A team of Russian and American scientists reported yesterday that they had discovered a new — and very heavy — element, which will be known for now as ununseptium.
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Warming world, warming waters, coral reef die-off. You know the drill. But until recently, marine biologists knew relatively little about what exactly was going on, on the bacterial level, when […]
According to Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation, the cost of getting you and your spacesuit into orbit could soon be about $120. That would mean a price […]
WikiLeaks.org has released graphic video of a U.S. military attack in Baghdad on July 12, 2007 in which twelve people were killed, including a Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and driver, […]
Comcast can decide which of its customers can do what on the Internet. A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the authority to […]
Americans continue to believe in race—“kind of like [how] people believe in witches,” says Princeton historian Nell Irvin Painter. Yet the concept of race as we know it didn’t develop […]
Finally, someone has taken the (necessary) contrarian view: Tiger’s nothing new. Furthermore, his public “shaming” and highly planned apologies are products, like tennis shoes–ones we might consider feeling shame ourselves […]
A study says that the lives of 900 American babies — as well as $13 billion — could be saved each year if their mothers simply continued to breastfeed them through their first six months of life.
An amber deposit found in Ethiopia includes the fossilized remains of Cretaceous era ants, spiders, wasps, and bacteria, and is providing new information about how those species lived.
Research suggests that a gigantic network of offshore wind power stations along the Eastern seaboard could potentially provide energy to a large swath of the U.S. without much threat of outages.
The burgeoning field of animal personality research seeks to figure out why individual members of a species are so unique — and why they remain so through their entire lives.
Glen Whitman writes that economic interventions by policymakers to address anomalies in human behavior “create a serious risk of slippery slopes toward ever more intrusive paternalism.”
About 4.4% of American adults are believed to have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and more and more of them are being diagnosed and treated with medication.
Yassin Musharbash writes that banning women from wearing burqas won’t solve the underlying problems of Muslim immigration and integration that plague Western societies.
A team of researchers are hoping to find 30,000 years of climate records in the rings of preserved kauri trees in the peat bogs of New Zealand.
With tenure-track positions dwindling at universities, Peter Conn writes that humanities faculties need to “articulate our contribution if we hope to find increasing levels of support for the work we do.”
As many as thirty percent of Americans have allergies, and most of the pollen they are affected by comes from trees planted nearby. Cities could relieve sufferers by planting low-pollen street trees.
Bestselling cookbook author and New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman stopped by the Big Think offices a few weeks ago to talk with us about eating, cooking, and the […]
At the New York Review of Books Blog, controversial Catholic theologian Hans Küng blames the celibate priesthood for the epidemic of child rape in the Catholic Church. (The term “rape” […]
David Remnick appeared on Meet the Press yesterdayto discuss his book on Obama. Among other things, he noted how careful the President is in understanding the need for nuance when […]
Today marks the fourth installment of Big Think’s series on business sustainability, sponsored by Logica. For the next nine Mondays (through June 8, 2010), we will release in-depth discussions with top European […]
Ted Leonsis says his 25 years as an entrepreneur and investor have shown him a link between pursuing happiness and achieving financial success in business.
Maia Szalavitz looks at research into the addictive quality of fattening foods, which suggests that long-term exposure to fattening items make users less likely to derive pleasure from them.
A state-government default would have all sorts of unpleasant consequences, writes James Surowiecki, but, luckily, U.S. states can count on help from the federal government.
Great competition doesn’t always inspire greatness. When people compete against a superior peer at the top of his game, they often don’t rise to the challenge. Instead, they often just give up.
John Plender looks at the concept of “moral hazard” — the idea that providing a safety net for the banking system during times of financial crisis will only encourage more risk taking later on.
George Prochnik writes that the ever-present background noise in modern society is more than annoying — it’s actually harmful to our cardiovascular health and concentration, as well as our political discourse.
Jakub Grygiel gives eleven reasons why the study of classical history, and writers like Herodotus and Thucydides, are still vital to a modern education.
President Obama’s challenge in taking on Wall Street is not unlike a similar challenge that was faced by President Teddy Roosevelt just over a century ago, write Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
Researchers have come up with a reason why sand grains can build up electrical charges as they collide with one another — sometimes to the point of creating lightning during dust storms and volcanic eruptions.