In the wake of the Arab Spring, China’s own Jasmine Revolution was quickly put down by authorities. Is the country capable of a spontaneous uprising on the scale of the Middle East?
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Why does European news capture our world headlines while South America broils with protest and reform on the same landmass? Is it our assumed European heritage?
Twelve hours after Hurricane Irene hit Washington, D.C., it was a bright 85 degree day as I rode by bike down through Georgetown along the Potomac River and to the […]
Maybe the silver lining in the postponement of the King Memorial Dedication ceremony is the time it gives us to appreciate just how dangerous it was to be a civil […]
More evidence on why you should meditate: research shows it increases your ability to control your alpha brain waves. That translates to better focus, less distraction.
Cuba. 1527. “All hands labored severely under a heavy fall of water that entire day and until dark on Sunday. By then the rain and the tempest had stepped up […]
Toronto researchers using MRI have found that the way formerly depressed people’s brains react to sad movies is a reliable predictor of their likelihood to relapse.
The field of psychology appears to be way overinvested in lab studies and strikingly underinvested in field studies. Should researchers get out in the real world more?
Memory is not a filing cabinet nor a videotape but fragmentary, malleable, and untrustworthy. Hence the introduction of radical new eyewitness testimony rules.
Neuropsychiatry now not only better understands psychological resilience, but how to improve it. That’s good news for anyone coping with stress, not just those with disorders.
“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said of Federal Reserve […]
What did you do, really, when Irene struck? As you listen to people tell tales that make them sound more threatened, more casual-cool or more heroic than they really were, […]
It’s surely appropriate that I follow up a post on my SUMMER VACATION with one on the two kinds of WORK of the college teacher. More than one person who read […]
Jean Casella and James Ridgeway report in Mother Jones that New York City has no plans to evacuate an estimated 12,000 inmates and their correctional officers on low-lying Rikers Island […]
Writing in The New Yorker’s Book Bench this week, Macy Halford has curated a selection of “Six Shorts to Read During a Hurricane.” The novels, essays, and poems excerpted include […]
Scientists once said Neanderthals and modern humans never mated, then that they had but the surviving Neanderthal genes were not functional. Now they say we can thank them for key immune genes.
There are 198 drugs—including critically needed antibiotics, cancer drugs, diuretics, sedatives, stimulants and vaccines—in short supply in the U.S.
Signs often have an effect opposite to that intended. The problem is that to persuade people not to do something, you first have to raise the issue, increasing its salience in their minds.
As tens of millions of members of the Baby Boomer generation rapidly near retirement age, America is in need of innovative new solutions that will help it prepare for an […]
Two prominent tobacco researchers have argued against adopting a “well-meaning” health policy that would see adult movie ratings in the U.S. for films with on-screen smoking.
In a controversial new book, clinical neuroscientist Daniel Amen sayd that the key to weight loss is first to identify which type of over-eater you are, otherwise your diet won’t work.
As Summer 2011 draws to a close, we at Big Think are taking a look back at the most significant ideas presented on our site by Big Think experts. You, our viewers, voted with your clicks.
It is the premise of the course that there are precious few important ideas relevant beyond their specific disciplines, but that it is these very ideas that are the foundation of a modern education.
A potentially serious hurricane bears down on tens of millions of people in the Northeast. How will they respond? The psychology of risk perception suggests that some might be at risk not just from the weather itself but also from the danger that arises when our fears don’t match the facts.
A 5.8 earthquake hits the East Cost. New Yorkers quake. Californians laugh. Along comes a Category 1—no wait, tropical storm—hurricane. Now, not all New Yorkers are quaking; instead, while some […]
The international summer of troubled and/or troubling public art continues and, I hope, concludes with the unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, which was to officially take […]
Unsure if you should care about the Keystone XL pipeline controversy? In his latest essay for Dissent, my friend Mark Engler neatly encapsulates the issues at stake. It’s not just […]
As events unfold, many are pondering what the fall of Col Qaddafi will mean for the rest of the world.
The founder of a successful corporation steps down. Then what? At Ford and Walt Disney, long periods of stagnation or decline, followed by renewal. Now it’s Apple’s turn.
Author Carmine Gallo has studied Steves Jobs’ success and wants us to ask how can we learn to unleash our inner Steve Jobs to advance our business, our careers, and the world.