Want something else to worry about? Worry about worrying too much. The evidence is building that chronically elevated stress shrinks your brain! A study in press at the […]
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It’s no secret that Wall Street has many critics today — from without, from within, and from those on their way out. The latter case, of course, refers to Greg […]
I’m getting excited for the Reason Rally next weekend in Washington, D.C., which promises to be the largest and most spectacular atheist gathering in recent history – possibly the largest […]
Quick. Grab a pencil. Some crayons. A notepad. Wrap your brain around this Friday’s Big Enigma from Ivan Moscovitch’s The Big Book of Brain Games. Share a photo of your solution […]
John Horgan, author of the book The End of War argues that warring or violent behavior is not innate to human nature. Horgan shares the belief of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead that war is a cultural innovation.
1n 1947, Ukranian refugee Ihor Ševčenko wrote to England and persuaded George Orwell to authorize a Ukranian translation of Animal Farm. Over six decades later, writer Andrea Chalupa tracked down the story of this extraordinary man.
What is the Big Idea? Graffiti artist P183, whose real name is Pavel, canvasses the streets of Moscow at night armed with a can of spray paint. One of his […]
If Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus shown above seems a bit off, you’re right. In this version of “Venus on the Half-Shell,” the goddess is almost half her self, thanks […]
The development of artificial intelligence took big steps with Siri and IBM’s Watson. And the progression of that technology is set to grow at an even faster rate in the future, says Ray Kurzweil.
Over the next few months, Google will roll out new semantic search technology that will have a deeper understanding of website content. The advance brings us closer to artificial intelligence.
“I think of my job as ‘leading people to those moments of awe – that brain fever that overtakes you when you encounter a new idea'”. In our livestream interview […]
Legislation has been proposed in Arizona that would allow employers to force women to provide documentation of their “medical” reasons for needing birth control before their health insurance would have […]
Changes in economic relationships simply don’t have much effect on already wealthy despots. Just like the honey badger, they do what they want.
Rick Santorum had a great day on Tuesday, winning the Republican primaries in both Alabama and Mississippi—a state in which no poll had shown Santorum in the lead. Newt Gingrich, […]
Read ’em and weep. Or just add your own ideas at the bottom of this post. 1. Julian Schnabel. Bombastic, prolific, self-promotional, and grandiose, Schnabelwas the ethos of 1980’s NYC writ large […]
There are circumstances where violence is necessary, says Andre Dubus III, author of Townie, but it always takes a heavy spiritual toll.
In The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita nakedly examines the (often ugly) means by which people are able to gain and keep power.
Scientists at Stanford have pioneered a new way to charge electric vehicles without requiring drivers to stop. The new system would place recharging coils beneath the surface of roads.
Two parallel technologies are providing a glimpse of the future: Digital database of all the knowledge you have and android technology that could mimic your behavior and speech.
This is an open letter in response to a religious group, who have argued to remove a piece of entertainment based on their moral values, in a secular society. The […]
One of the major barriers to hydrogen fuel production has been its production cost. Now, scientists want to use nanotechnology to split water atoms and power a generation of cars.
For a certain kind of economic conservative, the cardinal sin of modern governments is printing money whenever they please. Currency’s value should be tied to something real, they say, as […]
What is the Big Idea? Zambia-born Kunj Desai is a doctor in Newark, NJ where his salary is nearly ten times that of what he gets paid back home. He […]
The same unerring perversities of good old fashioned arithmetic that plagued the 2008 Democratic presidential primary have now afflicted the 2012 Republican presidential primary race. Mitt Romney was actually able […]
The Future Attribute Screening Technology project (FAST) was not dreamed up by Philip K. Dick, but it could have been. Lead by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the initiative aims […]
Big Think’s “Book of the Month” for March is The Start-Up of You, by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. For a quick overview and outline of their new ingredients for success, […]
If your school is planning to implement a one-to-one computer or tablet initiative, chances are a committee has been formed to plan, refine and ultimately kick off the initiative. Sometimes […]
The past 10 years or so of public atheist discourse, says Alain de Botton, author of Religion for Atheists, has been dominated by the idea that all religious belief is somehow […]
Animation from astrophysicists at the University of Colorado at Boulder demonstrates what travelling through a rift in space-time would look like as you free fall into a black hole.