Downloading free music may eventually disenfranchise listeners, says Cris Ruen at The Big Money, because musicians will be desperate for whatever corporate patronage comes their way.
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Levels of testosterone in women partly determine how much they trust men, according to a Dutch study published in the U.S. The results support skepticism as an important adaptive trait.
In an effort to spice up the classroom and dodge patient privacy concerns, psychology professors are teaching pathologies of fictional characters, like Twilight’s vampire, Edward.
New companies are creating sophisticated digital backups of individuals that can, in some sense, make one immortal, even if copying consciousness remains beyond current technology.
When the Arno River overflowed in 1966 and flooded Florence, Italy, an art apocalypse nearly took place in that grand Renaissance city. Countless works, including Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Doors of Paradise,Donatello’s […]
Every year, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards a $100,000 prize to a project that has the potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems and significantly improve human quality of life. The […]
Would days spent reading Proust make us more attentive? The Times cover story today implies, Yes. New research argues against the opposing onslaught: video games, iPods; inevitable, en masse drift […]
Green pre-fab is getting a lot of attention right now in New York City. Hop downtown to the Financial District, and you’ll notice, amidst the suits and skyscrapers, a peculiar […]
Pianist Hilda Huang, 14, visited Big Think today to tell us about her love of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In March she became the youngest person ever to […]
When Jill Tarter was growing up, she remembers walking along the beach with her father, gazing up at the night sky. Well before she would become a leader in the […]
A 22-year-old U.S. intelligence analyst has been arrested for allegedly giving classified combat footage of a U.S. helicopter crew killing civilians to Wikileaks, an online repository of leaked documents. The […]
Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron announces today that deep cuts in public expenditure “will change British life”. They will in short be the most drastic public spending cuts in a […]
Gary Becker and Richard Posner weigh in on African development, which has weathered the current economic storm better than any advanced economy. Will Africa finally take off?
“Is a world with people in it better than one without?” asks Peter Singer of Princeton. How do we justify brining new human life into the world amidst so much suffering and unprecedented crises?
Those who worry that the Internet promotes mediocrity should consider the printing press, says Clay Shirky: pulp writing accompanied peer reviewed science and booming literacy rates.
The bad name given to corporate oversight, i.e. government regulation, deligitimizes its role in society and makes ready financial crises; among other things, regulators deserve more pay.
In our world of infinite and instant information, learning one skill deeply could equip us with critical thinking tools necessary to cope with our times, which change faster now than ever.
The Guardian contests the stereotype that Americans are ignorant of history but, the English paper believes, contemporary conservative movements do appropriate the past for political gain.
The successful launch of a private rocket into outer space, which could one day take tourists on suborbital flights, comes just as the U.S. government makes deep cuts at NASA.
Former CIA station chief and director of counter-terrorism, Robert Grenier says peace efforts in Afghanistan demonstrate a house divided against itself — an open ended civil war could follow.
Scientists are working to rule out non-biological explanations for conditions present on Titan, a moon of Saturn, that suggest there could be life on the moon’s surface.
European soccer scouts look to Africa for budding talent because players there “are young, technically adept, athletic — and cheap.” Is this a modern day slave trade?
The bipolar extremes of American politics—red states, blue states; with us or against us; cut and run or victory; capitalism or socialism—have now divided Islam into two separate categories. There […]
My book “Beyond Einstein” takes readers on an exciting excursion into discoveries that have led scientists to the brightest new prospect in theoretical physics today–superstring theory. Simply answer the statement below […]
Central America’s employment of low-skilled workers could not withstand a fully developed Chinese labor market where agricultural mechanization would spur mass migration to cities, reports The Guardian.
The New York Times magazine profiles squatters and freegans who have taken advantage of the many housing foreclosures in Buffalo, NY and how they’ve earned their neighbors’, and the law’s, respect.
More doctors are giving consultations online as technology enables convenient patient-doctor exchanges on minor medical issues; the trend is saving everyone time and money.
Rob Reynolds recalls the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, how business leaders were more coarse at that time, and how reaction to the spill fed a fledgling American environmental movement.
Nicolas Carr tells The Atlantic that the Internet has changed our way of life, sometimes for the worse. Today we are a distracted and anxious society because of our voracious appetite for information, Carr says.
Instead of reacting to the Sunday morning political shows, I figured I’d beat them to the punch. “Cheney’s Katrina” has a nice ring to it. All the guests seem to […]