Environmental protection often comes at the expense of the world’s poorest people, who struggle to meet their subsistence needs. Can we expect to find a balance?
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A new two-part study published in the journal Energy Policy claims it’s possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
To borrow a phrase fromBilly Idol, Dijkstra presents “flesh for fantasy” first as the nightmare of Puritanism and, more hopefully, as the perhaps impossible dream of a mature, open society.
President Obama’s numbers are up. After averaging less than 47% percent approval for his second year in office, Obama’s approval is now up to 50% again. By an 8 point […]
Many kids are vaccinated at age two; some kids start displaying autistic behavior at the same age. “Evidence” that there’s a connection has turned out to be bogus.
The miraculous recovery of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has focused attention on the advances in treatment for brain injuries previously thought to be non-survivable. Tack one up for military medicine.
Engineers at Cornell University have developed a form of turbine-free wind power called Vibro-Wind.
Collaborative Fund is a new kind of investment fund that bridges the disconnect between doing good and doing well in business, providing the financial foundation for creativity and innovation that will shape our shared future.
The modern world may have been inaugurated with the thought that we can and should make ourselves happy in this world. No longer should we be, as St. Augustine wrote, […]
A few weeks ago when I blogged about a social-psych study that found people have more empathy when they feel low in status, I wasn’t aware how much work is being done on the rich-asshole problem in social science.
Is the search industry locked in a race to the bottom or are conditions ripe for a breakthrough? This question will take center stage at a gathering in San Francisco on February 1, to be webcast on BigThink.com.
We all know people who have remarkable self-control. How do they do it? What’s the secret? It’s partly genetic, but to control yourself you must also control your environment.
Now, more than at any time, Americans need to be reminded what a great country America has been and still is.
A year ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to limit in any way the amount of money corporations can spend on attack ads. What’s happened since?
How do we feed the world while saving the planet? Underinvestment and market failures have trapped many countries in a vicious cycle of low productivity and exposure to price hikes.
The Dragon, a new privately funded spacecraft, should revolutionize American space exploration. And make clear the ability to commercialize innovation.
The mistake is thinking that “intellectual property laws” are the same as creative output. It’s a nefarious fallacy. It leads to the false claim: “more IP = more creative economy.
Taking a test is not just a passive way to assess how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and works better than various other techniques.
Leading neuroscientist Vilayanur S Ramachandran shares intriguing case studies revealing the powerful, adaptive potential of the human brain.
A study has found that blindfolded dolphins can pick up on the actions of other dolphins, even imitating their actions.
There is nothing better than being in a classroom with really, really brilliant students, and opening up new worlds to them in the way that a profession opened up new worlds to me.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. The process of looking back at that time must also include looking back at previous attempts […]
A recently published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found a correlation between friendship and possession of a particular version of a single gene.
Last year, Chauncey DeVega asked a great question: how would we see Sarah Palin if she were black? As much as we might like to pretend otherwise, blacks in America are […]
I’ve got a new USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for a wintry January Thursday. Some highlights (with post report updates) include: Russia: The Kamchatkan volcano, Kizimen, has […]
BIG THINK has done has the big service of presenting many, many excellent and expert views on what happiness is and how to be happy. Surely, we increasingly think, this […]
It’s pretty obvious the time the GOP spent this week debating a healthcare repeal bill that has absolutely no chance of becoming law instead of deliberating over more practical matters […]
The decline in birth rates in 2009 isn’t a story about young women learning about life with a baby from a reality show. It is a story about young women who know all too well what life with a baby is like.
There is more than a literal truth to the saying that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” suggests emerging international research.
In some cases, such as the Giffords shooting and Tunisian revolution, Twitter has proven a real-time news network. But what happens when the medium spreads disinformation?