Until now, the concept of info-vision–streaming information across a person’s field of view– was science fiction, but scientists have developed a prototype lens promising the real thing.
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Researchers from the University of Milan and Facebook have found that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world is now not six but 4.74.
Israel has established itself as a hi-tech hub thanks largely to some government jump-start funding, but compulsory military service and Jewish immigration have also been key.
“Oops.” We haven’t even reached the peak of the 2012 election campaign and already two leading presidential candidates – Rick Perry and Herman Cain – have experienced sensational lapses on […]
Finding maps that are sufficiently strange and beautiful is only half the joy of making this blog; the other is writing up the story to go along with them. But […]
I’m back! As you may know, I’ve spent the last three days in Springfield, Missouri, having a blast at Skepticon IV. The convention was a weekend of great talks that […]
It’s the video that everyone seems to be talking about, or at least a lot of people on Youtube. This video depicts a University of California, Davis police officer pepper-spraying […]
“We are children when we talk about the cosmic scale of energies throughout the entire universe,” says theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. But with a little (okay, a lot) of human ingenuity, we may one day have the ability to harness the energy of the stars.
Do holiday sales make your palms sweat with anticipation? That’s because they’re designed to. “There’s a very, very deep art and science to pricing,” says Lee Eisenberg, author of Shoptimism. Watch as he explains the tricks of the trade and how you can avoid them.
‘Tis the season to be savvy. Here’s a round-up of Big Thinkers’ favorite tech ideas for simplifying – and beautifying – your holiday.
If and when Iran builds nuclear weapons, the U. S. would have a small arsenal of deterrence measures to discourage Iran from using them. The good news is they are likely to succeed.
In his Floating University lecture Jeffrey Brenzel, Philosopher, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University, argues the classics will not only enhance your education, but help you live better.
How can China win affection across the world, and global supremacy to boot? By establishing a harmonious society free of today’s huge gaps between rich and poor.
If you were marooned on a desert island and could only bring a handful of books with you–let’s say five–which ones would you pick? Big Think asks Stephen Greenblatt, the bestselling author of Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare.
Revelations about the Zwickau terror cell are a wake-up call for Germany, where more than 140 people have died as a result of far-right violence since reunification in 1990.
The shift in U.S. strategic attention toward Asia has even some astute commentators wondering why Americans should care about Asian security. It’s about keeping Asia divided.
A new book reveals the uncomfortable, even ugly, compromises that aid organisations are forced to make with groups and regimes which abuse human rights, to continue their work.
Ask me to build a Mount Rushmore of Abstract Expressionism, and I’ll put the faces of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman up there. From Hollywood […]
There is certainly value in any book that will make a young person shift his or her gaze from the iPhone screen long enough to read it.
Breaking Dawn Part 1, the latest film version of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling Twilight saga sank a stake into the weekend box office pulling in an estimated $283.5 million worldwide. A […]
There are a number of issues at stake in the way Americans choose to think of their heritage and celebrate their creation story on Thanksgiving. After all, creation stories serve as a guide for how we function as a society today.
You go in for a pair of jeans and come out with two pairs and some new shoes. Sound familiar? Shopping centers use your own psychology against you to get you to buy more.
“The brain is a superb miracle of errors,” says David DiSalvo. The author’s new book demonstrates that nothing we remember, feel or think is as it seems.
As much as we would like to think that, put on the spot, we would do the right thing—and perhaps even the heroic thing—research has shown that that usually isn’t true.
Rumor has it that 80% of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter followers were purchased and as a result are fake and/or useless. This may be an exaggeration, but the evidence is clear […]
Research on gender difference must have enough courage to ask important questions but be thoughtful enough not to jump to conclusions. Here are some guidelines for reading research.
A lot has been and will be written about Salman Khan. Though he already arrived in the spotlight of mainstream media, he is clearly just at the beginning of his […]
A recently-tested anti-depressed, which looked very good on paper, has failed to reduce depression rates. Our understanding of the brain still doesn’t suffice to make good drugs.
So we really do have an aging society. The good news, as I’ve said before, is that we’re living longer, on average, than ever before. The bad (some say) is […]
Obamacare is going to get its day in the Supreme Court. The court granted certiorari in—literally, informed the lower courts that it would hear—three cases challenging the Affordable Care Act […]