bigthinkeditor
A letter written by former US president Abraham Lincoln to a schoolboy around 150 years ago is to go on sale.
A businessman has pleaded guilty to setting fire to $200m worth of vintage wines in what is believed to be an attempt to cover up a pyramid scheme.
Privacy concerns have been raised after a leading genetics company pioneering personal DNA testing went bankrupt yesterday.
Senate leader Harry Reid is planning to include a public option so that states can opt out of his version of the healthcare reform bill. But what else could this volatile debate trigger?
Young children who are insensitive to fear are more likely to go on to commit crimes, according to psychologists.
Conjoined twin girls joined at the head have been successfully separated after 29 hours of surgery.
Something big lies beyond the visible edge of our universe, according to the largest analysis to date of galaxy clusters.
According to a new study, a now-extinct breed of miniature goats had bones that resemble a crocodile’s.
An Australian senator has accused the Church of Scientology of being a criminal organization and has called for its investigation by the police.
For all of us, coping with the death of a loved one is intensely traumatic. For sufferers of “complicated” grief, however, the trauma itself never seems to die; rather than dissipating over time, it becomes a […]
Stewart Brand’s latest book, “Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto,” contains a dagger in its subtitle. To write a manifesto on behalf of “ecopragmatism” is to imply that the current […]
“You Better Not Cry” author Augusten Burroughs treats fans to a second Big Think interview this week, just in time for the holiday season. Famous since his 2001 bestseller “Running […]
An underwater photographer was shocked when a leopard seal tried to feed him a live penguin.
An anti-depressant pill is being hailed as the “female Viagra” after the drug was proven to boost women’s flagging sexual drives.
Research on chimpanzees suggests that human language has its roots in the gestural hand communications of our primate ancestors.
Social-networking site Facebook is increasingly being used as a tool for thieves to target people – but also for cops to catch them red handed.
After Israel released photographs claiming to prove Iran was importing weapons to Hezbollah militia, Iranian news agencies have retorted claiming the images were forged.
Should archaeological artifacts remain in the country in which they were found – or does the law of “finder’s keepers” prevail?
The authorities in India’s Andrah Pradesh have launched an investigation after six new-born babies died in a hospital over the weekend.
Is Lang Lang the most popular pianist on the planet? CNN talks to China’s biggest prodigy a year after he took to the world’s stage.
The police reportedly suggested that gay a gay teenager brutally murdered in Puerto Rico deserved what he got due to his “type of lifestyle”.
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi tried to convert 500 “attractive girls” to Islam in Rome yesterday.
Tough guys don’t cry. But during what’s been called the “he-cession,” they have plenty of reason to. As writer/journalist Reihan Salam explained to Big Think in an interview today, not only […]
A tiny pellet the size of a multi-vitamin could provide an endless supply of safe, clean energy – But is this unrealistic optimism?
Former governor Sarah Palin has gone after the Associated Press accusing them of “opposition research” for fact checking her forthcoming book.
The BBC talks to a man who spent 14-years on death row before new evidence led to his release from jail.
Doctors in Iraq are treating 15 times more chronic deformities in infants since the war – due possibly to toxic materials leftover from the fighting.
Building on the studies of Joseph-Louis Lagrange, a picture of coherent structures in fluids is emerging using advanced technologies.
Residents in Auckland, New Zealand are up in arms about a “creepy” giant statue of Santa Claus sporting plastic surgery installed in the city centre.
Exam-marking by computers shows that the rules of grammar can hamper good writing – but are machines qualified to make literary assessment?