bigthinkeditor
New research shows that children who are spanked are more likely to become aggressive, building on a previous study showing that spanked children scored lower on cognitive tests.
The practice of treating the Catholic Church as a sovereign nation gives it outsize political influence and is damaging to women’s equality, gay rights and reproductive freedom, write Kal Raustiala and Lara Stemple.
The infamous English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge “was also a metacognitive theorist far ahead of his time,” writes David Schneider.
Samuel Culbert writes that companies should do away with regularly scheduled performance reviews because they are “fraudulent” and reinforce an employee’s feelings of being dominated.
Republicans have been giddy about their prospects in the midterm elections, but Democrats could be saved if the economy recovers over the summer, writes James Surowiecki.
Over time, stress can be very harmful to the brain, draining it of a certain protein involved with helping neurons in the hippocampus — affecting memory, mood, and cognition.
After 50 years of searching for intelligent life in outer space, astronomers still haven’t made contact with extraterrestrials. “Does that mean we are alone in the universe after all?”
Having analyzed the economics of fighting climate change, Paul Krugman concludes that the costs are manageable. “All we need now is the political will.”
A beckoning light; a feeling of transcendence: these are two characteristics of a near-death experience that new research suggests may relate to amounts of certain chemicals in the blood.
Atheist social groups are sprouting up more than ever across college campuses emphasizing tolerance and proselytizing like their religious brethren.
In the absence of a strong federal response to record unemployment rates, local communities and cities like Cleveland, OH are the ones innovating to create jobs for their citizens.
Though many heads of state were on the plane crash that killed the President of Poland, the political machinery necessary to govern remains in place; an election must be held in 60 days.
Following some high-level diplomacy, Secretary of State Clinton says Cuba refuses to cooperate with the U.S. to preserve it as a scapegoat for Cuba’s failures.
Russia is threatening stop American families from adopting Russian orphans after a Tennessee family sent its adopted Russian son back to Moscow unaccompanied, save for a written letter.
As a result of burgeoning domestic consumer demand, China posted a rare trade deficit in March but any significant effects are likely to be temporary.
A decade’s old computing error has resulted in 800,000 U.K. organ donor files being mistakenly recorded; organs have been harvested without permission or the wrong ones taken.
Less labor intensive and more profitable per acre, more marijuana is being grown in Afghanistan increasing the Taliban’s profit from the drug trade.
Biologists want $60 million to map the effects of agriculture, development and global warming on earth’s biodiversity; currently 140,000 species die out annually.
Gail Collins of the New York Times will support boring politicians now that those leading the national conversation are “all wow and no substance”.
An auction house in New York City will soon be auctioning off old space equipment used to help NASA land on the moon during its famous Apollo missions.
Despite popular outrage over the accessibility of porn on the Net, psychologist Dr. Terri Apter says it does not demonstrably affect the behavior of those who view it.
Justice Stevens, who will retire at the end of the Supreme Court’s current term, is a Chicago native where the political culture taught him to hold politicians accountable.
CNN looks at a list of potential nominees to fill Justice Steven’s seat on the Supreme Court including current Attorney General Eric Holder and Diane Wood.
China may rely too heavily on property development to keep its domestic economy running foreshadowing a real estate bubble burst similar to the one in the U.S.
In the first UN climate talks since Copenhagen, poor countries who will be most affected by climate change demanded a legally binding treaty.
WikiLeaks claims to be working to keep governments and secret organizations in check by publishing classified information, but who is checking up on WikiLeaks?
The Congressional panel investigating the financial crisis wants to know if Freddie Mac and Fannie May were well intentioned or ridden with greed.
Iran has announced its development of faster centrifuges for enriching uranium but the advance, while scientifically significant, may not alter the political landscape.
Smart people have long had a history of quirky and inexplicable habits: Nietzsche wound up hugging horses, Freud couldn’t kick a drug addiction, Nikola Tesla adored white pigeons and loathed […]
Imagine no waiting room at the doctor’s office. Scratch that. Now picture no doctor’s office at all. In this practice, you make appointments via text, video chat or email, and […]