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George Bernard Shaw quipped that a rich man ‘does not really care whether his money does good or not, provided he finds his conscience eased and his social status improved by giving it away’. Was he right?

In his latest book, Selfie, Will Storr explores the history of self-obsession, and wonders how we can fix it.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Author, Podcaster, and “Human Guinea Pig” Tim Ferriss on death, ignoring most of the news, and sake as a secret weapon for podcasting.

What was going on in the world of health and strange bodily functions?  

Silicon Valley needs more diversity of thought and well-rounded thinkers. An interview with Scott Hartley, author of The Fuzzy and The Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World.

To better understand our place in the world, check out these groundbreaking books. 

Aging lithium-ion batteries have Apple, and other phone makers, in a corner.

The first (double) episode has come and gone, but here’s what I hope for the series. “We are what we are, and we’re doing the best we can. It is not […]

A common belief that regulations are a burden on businesses is challenged by Maryn McKenna’s book Big Chicken. 

If you think we know it all, you’ll never be ready for the next big breakthrough. When you’re taught the scientific method, you think of a neat procedure you can […]

The ‘big discovery’ is nothing of the kind. We need a new planet-finding mission to probe the next frontier. Last week, NASA dropped a bombshell that it’s Kepler mission — the greatest […]

You don’t have to wait for 2018 to know that it likely won’t be a year with 25+ magnitude 7.0 earthquakes. A new story based on a fascinating scientific paper […]

Neuroscientists are now starting to put TMR to work.

The popular concept of introversion often differs from how psychologists define the term, but a new model seeks to clarify exactly what being an introvert means.

One of cosmic inflation’s cofounders came out against it, calling it not even science. But it is… and so much more. “There’s no obvious reason to assume that the very same […]

Spontaneous, deep talk on surprise topics. In this extra feisty episode of Think Again – A Big Think Podcast, actor and author William Shatner and host Jason Gots take sides on whether or not it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. 

Scotland and Canada also announced they’re getting off of coal completely.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Artist David Salle on how even to begin figuring out what “works” in art. 

Predatory journals are so busy scamming scholars that seven big ones appointed a dog posing as a PhD to review submissions.

What does it really mean when something is “Dickensian”? Or “Kafkaesque”? Sometimes these words are overused to the point where they lose their meaning. Here’s how these and 6 other words got their origin. 

A new game called Factitious aims to help people determine real from fake news online. Will this work? Exploring ways to be more media literate. 

You’ve heard of the big Greek philosophers. Now, read about the ones who inspired them.

The idea is just as ‘crazy’ as Einstein telling us that time slows down at high speeds, or Darwin saying that our ancestors were apes.    

Astronomers have gotten good at dating stars. But this one has them stumped.   

A machine learning algorithm has shown it can discover planets from weak signals overlooked in the Kepler spacecraft’s database.

Not long ago, most people would probably judge how trustworthy you were based entirely on your physical appearance. Today, we know that kind of thinking is a dangerous pseudoscience.

SpaceX, the private company with big dreams for manned spaceflight, has launched a partly used rocket into orbit at a lower cost than building a brand new one.

A new genetic test could improve the palm oil industry and reduce deforestation.

Scientists work out methods for finding the difference between the magnetic moments of protons and antiprotons and see that they’re the same.

Just as the collective ruckus of science deniers hits its peak, Netflix announces a date for ‘Bill Nye Saves the World’, a heroic new show that will answer the most pressing science questions of our era.