Let’s say you’re in the top fifth percentile of avid readers, tearing through a book a week on average. With such literary gusto raising your sails, you might feel like […]
Search Results
You searched for: lifetime
Some studies are finding that male circumcision decreases the odds that a heterosexual man will contract HIV by 57 percent or more. The operation is being performed more frequently.
Introduction to the ‘Killing Ethically’ series Killing can be sign of compassion or malice. This means when discussing killing, I will be using the word in a neutral way: it […]
The rare woods used to make the world’s best guitars may be running short. Companies are experimenting with innovative ways to use their ever-dwindling supplies of prized timber.
We may think we’re free to choose what to eat and how to eat it, but food companies maximize their profits by restricting our choices
Now this is what I call post-romantic. It begins with a fascinating vanguard of “neuromarketing” researchers. These scientist-marketers hook up subjects (consumers) to new biometric technologies such as EEG headsets […]
What’s the Big Idea? Does Kepler-22b really exist? Is there life on this planet? Could we inhabit it? How would we get there? These are a few of the many […]
Around the world, it’s becoming easier than ever to sell your human capital – the sum total of your knowledge, experiences and talents – to the highest bidder. Using new […]
Within any woman who has ever been pregnant, some of her baby’s cells may live for as long as she lives.
Christopher Hitchens has died. I never personally met the man, but I want to say a few words in tribute. Of all the popular figures commonly styled as the New […]
Via Dangerous Intersection, I saw this TED lecture by Daniel Kahnemann, based on his book Thinking Fast and Slow, about the conflict between the “experiencing self” and the “remembering self”. […]
Some days, I hate writing about atheism. I want to tell you why. Two weeks ago, I was watching a PBS show called Inside Nature’s Giants, about a team of […]
People with synesthesia “inhabit a strange no-man’s-land between reality and fantasy. They taste colors, see sounds, hear shapes, or touch emotions in myriad combinations.” We recognize this condition in infants, as well as artists, who seek to defamiliarize perceptions of reality.
Many thoughtful, sensitive people are mature enough to have pierced the romantic illusion and seen through its “promise of perfection” for themselves. The question is, are we spiritually mature enough yet to accept the implications of what we have already seen?
Brain-machine interfaces have already allowed primates to manipulate virtual objects with virtual arms. The technology could ultimately benefit the paralyzed, allowing them to walk.
Once they’re gone, mammalian arms and legs can’t ever be restored. But if you cut off a salamander’s leg it will reappear in just a few weeks. The enigma of amphibian organ regeneration has long puzzled scientists. Now, a new wave of scientists hopes to put it to use.
Like its own self-sustaining chain reaction, the battle over nuclear power rages on. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has for the first time since 1978 approved construction of new nuclear reactors. […]
From all of us here at Big Think, Happy 70th birthday, Stephen! If you had only been one of the smartest humans ever, it would have been enough – but you’re something much bigger than that: a model of how to live.
It’s that time again – the annual making of New Year resolutions. We all do it. A well thought out list of good intentions that we will execute faithfully on […]
I recently participated in a “relationship summit” on break ups. I don’t know how wise or helpful I was. When it comes to break-up and heartache recovery, I’m not sure […]
The human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more instances of throat cancer in men than smoking, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
News that Helen Frankenthalerdied yesterday at the age of 83 after a long illness is making a lot of people recall just how important a figure the self-described “saddle-shoed girl […]
Innovation – everyone says they want it, but when it’s time to personally embrace it and change what they do everyday there is often reluctance, if not outright resistance. In […]
A single dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms,’ brings about a measurable and lasting personality change—’openness’—lasting at least a year.
In honor of that award, we’re republishing a segment from our October interview with Abed, in which he talks about what women and girls can teach the world.
Do holiday sales make your palms sweat with anticipation? That’s because they’re designed to. “There’s a very, very deep art and science to pricing,” says Lee Eisenberg, author of Shoptimism. Watch as he explains the tricks of the trade and how you can avoid them.
Ask me to build a Mount Rushmore of Abstract Expressionism, and I’ll put the faces of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman up there. From Hollywood […]
Unemployment among those aged 16-29 is at its highest rate since WWII. “Follow your passion,” while hard to argue with, is clearly an inadequate career plan.
So a professor of philosophy—Gary Gutting—opinionating for the NYT invites us to think about the relationship between politicians and intellectuals. He says that politicians, to be credible, don’t have to […]
–Guest post by Francesca Ernst, American University graduate student. As we draw closer to November 2012, pundits, columnists, and reporters alike are all discussing the ways President Obama must transcend […]