Stephen Johnson
Associate Editor, Big Think
Stephen Johnson is the Associate Editor of Big Think. A long-time contributor to Big Think, he is a St. Louis-based writer and editor whose work has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, PBS Digital Studios, MSN, Eleven Magazine, and The Missourian.
The cost of seeing yourself as a thief is pretty steep, the results of a 2019 study suggest.
Of the world's 300 honey varieties, none is stranger and more dangerous than mad honey.
He couldn't identify the numbers 2 through 9. But strangely, he could still see ones and zeros.
Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
Flies are in no way smart, but they experience time in an almost Matrix-like fashion.
Pain makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. What's puzzling is why so many of us choose to seek out painful experiences.
The American author said he attempted to bring scientific thinking to literary criticism, but received "very little gratitude for this."
Technologically, the answer is definitely no. But that doesn't mean CGI is always used to good effect.
"A cheap loan is beyond all new destiny." Does that mean anything to you?
A small percentage of people who consume psychedelics experience strange lingering effects, sometimes years after they took the drug.
A computer that could decidedly pass Alan Turing's test would represent a major step toward artificial general intelligence.
Choking under pressure seems to have deep evolutionary roots.
Ingesting tiny doses of hallucinogens might not have the outsized benefits that some people claim it does.
A new analysis of an ancient hominin fossil sheds light on the "Out of Africa" dispersal events that occurred more than one million years ago.
Iceland consistently ranks as the most gender-equal nation. It is also the nation where men and women are most likely to pursue sex-typical jobs.
Neuroscience research suggests it might be time to rethink our ideas about when exactly a child becomes an adult.
Some U.S. intelligence operatives have suggested foreign adversaries may be using "directed-energy" weapons against Americans.
Certain types of dogs seem to be more discerning than others, however.
We seem to have a "progression bias" that nudges us toward pro-relationship decisions and away from breaking up.
Humans seemingly have opposing desires to fit in and to be unique. The interplay between these might drive the evolution of fads.
Treatments for depression have significantly improved since the 1980s. So why isn't the rate of depression decreasing?
A placebo-controlled study found that oxytocin seems to significantly reduce romantic jealousy among people in intimate relationships.
GPT-3, which features 175 billion parameters, just might fool you in a conversation.
Drones have a lot to learn from the landing abilities of birds.
In tough competitions, men tend to give up early when they feel a low sense of control. Testosterone eradicates that effect.
The results of a recent study suggest that some clinicians might be failing to explore other causes when treating gender dysphoria.
The internet has made it easier than ever to keep in touch with our exes. For people in relationships, that can cause problems.
Despite the wide diversity of spider species, most orb-weavers seem to follow the same playbook when building their webs.
The creator of the index called it a public utility for accessing the “vast ocean” of human knowledge.
Our moral attitudes about sex and drugs share a genetic basis, suggests a recent study that examined the attitudes of more than 5,000 twins.