In my latest column at The Breakthrough, I discuss what Obama can do in tonight’s second Presidential debate to reverse momentum, and it starts with defying critics who are calling […]
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The country is eager to increase foreign investment and to distance itself from the legacy of Belgian colonialism and French interference, which many believe sowed the seeds of the 1994 genocide.
With its embrace of Western cultural norms and willingness to work with Israel, some say the tiny, predominantly Shiite nation is doing its best to make its big southern neighbor “crazy.”
As the candidates gear up for Tuesday night’s second presidential debate, it occurs to me how strange a ritual this is. President Obama, according to Helene Cooper of the New […]
You can put the smartest people in the world in the same room together and get a terrible result. Jack Hidary has a different idea of collective intelligence, which is derived from his work with the X Prize Foundation.
In the first elections to be seen in the area in six years or more, more women are on the ticket than ever before, but skepticism about the elections themselves may hinder progress.
We have made enormous advances beyond the nasty, brutish and short 20 years or so of life that our Neolithic ancestors endured. So what will it take for all of us to live to 100?
Big Think was saddened by the news that one of our experts, former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, passed away on Sunday from complications of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Big Think had the opportunity to interview […]
Recently two brothers named Chaplin created the smallest book in the world. Their tiny tome, Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, is etched on a microchip narrower than the width of a […]
Socialfish founder Maddie Grant argues that social media represents a paradigm shift not only in popular culture, but in the fundamental relationship between businesses and consumers, and, as a result, in organizational best practice.
From an evolutionary standpoint, which traits are most adaptive to a historical moment in which old certainties have vanished and anything is possible? According to Seely Brown, they include bravery, creativity, and a sense of play.
Dear Readers, I made a mistake. In the article below, I said it would take some very high rates of growth to close the $7 trillion gap in Mitt Romney’s […]
DID YOU WATCH! Did your heart pound, your palms get sweaty, your muscles tense! Did you join the millions around the world gripped by fear and tension as Felix Baumgartner […]
As kids, my siblings and I would flip through old family albums and marvel over old pictures of family members in their youth. More than just thicker hair and thinner […]
In a country where print news is still a viable industry, a newspaper targeted at 7-to-11-year-olds is the first of its kind to be launched by an established publisher.
It was an independent republic for over 1000 years. Today, partially due to resentment of Italy’s central government, activists want to create a new “Repubblica Veneta.”
As shown by this map, the next presidential election will not be decided by 50 states, but by just 11 – the so-called ‘swing states’, that could still go either way.
While guilt is often considered the residue of religious moral codes, people who feel guilty about bad behavior before they even act may make the best friends, mates and employees.
Allowing your mind to drift can help you arrive at creative solutions to vexing problems, reveal what your true priorities are and help you find the peace and quiet needed to learn.
Before reading please click ‘View Entire Story’. My apologies for the length. Over at the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan wrote an article against abortion. It’s not entirely clear whether Hasan […]
A new book of philosophy, which attempts to reconcile the storied history of psychoanalysis with current neurological research, may have important implications for clinical treatments.
Researchers have found no evidence that we experience Mondays as far worse than other days of the week, yet we persist in believing Mondays are bad due to the nature of the brain.
I’m putting up a post tomorrow about writing and the creative process, but on this crisp fall morning, I’ve been thinking more about the social aspect of the profession. Although […]
A pair of Canadian researchers have arrived at a new understanding of boredom by examining what the word means to different disciplines. Our age may be the most bored yet.
One year ago I wrote about Facebook becoming the new resume, and this week we got some fresh data from Kaplan to verify the trend. This year over a quarter […]
The pace of urbanization and the development of megacities is causing an untold public health crisis, say international health agencies who study development and pollution.
In her new romantic comedy, 2 Days in New York, musician, actress, and screenwriter Julie Delpy proclaims, “You know why I don’t believe in the soul? Because the soul would […]
This year’s prizes in medicine and chemistry celebrate advancements in genetics that could revolutionize stem cell treatment and create pharmaceutical drugs with far fewer side effects.
New ways of understanding how tumor cells communicate with each other may yield fresh results in cancer research, according to findings recently released from Johns Hopkins University.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have used tracking data from personal mobile phones to map transmission patterns of malaria, enabling more effective prevention schemes.