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Within one to two hours after consuming a Red Bull, or other energy drinks like it, that statement certainly seems to ring true. Studies have shown that alertness and cognitive functioning receive a temporary jolt. But what about habitual use of energy drinks? Well, that’s less studied, especially among adolescents.

Piss off George Lucas and shoot your eye out with a real-life light saber! “General Kenobi. Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you […]

Ambition can work against you by leading you to set unrealistic and overwhelming goals. Want to make a difference in the world? Think small. It’s much less complicated.

We know several key things lie ahead for our planet: an aging population, climate change, a changing energy economy, immigration, and new personal technologies.

LAGUNA BEACH – During a recent trip to the Middle East, I was struck by the growing gap between countries – so much so that, more than ever, I came […]

In what represents a shift in front office philosophy, the storied Maple Leafs franchise has hired 28-year-old Kyle Dubas wunderkind as assistant general manager. The move is seen as a victory for stats community and a blow to hockey’s “old boy’s club.” Is it the NHL’s answer to Moneyball?

Experts say El Hierro is expected to become the first island in the world to get all its electricity from wind and water power without assistance from any outside power grid.

At a time when we threaten to tip the Earth’s scales, possibly causing irreversible damage to its ecosystem, the actions of a single individual seem more ineffectual than ever.

TIRANA – Poor countries export raw materials such as cocoa, iron ore, and raw diamonds. Rich countries export – often to those same poor countries – more complex products such […]

Or, in theory, can they produce an infinite amount of energy? “The atoms become like a moth, seeking out the region of higher laser intensity.” –Steven Chu Each week on our […]

Roads, pavements, and other impervious surfaces, cover 112,610 square kilometers in the US alone, which is almost exactly the size of my home country – Bulgaria. According to these calculations […]

MEXICO CITY – Less than two years into Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency, Mexico is implementing an ambitious structural-reform package designed to lift its economy out of a multi-decade low-growth trap […]

Students, faculty, staff and alumni helped convince the university’s board that it would be better to divert those funds to companies offering environmentally friendly energy alternatives.

Kepler took a look at 150,000 stars, searching for habitable worlds. Based on what it found, how many should be in our galaxy? “I’m sure the universe is full of […]

Mars One, the Dutch non-profit that last year sent out a call for volunteers for a one-way mission to Mars, is now accepting proposals for science experiments to be sent in payloads to the red planet by 2018.

There’s a supermassive black hole at the center of almost all of them, but who came first? “One has to be an optimist; one has to hope that somewhere there’ll be […]

Gliese 832c, discovered by a team of Australian scientists, is among the top three most similar known planets to Earth.

If spinning-and-moving charges make magnetic fields, why does a giant neutral thing have one? Image credit: NASA, Chandra X-ray Observatory, SAO, DSS, via http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140725.html. “By allowing the positive ions to […]

What does the x-ray of an entire spiral galaxy look like? NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory took an x-ray of interacting galaxies known as M51, or the Whirlpool.  NASA explains: The […]

The bulky pacemakers of the present could be replaced by tiny mechanisms as small as a grain of rice. The secret to shrinking the devices is in how to power them wirelessly.

Did you hear about the EmDrive, the “impossible space engine?” Here are the red flags you should have looked for! Image credit: © 2012 — Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. “You can’t […]

There are monster galaxies in the Universe thousands of times the size of ours. But none of them are spirals like us! “Sometimes, I sit alone under the starsand think […]

The observer changes everything, but what does that mean? “You can observe a lot by just watching.” –Yogi Berra In our everyday lives, things happen the way they happen, and whether […]

Big Think is a knowledge forum that features insights from the world’s leading thinkers. Whether it’s Michio Kaku discussing energy sources of the future or Stephen Dubner, the co-author of […]

The Nantucket Project sees art + commerce as “the new convergence” that defines our world today.

If we wanted to know how cold it is now and was in the distant past, how would we figure it out? “Science casts a long black shadow back over who […]

You never would’ve guessed that nuclear physics could be this easy. “Mr. Burns: Smithers, hand me that ice-cream scoop.Smithers: Ice-cream scoop?Mr. Burns: Damn it, Smithers! This isn’t rocket science, it’s brain […]

Make the world a better place — fighting disease and poverty while helping move science forward — with your computer’s spare time! Image credit: The Charity Engine, via slideshare.net. “While we do our good […]

A new partnership between Twitter and the Weather Channel will customize target ads based on users’ locations and the current weather.

I knew things weren’t going well when I rounded a bend on Ocean Parkway, a highway that slices through the eastern neighborhoods of Brooklyn on its way to Coney Island. […]