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North Korea has a long history of making bellicose threats that defy global norms. So does that mean the country’s leaders are irrational, and will act irrationally?

Americans are, often with justification, regarded as not being versed in philosophy. This is a shame, as the United States and the colonies that proceeded it have produced many great thinkers

“At times, it seems as if we are condemned to try to understand our own time with conceptual frameworks more than half a century old.” Historian Niall Ferguson says it’s time for an update. 

Google is closing in on achieving a major quantum computing milestone.

If people figured out how to get along before religion, asks Frans de Waal, do we really need it?

Over 1,100 teens in Australia exhibited low self-esteem and aggressive behavior linked to late-night phone and social media usage. 

Unpredictable winters? Seasons that don’t line up? It’s possible with the right configuration, says physics. “Lord of Light! Come to us in our darkness. We offer you these false gods. Take […]

How likely are you to help a stranger? What if you were in a war zone? If you think that the desperation of conflict really brings out the worst in people, you might be surprised.

Anxiety can be a force for good, writes Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön.

Einstein believed his greatest blunder to have been the retraction of one of his equations but, as writer David Bodanis tells, the great scientist’s misstep actually happened immediately after.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the nature of time and the conundrums of time travel in a recent interview.

The causes of hit products are themselves uncausable. ‘Hit Makers’ by Derek Thompson explains why we know how to make songs, but not hits.  

Retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis is known as “Chaos,” “Warrior Monk,” and “Mad Dog.” The names reflect his blunt way of speaking, and his ability to get results. 

Before we had the right to vote, we had the right to protest, says journalist Wesley Lowery.

This study reminds us that we are stardust, operating under the same laws as any other form of matter.   

How an ancient text, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, may be influencing the actions of powerful Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

“If all that liberals can do in response is continue to lie about the causes of terrorism and lock arms with Islamists, we have some very rough times ahead,” writes Sam Harris. 

You know what a black hole is, and we’ve found a few so far. But oh, are there ever so many more out there! “Black holes are the seductive dragons of […]

KGB-era “active measures” are still being used by Russian intelligence agencies today, according to experts.

In 1972, eight mice were placed in a utopia. Full of food, water, bedding, and space for 3000 mice. Within three years there were no survivors.   

Spontaneous, deep talk on surprise topics. On this week’s episode of Think Again – a Big Think podcast, James Gleick, author of Time Travel – a History, talks with host Jason Gots about why we’re so obsessed with something that’s evidently impossible. 

During a time of division and fear, the Buddhist path offers insights into surviving and uniting.

As John B Judis writes in The Populist Explosion, this sort of uprising has been with us for years.

Rumors of a terrorist gunman escalated at LAX. A panicked crowd trampled an old woman, snapping her femur. In our best Dick Cheney voice: “If you allow blind fear to disrupt society, the terrorists have already won.”

What would happen if gene editing fell into the wrong hands?   

Remember that one time when a Philosopher King ruled the whole world? Well, here is how that turned out. 

Samuel Arbesman warns that we’ve entered a new “age of Entanglement” with our complex technology-based systems.

Advances in our understanding of cognitive processes are proving tremendous. When it comes to understanding consciousness, you might say the ghost in the machine is a chemical engineer.

Will we be building a better world or a more homogeneous one?  

Any forecast attempting to predict the weather beyond seven to 10 days isn’t credible, say meteorologists. This hasn’t stopped AccuWeather from rolling out a 90-day forecast feature.