What moves the world and its institutions are highly changeable emotions of groups of individuals, not rational decision making, says author and sociologist John Casti.
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West Philadelphia high school has entered two cars into the X-Prize competition which requires production-ready models that get over 100 miles per gallon.
Once a darling of the left, Christopher Hitchens turned to support neo-conservative foreign policy and has written a new memoir about his political evolution.
Historical perversions and obfuscating euphemisms have the support of the Texas school book board which is seeking to tell an especially politicized version of history.
Adding nanoparticles to water increase its thermal conductivity, or its ability to take heat away from something, which could save the world a significant amount of electricity.
In an exhibition currently at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, a crane reaches into a mountain of clothes and pulls out at random a selection of shirts, […]
How can scientists be religious? How has religion evolved, according to science? In a special series this week, Big Think rounds up a learned cast of thought leaders—from a computer […]
New York’s excerpt of literary agent Bill Clegg’s memoir has the rush and pull of Jay McInernery’s Bright Lights, Big City. McInerney was celebrated for placing his action in the […]
A doctor who touched off a worldwide panic over an alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been barred from practicing medicine over unethical research practices. Britain’s General […]
As media and communication technology continue to evolve, the question on everyone’s minds is how do we harness this innovation and its capacity to improve lives, foster social good and […]
The words “packet switching” don’t mean much to many people. But for Leonard Kleinrock, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, packet switching is what ultimately gave him the title, “Father […]
After 7-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot and killed by police during a raid filmed for a cable show, experts are asking whether the officers responded to the cameras with violence. […]
Spain’s surprisingly advanced renewable energy sector is facing obstacles like government cutbacks, ever-changing regulations and a retracting European economy.
“More than 60 percent of U.S. cancer deaths are caused by smoking and diet. But what about the rest?” asks Scientific American. New studies are seeking the environmental causes of cancer.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” says Barry Goldman at the L.A. Times, frustrated by tech support’s insufficient understanding of modern gizmos.
Jeff Jarvis defends publicness, as opposed to privacy, amid the Google and Facebook privacy debacles as a way of protecting an open society and preserving the Internet as a public good.
The rise of middle power states with nuclear ambitions like Iran, Brazil and Turkey must be tolerated if the West hopes to maintain a credible non-proliferation regime, says a former CIA chief.
Salon.com explains the unintended moral messages we should have taken from the fate of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the rest of the cast on last night’s series finale of Lost.
European scientists plan to launch two satellites into orbit, one always between the other and the sun, in order to study the sun’s corona without waiting for a natural eclipse.
Technology is decentralizing medical treatments from costly hospitals to primary care physicians and patients themselves with more focus placed on preventative care.
Stephen Fry will select the most beautiful tweet ever written at the Guardian Hay literature festival in England in keeping with the festival’s non-elitist approach.
Climate scientists looking at data from 2010 think the warm weather phenomenon El Niño combined with global warming could make for a hot summer—the hottest ever.
Much is being made about Richard Blumenthal’s Senate race because of a New York Times article published last Monday which accuses Blumenthal of lying about his military record: claiming on […]
A press release by BP (British Petroleum) today announced that “the volume of oil and gas being collected by the riser insertion tube tool (RITT) containment system at the end […]
Steve Chapman opposes France’s proposed ban on burqas because in a free society “none of us is obligated to integrate. The Amish don’t. Neither do the Hare Krishnas.”
Attempts to demonstrate Picasso’s communist ties through his art are unnecessary since the painter was overt about his politics, writes the Guardian, and doing so limits the scope of his works.
Should the U.S. bail out Europe by contributing to IMF funds meant to salvage damaged and indebted European economies? We asked for globalization and now we’ve got it.
The New Criterion takes issue with moral relativism and asks after what limits exist to tolerating cultural practices that advocate violence against the defenseless.
“In Europe and parts of Asia, many politicians, political scientists, and citizens have lately developed greater respect for the positive role a constitutional monarch can play in democracy.”
Can investment in the arts be justified as a solution to the economic crisis? No, writes Prospect Magazine, and the illusion that it can or should devalues the arts’ role in society.