bigthinkeditor
“The ‘laws of war’ may sound like an antiquated concept in this age of robo-weapons. But, in truth, a clear international legal regime has never been more needed.”
It’s that other material — the truly vile and illegal stuff, hidden from public view — that represents the true threat to the fabric of decent society.
I secretly wish Obama was only human. As much as I admire his adult behavior, it would be understandable if he stood up to the bullies on the right.
Conceptions of even such fundamental domains as time can differ dramatically across cultures. In a remote Australian Aboriginal community, time is arranged in terms of east to west.
How have advertising’s highly-paid creatives and suits reacted to a highly-successful coffee ad featuring Al Pacino that left them completely out of the loop? Read for yourself here.
Does your sperm have oddly shaped or multiple heads? A breakthrough in fertility treatment magnifies sperm 18 times larger than seen before and eliminates DNA-damaged sperm.
A new bioplastic made from switchgrass is durable, capable of withstanding high temperatures, and, most importantly, biodegradable. Could this technology placate critics of corn-based alternatives?
While much remains unknown about the deadly disease, advances in research have shed new light on its mechanisms, and on how dementia affects the aging brain.
“The Abu Dhabi art fair offers a glimpse of the emirate’s impressive cultural ambitions.” The city will soon host branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.
As companies look for scalable ways to store their data, cloud computing appears more attractive than ever. The industry is receiving a good amount of venture capital.
The Federal Reserve’s planned injection of $650 billion into the Treasury is creating investment where there otherwise wouldn’t be. In other words, a bubble, says Jesse Eisinger.
“Pornography is dangerous to children because it creates an artificially sexualised atmosphere for adults.” This blurs the boundaries of acceptable sexual conduct, says Sigrid Rausing.
Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman says American labor laws are hopelessly behind the times and that New Deal gains no longer fit the economy of 2010.
Mahatma Gandhi was not the solitary hero of popular myth. He was an entrepreneur who relied on a tight-knit community of co-workers, says Yale historian Ian Desai.
Experiments suggest that people are covetous of the things possessed by angry people. The attraction could be evolutionary: more aggressive hunters capture more food.
Each device that connects to the Internet is assigned an I.P. address, but we are quickly approaching the numerical 4.3 billion limit. The Daily Beast on possible solutions.
The bipartisan deficit commission has recommended cutting Medicare, Social Security and defense spending. It reads like a report from Mars, says economist Dean Baker.
Forbes’ Katie Phillips sets some limits on political correctness and politeness even though obeying her conscience could cost her some Facebook friends.
Big Think interviewed an array of luminaries in a variety of fields this week, including “The Office” star Rainn Wilson, famed novelist Salman Rushdie, and writer Walter Mosley. Rushdie came […]
“What are the fundamental roots of our behavior as human beings,” asks Harvard Business School professor Paul Lawrence. This is a huge question to be sure, but Lawrence has a […]
The gap between rich and poor in the U.S. is bigger than at any time since the 1920s. The L.A. Times asks: Is that really what most Americans want?
Behind the fiercely ambitious texts of the iconoclastic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was a kind man who was nice to children and terribly polite, writes Jonathan Rée.
Humanities professor Stanley Fish reviews a plethora of books recently written about the crisis in liberal arts education and finds hope in one innovative college.
Notions of time bound up with Christian conceptions of God changed with Einstein. Yet a consensus on the nature of time still seems out of reach.
The domestic technologies that have increased leisure hours in the West were virtually non-existent in the Soviet-planned economy, just ask its housewives.
Tens of millions of people live, work and play in virtual worlds where anything goes. Greg Lastowka thinks we need to police these lawless frontiers.
Airbus engineer Yelken Octuri has designed a spaceship especially for honeymooners. Once in orbit, the craft releases honeymoon pods with a view of space and big, round bed.
International institutions have been weakened by the economic crisis. Harvard’s Dani Rodik says individuals countries are once again competing economically.
What causes war? The cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said it was merely the idea of war. Scientific American examines the evidence she offered.
The U.S. should work with China to develop a more sustainable method for burning coal because it is an inescapable energy source in the short term, says James Fallows.