Photo: The north flank of Mount Redoubt in early February 2009. Credit: Chris Waythomas / Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey I’ve been following the waxing and waning of activity at […]
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Welcome to version 2.0 of Eruptions, the blog on volcanic eruptions and volcano research in general. I’ve been writing this blog (starting over on WordPress) over the last year or […]
Last week, the indefatigable AIDS Healthcare Foundation launched the latest salvo in its long running battle to pressure California’s occupational health and safety agency to enforce the bloodborne pathogens standard […]
Evolution is accepted as the fundamental theory of life because, well, we see evidence of it all around us. Not because it has been irrefutably, mathematically proved—at least not yet.
“The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change: that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not […]
Where will the funding for widespread open-access publishing come from?
The bottle of wine you and your partner shared last night didn’t kill a single neuron in your head and, contrary to what you’ve been told, you are always using […]
What makes some brains smarter than others? Are intelligent people better at storing and retrieving memories? Or perhaps their neurons have more connections allowing them to creatively combine dissimilar ideas?
Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle is a staunch defender of traditional marriage. However, one of Angle’s campaign donors one-upped her in the tradition department. While leafing through FEC reports this […]
About 20% of journal articles published in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities are open-access, meaning that only about 1 out of every 5 articles are immediately or eventually […]
I became addicted to The Wire. I know, I ‘m late to the party. Very late, since the final episode aired over two years ago. But over the last few […]
Today is the last day of the Month of Thinking Dangerously here at Big Think, and in that spirit, we are presenting some more dangerous ideas from bioethicist Jacob Appel. […]
“More doctors are turning to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of their patient’s brains, but fears of possible seizures may be limiting its growth as a therapeutic tool.”
“The Iraqi population is suddenly mourning the departure of American troops, the once-hated occupiers, as fears of a civil war grow.” Spiegel reports on what is next for Iraq and its future.
“As the globe logs an unusually hot summer, Canada is boosting its presence in the warming and increasingly accessible Arctic.” The Wall Street Journal on emerging geopolitics.
“Despite the death of spam, e-mail hasn’t gotten much easier to deal with. That’s because our inboxes are inundated with legitimate mail.” Slate reports on Google’s new ‘Priority Inbox’.
As our knowledge of politics expands, we increasingly set out on our quest for social justice over the Internet, which often results in crazed and ineffectual debates in online forums.
“Being a child of a rock legend brings kudos, travel and famous friends—but fatherly wisdom and bedtime stories are rarely part of the deal.” The Independent reports on famous families.
In an interview with New Scientist, philosopher Slavoj Žižek says that ecology is the new opiate of the masses, the universe’s design is incomplete and Mother Nature is a ‘crazy b*tch’.
“If our’ sense of time is largely a cognitive illusion, then where does the illusion come from?” The Frontal Cortex blog follows neuroscientists looking for the nature of time from within the mind.
Scientists at MIT are working to synthesize bacteria found living in sea sponges on the ocean floor, which when in danger emit a chemical that has been shown to eliminate tumor cells.
“Mobile phones have been sold as business tools, fashion accessories and social organisers. But they can also be lifesavers.” The Telegraph reports on ten apps with tangible health benefits.
Mysterious in origin, but at least they look pretty on a map
In the age of reuse-is-better-than-recycle, Italian designer Antonello Fusè has come up with an ingenious, elegant twist on used furniture: Abitudini, a line of unique, asymmetrical coat hangers made from […]
Our stereotype of strip club workers is that they don’t have a lot on the ball. But a new study of UK lap dancers shows they are more educated than the typical Brit.
Do some Americans have an irrational and prejudicial fear of Islam? Where do views of Muslims stand more generally? That was the focus of the cover story last week at […]
American workers are angry. So are their suffering customers. One of the problems with declining service may be that companies care most about the clients they don’t yet have.
Ross Douthat thought Glenn Beck’s star was fading but after attending his weekend rally is reconsidering. “It was a long festival of affirmation for middle-class white Christians.”
Acute Screen/Life Confusion, LOLpets Disorder, Generalized Trolling Compulsion, and Comments Derangement Syndrome. Just some of the online maladies you may suffer.
“One of the advantages of looking back on Asimov’s work from the remove of several decades…is that one can see how deeply enmeshed he was in the history of his own time.”