December 10, 2012

Big Ideas for December 10th

bigthinkeditor

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Quote of the day:

“We have art in order not to die of the truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Today’s Big Ideas:

The National Intelligence Council’s New Report, by Ali Wyne

The World WON’T End. And Neither Will Superstitions, by David Ropeik

Lessons from TED on the dangers of pseudoscience, by Neurobonkers

Would You Save This Man’s Life? The Bystander Effect Revisited, by Daniel Honan

The Moral Importance of Fiction and Literature, by Tauriq Moosa

What not to read today:

Kim Kardashian’s Cat Dies

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Scatter plot with dark blue data points and black dashed elliptical contours centered on the origin, with axes labeled ξ (') horizontally and vertically—similar to plots used by astronomers in studies of the smallest galaxy ever discovered.

Starts With A Bang

Astronomers just found the smallest galaxy ever

With stars, gas, and dark matter, galaxies come in a great array of sizes. This new one, Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, is the smallest by far.

A white brain model is wrapped in colorful electrical cables, set against a plain blue background.

Smart Skills

How curiosity rewires your brain for change

Curiosity is often considered a personality quirk. Neuroscience paints a different picture.

A man with a beard and short hair smiles at the camera; the background features abstract green, purple, and black-and-white graphic patterns—capturing a confident presence that suggests he may share valuable leadership advice.

Business

The Scott Woody Interview: The pros and cons of being “memoryless”

The cofounder and CEO of red-hot billing platform Metronome unpacks his leadership journey.

A human hand appears to hold a glowing celestial object surrounded by small planets and stars, creating the illusion of a miniature universe in the palm.

Brian Cox: The incomprehensible scales that rule the Universe

“We are all in orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. How big is this collection of stars? Somewhere between 200 and 400 billion suns in the Milky Way galaxy, about 100,000 light years across.”

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12 min

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with

Brian Cox

Starts With A Bang

11 NASA astrophysics missions face risk of cancellation

NASA astrophysics, which gave us Hubble, JWST, and so much more, faces its greatest budget cut in history. All future missions are at risk.

Up Next

Politics & Current Affairs

Massive French Open-Air Protest Site Holds Fast

On Tuesday a judge will decide whether to authorize yet another round of evictions from a forest north of Nantes that is home to a growing number of international squatters protesting plans for a proposed airport.