I’m an amateur jazz drummer. Last night, as I was surfing my favorite drumming site, drummerworld.com, I came upon the most astounding video. Four very young Japanese women all dressed […]
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The government should immediately increase the national gasoline tax, say a team of MIT scientists who want the nation to cut back on its use of petroleum-based fuel for driving.
“If You’re Too Busy To Meditate, Read This,” proclaimed a wildly popular Harvard Business Review story a few months ago. It was but one data point we observed as we […]
The human race became a little humbler recently when it was discovered that dolphins, much like people, have unique signatures they use to identify themselves and each other.
NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover. Big Data Predicts the Oscars. These are among the brainiest memes included in today’s Mind Memes.
Consider the story of my first encounter with Sartre. I read Being and Nothingness in college. The professor, a Nietzsche aficionado, explained Sartre’s adage that existence precedes essence. After two […]
“Hell, darling. That is what is going on in Hollywood right now,” says stylist Cheryl Konteh, referring to the film industry’s preparations for this weekend’s Oscars ceremony.
In America, the healthcare industry has followed private industry in its goals of selling more products more often. The result is a lack of holistic care that treats patients as human beings.
According to Caltech professor emeritus and microelectronics pioneer Carver Mead, the scientific revolution that got under way at the start of the 20th century has been stymied by big egos.
Big Think and TEDMED, the TED licensee for health and medicine, are collaborating on an upcoming series on how you can apply emerging ideas in health and science to your own life.
During this year’s Super Bowl, brands like Oreo and Tide didn’t just stick to their traditional pre-planned paid advertising routine—they tried something new. Along with six others, they flexed their […]
Focus makes us smarter. In a recent study using mice, when their attention improved, so did their cognitive performance. The same is true for humans.
A few years ago, at mile 20 of my second marathon, I promised myself I would never again run a 26.2 mile race. I had trained impeccably, ran my first […]
A capsule containing two complimentary enzymes measuring just 10 nanometers thick could be a vessel for new vaccines and a powerful cure for hangovers, say UCLA researchers.
“How to Make the Most of Your College Education” has become a popular blogging theme. Megan McArdle got things started this time, but the most sensible contribution has come from […]
Using benefit-cost analysis (or its equivalent, cost-benefit analysis) to evaluate projects not only increases the value of government spending, but increases equity as well.
Using yeast cells, biochemical engineers at MIT have found a way to boost the production of isobutanol, a chemical which has long been considered a possible alternative to gasoline fuel.
The breakthrough innovation development of the year so far is the White House’s upcoming plan to map the entire human brain. By essentially enabling us to reverse-engineer the human brain, the Brain […]
Google Glass. Life Extension. Life Extinction. These are among the brainiest memes included in the inaugural post of our new blog, Mind Memes, which offers quick reads on the Internet […]
The magic “x-factor” that people talk about when they talk about talent is not so magical: it’s simply a matter of hard work. And no other craft reminds one of […]
Perhaps if the penalties for reneging hurt the politicians themselves – not the American people – then they would comply more readily.
What secrets might one single biological pathway be harboring? The RAS family of proteins have a unique role. They act as a sort of relay, an on/off switch, if you […]
Scientists at Cornell University have used a 3-D printer to construct an artificial human ear which, when used to replace a damaged ear, looks and functions nearly identically to the original.
Researchers at Duke University have enabled rats to feel infrared light by implanting special sensors into the brain, allowing the rodents to “touch” extra-sensory information invisible to their eye.
German scientists have found that thinly sliced diamonds could store quantum bits of data at room temperature, a development that could eventually make quanutm computers widely available.
In the US, it may not be in gasoline or paint anymore, but it’s still present in the environment and is increasingly being attributed to a wide range of health issues.
U.S. presidents aren’t often asked to explain their governing visions in terms of political philosophy. References to the Founding Fathers (Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Washington et al.) are ubiquitous and safe, […]
The elite are not necessarily the wealthy but the people who run the country. And they live in almost a different world from the rest of us.
Kepler 37-B is about the size of our moon, yet is a little too close to its parent star for human comfort.
A sustained and targeted environmentalist marketing campaign is at least partly responsible for Indonesia’s Asia Pulp & Paper’s decision to reexamine its manufacturing process.