All Articles

What’s the difference between a Jackson Pollock painting and a finger-painting? Why is “The Magic Flute” so enduring, while other classical compositions have been forgotten? Leon Botstein, the dean of Bard College, examines what we’re talking about when we talk about art.

Tim Harford, Britain’s answer to Malcolm Gladwell, explains how one of the biggest turnarounds in Broadway history, Movin’ Out, teaches us a fundamental lesson about our ability to adapt.

— Guest post by Luis Hestres, American University doctoral student. To say that new information technologies are revolutionizing political activism has become a tried and true cliché. It also happens […]

Researchers at Stanford University have found a new ultra-low power source for transmitting data via microchips. The development could bring about a new generation of computers.

Steve Jobs was right again. A year and a half after Apple’s late founder endorsed HTML5, the programming technique is quickly winning over programmers and website developers.

The old adage that the key to creativity is to view the world through the eyes of a child has never been more relevant. Ever since this summer’s release of […]

On Tuesday night, I attended a debate at NYU’s Skirball Center that was part of the Intelligence Squared debate series, “Resolved: The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion“. Supporting […]

What happens when the complexity and magnitude of the problems facing our civilization “simply exceed our biological capabilities”? 

N.A.S.A.’s latest Mars rover will launch later this month. The size of an S.U.V. and powered by decaying plutonium, it will search for water and past signs of life beneath the martian soil. 

To combat global warming and the urban island heat effect, Mongolia is launching the world’s largest ice-making experiment. It hopes to use the ice to cool its capital during summer. 

China’s first attempt to orbit Mars has failed as its probe was attached to the unsuccessful Russian probe currently stuck in Earth’s orbit. But China, as a space power, is just budding. 

So my previous post clearly irked most BIG THINK readers.  They didn’t want to address the fact of the birth dearth in the United States, Europe, Japan, and so forth.  […]

In a previous post, I wrote about the Arab Spring’s effect on women and and whether it may actually be a setback for human rights. It so happens that in […]

A Russian space probe on its way to Mars, currently stuck in Earth’s orbit, will fall back to Earth along with stores of toxic fuel. Under international law, Russia is liable for damages.

Titanium dioxide, a nearly ubiquitous but wholly unsung material, benefits the environment by eating air pollutants. It is increasingly used to build green infrastructure in cities.

“We may have democracy or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few,” Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, “but we can’t have both.” That, in essence, was […]

Can we be aware without actually paying attention? In other words, can our brains somehow imbibe visual information from the outside world without any conscious effort on our part? It […]

Today the Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park. Regardless of one’s political or economic persuasions, this act will be seen as having been cavalier and performed without […]

A new venture aims to foster stability in war-torn regions through an act of creative destruction: acquiring AK-47s and transforming them into rare jewelry, watches and accessories.

What do Asian men and African American women have in common? Both are searching for love in very competitive marriage markets and, according to market forecasters, individuals in these groups […]

Two-thirds of online adults now use social media, and mainly to connect with family and friends. Few use these platforms to flirt or find new friends, a survey has found.

The internet went crazy Sunday night after Black In America: The New Promised Land- Silicon Valley. Twitter, the place on the internet where the wired segment of Afro America goes […]

The argument over pseudonyms–the “nym wars”–is at the heart of Salman Rushdie’s recent tussle with Facebook and how the Internet might be organized in the future.

Seth Godin takes marketers to task over their failure to adjust to the internet revolution which has seen the cost of cost of a new customer plunge, in some cases to close to zero.

As NYC police attempt to clear Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, it seems appropriate to reconsider who OWS is and what they want. To me, their goals […]

Wondered why your favorite Web page gets hung up or downloading of a large file inexplicably stalls? It’s often due to telecom operator using a technique called throttling.

Move away from the idea of getting people to click on ads and learn from sites which have generated a huge amount of loyalty online—like Drudge, Reddit, Techmeme and Fark.

Another issue we’ll address at the big conference at Berry College this Thursday and Friday is the erosion or even implosion of our health care and entitlement systems. According to […]

To avoid the German air force bombing Paris, the French built a fake version of their capital

What’s the Big Idea? Can economics explain everything? Some people have attempted to make that claim, but not Paul Krugman, who labels such a view “academic imperialism.” Krugman, who won […]