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“No poet has ever been so influential, so controversial, and so little read” as Ezra Pound, writes Jamie James. After him, “anyone aspiring to be a poetic messiah would be shunned as a charlatan.”
Several studies have concluded that obesity accelerates the process of dementia. People who are overweight in their 40s are more likely to show a rapid, pronounced decline in brain function in their 70s.
Nearly fifty years after the invention of the birth control pill, we now have a wide variety of options for contraception. Yet nearly half of pregnancies in the U.S. are still unintended.
Scientists have used DNA to trace the evolutionary split between head and body lice to 190,000 years ago. They say this may indicate how long humans have been wearing clothing.
In a new book, Timothy Ryback examines Adolf Hitler’s private library. He asserts that books were important in shaping the Führer’s life, and looks for insights in the books’ margin notes.
Big Think blogger Michio Kaku writes that a “perfect storm” of wind and ice conditions turned the Icelandic volcano eruption into a crisis. He gives three scenarios for what we can now expect.
Synthetic biologists have discovered new chemical reactions that could “rewire” plants to more efficiently process carbon dioxide—allowing crops to grow to enormous size.
Scientists have found a distinctive kind of breaking wave in the deep sea representing a subtle force that stirs the seabed and helps distribute rare nutrients.
“No matter where consumers buy books, their belief that electronic media should cost less—that something you can’t hold simply isn’t worth as much money—will exert a powerful force,” writes Ken Auletta.
“Although there must be a physical limit to how many memories we can store, it is extremely large. We don’t have to worry about running out of space in our lifetime,” writes Paul Reber.
A study has found that people who report having had “near-death experiences” also have elevated levels of carbon dioxide in their blood—indicating that oxygen deprivation may be the cause.
“A few snapshots.” According to novelist Tim O’Brien, that’s all our minds retain of our childhoods, adulthoods, and even the people we’ve loved most deeply. “And that’s memory? Little remnant […]
As we push for better health care and longer lives, Gregory Rodriguez writes that we should think about the societal consequences of having so many old people hanging around.
Scientists have created an ultrathin, flexible, electronic implant that essentially melts into place on the brain’s surface, and may pave the way for a new generation of medical devices.
“Hummers are stupid and wasteful and if they go away because no one wants to buy one, that’ll be just a little sad,” writes Penn Jillette. “It’s always a little sad to lose some stupid.”
Felix Salmon writes that executives need “to imagine their companies 30 years down the line, struggling with the deleterious effects of climate change on profitability.”
“Increasingly, neuroscientists, psychologists and educators believe that bullying and other kinds of violence can indeed be reduced by encouraging empathy at an early age,” Maia Szalavitz.