Search
Latest Articles
The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
3mins
Author James Lawrence Powell explains the case of the physicist Richard Muller, who used to be critical about the science behind global warming.
Many signs of Chinese unrest, targeted mostly at local officials, go unreported by state media. An estimated 90,000 riots, protests and mass petitions occur each year, mainly in rural areas.
In addition to recent military posturing, Iran is looking to extend a softer version of its influence to South America by signing trade contracts, opening embassies and financing development projects.
I had a drink with a friend a few weeks ago who informed me that the only men looking for a woman my age (mid-forties) are men in their early […]
My last post, following the lead of David Brooks and Rod Dreher, was about giving the argument for "communitarian conservatism" in the context of Dreher's decision to move back to […]
After the drink company left South Africa during apartheid, it set up shop in neighboring Swaziland. But now its tax payments support the country's notorious dictator, Mswati III.
Happy New Year, everyone! As I may have mentioned in the past, I like the tradition of making New Year's resolutions: it's an entirely secular holiday whose point is self-improvement, […]
June 23, 2012 will be the hundredth anniversary of Alan Turing's birth. The so-called Year of Turing also presents an interesting framework for us to gauge the progress of computing.
In the busy world of the 21st century shouldn't we be making it easier, not harder, to vote?
Labeling coffee as "fair trade" can boost sales by 10%, finds a recent study. The findings shed light on the rapid growth of the fair trade and organic markets. But […]
Over the Holiday break, I read Walter Isaacson's masterful and absorbing biography of Steve Jobs. As his biography reveals, Jobs was a dark, complex and often deeply contradictory figure. "There […]
I like the idea of "literary New Year's resolutions" suggested by Ruth Franklin in The New Republic, and I've decided to hop on the bandwagon. But while Franklin's resolutions primarily concern […]
In the video below, author Gretchen Rubin describes two frequent mistakes people make in setting goals for themselves. Watch the video here:
Scientific research increasingly throws doubt on the question of free will. If it doesn't exist, or if it is extremely limited, what would it mean for the New Year's resolutions you may be making?
A new model of how the brain works, using special glia cells to regulate the synapses, sorting information for learning purposes, could give rise to better computer algorithms.
The fundamental source of prejudice is not ideology, but rather a basic human need and way of thinking, says a new study. To reduce prejudice we must first recognize the role it plays in our daily lives.
In a study, individuals whose diets were rich in essential vitamins performed better on cognitive tests and showed less brain shrinkage, a symptom of Alzheimer's, as they aged.
When children assign labels to objects, they depend less on language than adults do. The finding could help guide parents in communicating with and teaching their children more effectively.
Ah, New Year's Eve: It feels so important to find something significant, meaningful, memorable to do. And then two weeks later you can't recall what it was, because it was […]