All Articles

“Consciousness of course is one of the largest questions of brain structure and function. And we approach it now perhaps differently than we have in the past with our new tools. But I’m not convinced that we understand it any better,” says Joy Hirsch.  

Yesterday I received from an old friend and partner the document below. As most of you, if not all, maintain accounts at both banks and brokers, or at least one […]

“Climate change poses a serious challenge to business, and business must be part of the solution,” says Branson. The business mogul says change is happening too slowly. 

American universities face tougher challenges than ever before but it is rare that a bold leader emerges from the academic ranks. How can higher-education overcome its crisis? 

Stan Richard’s insistence on strict rules may seem at odds with running a successful, creative advertising agency but his company has created some of our time’s most memorable ads. 

With the successful docking of its Tiangong space module and the Shenzhou-8 space craft this week – the so-called “Space Kiss” – China has shown the world that it is […]

The other day I came across this article from Bloomberg News, from which I learned something that surprised me: a large black market exists for human organs, in spite of […]

–Guest post by Jan Lauren Boyles, American University doctoral student. With looming austerity measures that would triple the cost of UK tuition hanging in the balance, Jon Offredo joined the throng of […]

Two articles have appeared recently on the topic of sperm snatching. The first is a new blog here at Big Think and the second is an article in yesterday’s Daily […]

I devote a chapter of my book to “Workhorse Wives.” To be perfectly clear about my definition: a Workhorse Wife marriage doesnot mean one with a stay-at-home dad who pulls […]

Members of Congress aren’t like you and me—they’re substantially richer. Roll Call reported this week that the total net worth of Congress was more than $2 billion in 2010. That’s […]

By studying aging mice, scientists now believe that aging cells secrete poisons that damage surrounding cells causing age-related diseases. Removing those cells prevents disease. 

Markets shuddered when George Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister, said he would call a referendum on the latest bailout package being offered by Europe’s economic powers.  What scared the markets most […]

Gustav Klimt’s “Litzlberg on the Attersee” sold for $40.4 million to the din of jobless and struggling union workers picketing outside Sotheby’s auction house in New York City last night. […]

In the kitchen of the future, there will be no such thing as waste. A cyclical ecosystem will use the methane power of leftovers to provide energy to lights and appliances. 

An extreme-ultraviolet microscope for creating the next generation of microchips has been created by scientists in collaboration with leading semiconductor manufacturers.

Statisticians and business professors have developed a mathematical function to detect the presence of stock market bubbles. LinkedIn was a bubble, they say. Gold prices are not. 

Several of the most recent recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry and medicine share their work habits, their inspiration and what else put them on the path to Nobel gold.

As the assault of comic book superhero-featuring movies over the past few years attests, the men and women in tights serve today as the closest thing American culture has to […]

Admit it: You read Harry Potter.  And even if you didn’t, you’ve been unable to escape the billboards, backpacks, and advertising the mega-grossing films have spawned. Maybe, under cover of […]

One of the most robust findings in political psychology is that liberals tend to explain both poverty and wealth in terms of luck and the influence of social forces while […]

“If you’re going to be successful in your career, you’re going to make some money,” says hedge-fund manager and Floating University lecturer William Ackman. “And how you invest that money […]

Two of my favorite things are corned beef and hashtags. Corned beef is obvious… it’s in my blood (seriously… my doctor calls it cholesterol). As for hashtags, anyone who has […]

Brian O’Neill, co-founder of Waq al-waq, remembers Chris: As most people reading this today already know, Chris Boucek- suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically, passed away this morning, at the shockingly young age […]

Coming from an upper middle class family, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says, he could have afforded to pay some college tuition. Instead, he was the beneficiary of the tax dollars of less well-off New Yorkers. He argues that “tuition discrimination” makes private universities a fairer option. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that extreme weather, including floods and fires, will continue to cost the planet billions of dollars are possibly create refugees. 

The world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, will shortly begin to recreate conditions that existed just instants after the big bang. 

A $100,000 award has been given to a N.A.S.A. agency to examine three laser-based approaches to do what, until now, has only been the stuff of science fiction. 

The James Webb Telescope has become a political football since it, predictably, has run over time and budget. Why can’t N.A.S.A. and Congress do better financial planning?

China has taken an important step in building a space station by 2020 and an American aerospace engineer says China will own the moon in 15 years. Is this a new space race?