks to a dramatic bone marrow transplant.