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Why does Jim Gaffigan tell clean jokes? Jesus Christ told him to, obviously. The real reason, which Gaffigan explains here, takes him through the history of comedy and satire in American.

Cheetahs and giraffes have been placed on the conservation “red list” due to collapsing populations.

In a time when many agencies and researchers are threatened, let’s remember how the scientific method originated. 

When you see a stranger in some kind of hardship, how do you react? Researchers carried out a rare study in a real-life setting to assess the relationship between empathy and altruism. 

100 million American suffer from chronic pain. Many need to look beyond opioids to manage it.

Geneticists make a surprising find in the DNA of Melanesians.

America’s most popular conspiracy theories and the science behind them.

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. 

Our special place on the planet becomes harder to stomach the more we destroy it. 

As the US prepares for a change in power, Professor Sanford Levinson says dialogue that was formerly bound to people’s inner monologue has been “liberated” into the public space.

Are you a maverick or are you a mouse? Author Julian Guthrie brings us one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time in ‘How to Make a Spaceship’.

PTSD develops after a person experiences, or is a witness to, a life-threatening or traumatic event — a natural disaster, for example — or is exposed to combat, or sexual […]

Time travel has titillated scientists and science-fiction fans alike ever since HG Wells first conceived of it in the 19th century. But it plausible? Princeton astrophysicist John Richard Gott III discusses the two ways that it might be.

One radical notion is that the story of Jesus was a type of psychological warfare to pacify the Jews.   

A baby is born from a controversial procedure that combines DNA from 3 people.

One of the lesser-discussed but potentially most disastrous appointments is in education: Betsy DeVos. Her anti-intellectual agenda would take root in the nation’s youngest minds, filtering down through descendant generations. 

Safeguards must be put into place before a Minority Report scenario crops up.  

It seems inevitable that there will be a Mars colony, but the path there won’t be easy. There are two key challenges ahead that will push innovation. 

Will we ever have a Theory of Everything? Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss isn’t sure that’s the right question to be asking.

The IQ test is the most widely known measure of intelligence, but are the ‘twice exceptional’ and other gifted members of society slipping between the cracks?

Richard Gleick talks about one vital trait geniuses all seem to share.

The longer you roll that dice, the higher the chance that a DNA mutation spawns a cancerous cell. The researchers on this study likened it to playing Russian roulette; sooner or later, there’s one in the chamber. 

The secret Red Line Map that could have given Lower Canada to the U.S.

In response to the president elect, NASA’s leadership is developing strategies for continuing deep space exploration in the event of budget change or stagnation. 

These clinics offer shining testimonials. Yet, the technique has not been proven safe and effective.   

As a number of states decide the fate of legalized and medical marijuana next week, John Hudak looks back at the history of public policy. 

These are some of the strangest human inventions.

In 2017, Moon Express will be the first private company to land on the moon. Its goal is to mine the moon’s resources and use the lunar surface as a stepping stone for exploring the rest of the universe.

Christopher Hitchens argued that religion makes humans “extremely self-centered.”

Media strategist, writer, and college drop-out Ryan Holiday questions whether college is just an expensive way to go through the motions.