How autonomous weapons will be utilized in our military is uncertain. Paul Scharre shares why their future use on the battlefield should be carefully considered.
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Turkish cardinal directions? I didn’t even know they had cardinals in Turkey!
The reward of the doldrums is an uptick, however temporary, in your ability to make rational decisions.
When Francis Bellamy penned our pledge in 1892, his focus was really on the ‘liberty and justice for all’ part.
Drug cartels use social media to celebrate the narco-lifestyle. It also gets them in trouble.
They don’t look like our other spherical maps we’re used to seeing. So what’s actually going on? “The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification of cosmos and quantum […]
What’s the science behind the need to add an extra day to the calendar every so often? “Will you or won’t you? Should you or shouldn’t you? Use this day […]
Adam Smith hated greed. He’d likely be horrified to see how his name is now used. And any Smith fans who believe selfishness is a virtue distort what Smith called his best work.
Picasso didn’t fight in World War I, but he still struggled with how that war influenced his art and life.
An early ‘viral’ phenomenon, the Jedi faith is fading fast
All teachers should strive to instill in their students the ability to think rationally and clearly communicate their conclusions. One educator has recommended using heavy metal as a focal topic in teaching sound thinking.
There’s a new theory out there that these merging black holes came from a single star. What are the odds? “Even if the Fermi detection is a false alarm, future LIGO […]
Google’s self-driving car has been in an accident. The news is it’s the first time one of its autonomous vehicles has been at fault.
Monty Python’s Terry Jones argues that economics isn’t a science—it’s history! Forgetting that history inevitably dooms us to the next financial crisis.
Apple and the FBI sat before the House Judiciary Committee. The group heard testimonies from both sides about the issue, including the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey and Apple’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell.
If we came along too soon, would we ever have discovered dark energy? “Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not […]
Before Oprah or Martha Stewart, Berg built an empire around her name.
The Italian city of Milan is giving commuters a cash incentive to cycle to work. The city is trying to clear its air pollution, a major risk factor for the environment and public health.
The Planetary Society has unveiled the successor of its first solar sail project, the LightSail 2. It will take flight sometime this year when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is ready.
It’s a wonderful potential technology for going interstellar. But in your lifetime? Don’t hold your breath. “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We […]
Donald Trump’s savvy Twitter campaign is helping him win the presidential nomination.
Big Think is proud to partner with the 92nd Street Y’s 7 Days of Genius Festival to bring you an in-depth look at the many qualities and characteristics of genius.
By combining Hubble data with other views from great, space-based observatories, we’re shedding new light on the Universe. “The wonder is, not that the field of stars of so vast, […]
Ra Paulette spent 20 years carving caves into soapstone mountains. His passion for the transcendent brings us back to Earth.
In February of 2016, less than six months after first becoming operational, LIGO (the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory) announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves. What are they? […]
Infectious disease doctors in Brazil — as well as mothers of infants born with microcephaly — are using WhatsApp to diagnose and cope with the Zika-caused illness.
Everything that’s inherently quantum in the Universe is both a wave and a particle. So, are gravitational waves? “You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when […]
Nathan Eagle is the CEO of Jana, and its product is the mCent app. It addresses two issues facing emerging markets: giving users the ability to access the internet for free and helping connect major corporations with its next billion potential customers.
New bikes could be on their way to your local bikeshare system. PBSC Urban Solutions, the largest supplier of bicycles and stations in North America, has unleashed a pair of brand-new models designed to give riders a broader choice of how they use the system.