John Stuart Mill would say, in most cases, we should allow people to harm themselves – assuming they are rational adults. In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill writes: “the object […]
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People who think intelligence is malleable are more likely to learn from their mistakes, indicates new research. Those who think intelligence is a fixed quality learn less.
Scientists estimate that your mind wanders about half the time, depending on how much concentration your present task requires. Those with greater memories tend to wander more often.
Computers scientists at UC Berkeley are studying the cognitive characteristics of toddlers, hoping to give computers the same ability to learn quickly and imagine creative solutions.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR reports on the fast-developing tend for adult children to continue to live with their parents well into their twenties and even thirties. Maybe 30% of so-called “young adults” […]
Eastern Europe isn’t known as a mecca for healthy living. Those who haven’t visited Eastern Europe might still imagine that it’s filled with smoking teenagers and obese babushkas. Although that […]
In a very public resignation, a senior investment analyst at Goldman Sachs has accused the company of cheating its clients. Does accumulating wealth actually make you a bad person?
Repeating a certain behavior wears a path in the mind, whether it is speaking a foreign language or smoking cigarettes. Here is a scientific approach to acquiring better habits.
Well, this business with the NAP notwithstanding, the Reason Rally is swiftly approaching, and it still promises to be awesome. On March 24, atheists and freethinkers from all across the […]
Researchers at a University in Barcelona, Spain, have created nanoparticles which can release drugs directly from the inside of cells, overcoming past hurdles in producing biodrugs.
A Stanford genetics professor who subjected his genes to a Truman Show of medical tests, taking regular blood samples over two-and-a-half years, may pioneer personalized medicine.
Changing how you live your life can alter the effects of your DNA, particularly genetic combinations that predispose some toward obesity, says new research from the Harvard School of Public Health.
“Muslim Marriage Events” is an initiative in the UK to “tackle the problems in searching for a spouse in an Islamic framework.” They hold mixers and other matchmaking events, sometimes […]
I’ve been grazing online, looking for a place to host my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. When I talk to event organizers at venues, you can hear them stop short, and […]
There’s a heap of news I didn’t get to write about in greater depth this week, but all these stories deserve at least a look: • Remember the Anglican church, […]
New medical devices which can plug directly into a patient’s nervous system communicate to wireless health-monitoring hardware. New prostheses can also interact wirelessly with your brain.
Art projects have become an important way to supplement the medical treatment many children receive in hospitals across the country. They could even reduce health care costs.
In my essay “Into the Clear Air“, I wrote about how people leaving religion often go through a stage of profound darkness. In the end stages of deconversion, there’s acceptance […]
What is the Big Idea? While the British Parliament started its debate on legalizing gay marriage last week, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s changed the name of its apple […]
News of ongoing economic uncertainty surrounds us. In delivering his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress recently in Washington, U.S. Chairman Ben Bernanke urged drastic reduction in the government’s long-term […]
Let me state this upfront: There is no such thing as a “divorce” gene. Not that it stopped many media outlets from reporting that such a gene had been discovered […]
We all know them: parents whose children run wild in public, allowed to behave in ways that make the rest of us cringe and calculate privately how we can avoid […]
Diane Ravitch tells Big Think what really matters when it comes to learning, inside schools and out. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not K-12 teachers who are most responsible.
The famous start up incubator Y Combinator, which is responsible for products like Reddit and Dropbox, is now accepting applications from teams and individuals who don’t have an actual business idea.
Want to the change the world but can only draw pretty pictures? You’re not far off! Here are some tips on how to use graphic design—images, branding and web design—to inspire social change.
Want your child to be successful? Help her build self-control. Most middle-class children already receive enough cognitive stimulation to develop intelligence close to its full potential. In contrast, many children have room to increase their self-control.
In a country like Turkey, with its long history of military secrecy and governmental scrutiny and control of the press, it’s tough to separate fact from rumor. It is widely […]
In a brilliant new twist on the theme of “fathers and sons,” Israeli director Joseph Cedar’s film Footnote examines the rivalry between two generations of Talmudic scholars at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. […]
What is the Big Idea? World Health Day is on April 7 and the theme this year is Aging and Health. The World Health Organization provided some key facts about […]
Over the last two weeks, pink slime has become the safe food movement’s equivalent of the Kony 2012 campaign.