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Let’s inject a little lifeblood into the 2012 presidential race. 

A lot has been and will be written about Salman Khan. Though he already arrived in the spotlight of mainstream media, he is clearly just at the beginning of his […]

The other day I came across this article from Bloomberg News, from which I learned something that surprised me: a large black market exists for human organs, in spite of […]

I was on train last Sunday night traveling through Brussels when my 12-year-old son looked out the window and excitedly proclaimed, “They have a red light district!” He was right; […]

There is no question that in many cases, we are cancer phobic, more afraid of the disease than the medical evidence says we need to be, and that fear alone can be bad for our health.

Two of my favorite things are corned beef and hashtags. Corned beef is obvious… it’s in my blood (seriously… my doctor calls it cholesterol). As for hashtags, anyone who has […]

As I washed the dishes and pans after our own Labor Day weekend gathering last night, I thought about some of the labor I’ve done over the years. I picked […]

Coming from an upper middle class family, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says, he could have afforded to pay some college tuition. Instead, he was the beneficiary of the tax dollars of less well-off New Yorkers. He argues that “tuition discrimination” makes private universities a fairer option. 

One virtue BIG THINK has not been big on is COURAGE.  That might be a problem.  According Aristotle, courage is not only the first of the virtues, but all the […]

I’ve spent much of today traveling, but there is still a lot going on in Yemen.  Hopefully in the next couple of days Waq al-waq will have more of a […]

An official with the arch conservative Koch Industries delivered a stinging rebuke to Sen. Patty Murray of the DSCC for attempting to solicit a contribution: For many months now, your […]

What’s the difference between a Jackson Pollock painting and a finger-painting? Why is “The Magic Flute” so enduring, while other classical compositions have been forgotten? Leon Botstein, the dean of Bard College, examines what we’re talking about when we talk about art.

A gene responsible for chronic pain has been identified, with scientists saying this could lead to drugs for treating long-lasting back pain. Deleting the gene stopped any chronic pain. 

Through the launch of his 20 Under 20 Fellowship initiative, billionaire entrepreneur and hedge funder Peter Thiel is engaging in one of the most radical experiments yet about the future […]

As I’ve mentioned in the past, my wife and I have for several years been attending a Unitarian Universalist church in the New York area. Unitarian Universalism is officially a […]

One evening last week I attended Tech Night at my daughter’s elementary school. Sponsored by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), it’s an evening designed to bring parents of the school’s […]

The GOP debate was last night was terrible. Too many participants, too much time for everyone to crank up their stump speech answers, too little heat on follow up questions, […]

As businesses grow, bureaucracy threatens to overwhelm the best efforts of the entrepreneur and his team. How can you keep success from unraveling your business? 

As you have probably noticed, BigThink.com has undergone several cosmetic changes today, all intended to enhance your reading and viewing experience. We hope you like it, but we’re not done […]

I spent today, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, at a party—my niece’s ninth birthday party. Her birthday is 9/9, but there was a chance that she would have been born […]

All fiction has, at its heart, the enigma of character. What happens if science co-opts this question?

As tuition costs continue to skyrocket, parents and students are demanding answers to this question: what am I getting as the return on my $50 thousand annual investment that is college tuition today? 

So, we’ve had a couple of days to settle in and kick the tires, and my move to Big Think is now complete. As I said I’d do earlier, www.daylightatheism.org […]

It is widely accepted that educational leadership has great influence on student outcomes, and effective leaders can bring about positive changes even to troubled schools. Leadership is second only to […]

There are a number of issues at stake in the way Americans choose to think of their heritage and celebrate their creation story on Thanksgiving. After all, creation stories serve as a guide for how we function as a society today.

Peer into any young American boy’s imagination, and you’ll likely find knights, soldiers, and pirates roaming about. That fact is a true today as it was a century ago. One […]

We won’t be able to prevent the next major Flood, Earthquake or Tsunami. Kevin Steinberg of the World Economic Forum’s Risk Response Network says we will need to be really good at coordinating the response.  

While satellites and infrastructure crumble, we are also witnessing an explosion in space tourism that is exposing the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in space.

Its been about a month since the earth-shaking news came out that perhaps Einstein was wrong, i.e., the discovery that 15,000 neutrinos seemed to outrace a light beam, contradicting Einstein’s […]

Say “Miami” and, depending on your age, certain things come to mind: Crockett and Tubbs, senior citizens in cabana wear, LeBron James. In a generation or so, another association may […]