Latest Articles

Latest Articles

The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.

Singer and social activist Annie Lennox gathered five "high-flying" women to discuss what feminism means to them and how the movement might inspire the next generation.
Animal smuggling has grown to a $9.8 billion-a-year criminal industry, and is exceeded only by the drugs and arms trades. Profits help to fund terrorism and civil wars, says The Independent.
In the brains of people blind from birth, structures used in sight are still put to work—but for a different purpose. Rather than processing visual information, they appear to handle language.
Though the revolution against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has no set leader, rebels in Benghazi have set up a provisional government in a courthouse which is now the center of the revolution.
Why do the simplest consumer choices, such as choosing a variety of toothpaste, cause us such a dilemma? A cluttered store shelf tricks us into thinking we are making an important decision.
While humans are social animals, does it follow that being alone is bad for us? An emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good for us.
Current laws do not require the systematic screening of chemicals for their ability to cause brain damage, says a concerned mother who finds her child awash in a chemical world.
A happy adolescence increases the odds of a happy adulthood, says new research. There's a catch, of course: those who have enjoyable teenage years are more likely to get divorced as adults.
A new study published in Psychological Science suggests that parents create rosy pictures of parental joy as a way to justify the huge emotional and financial investment that kids require.
Neuroengineer and speaker at the TED2011 conference, Ed Boyden wants to use modern technology to understand the brain, treat neural conditions and uncover the basis of human existence.
The mainstream is beginning to accept the "post-rational view of the mind, but what next? How do we rethink our societal assumptions and institutions? Join the conversation here with the After Thought Project.
After months of delays and preparation, the oldest remaining shuttlein the fleet--Discovery, finally made its way from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the KSC to the launch pad. At 4:53 […]
Things have been exciting in Hawai`i lately - and today is no exception. The crater vent inside at Pu`u O`o collapsed in spectacular fashion this evening, with the whole crust […]
Anyone who drives a car knows that gas prices are going up. The average price of gas in the U.S. hit a seasonal record high in February. Crude oil prices […]
If you remember, I've decided to "celebrate" the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War by remembering failures of Southern and Confederate statesmanship.  My first post affirmed the […]
By all accounts, Nick Clegg is not a happy man. This week his candidate trailed into a truly humiliating sixth place in the Barnsley Central by-election, losing his deposit and […]
Between the WikiLeaks scandal and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, Frederick Siedel's "Our Gods" is the perfect poem for our times.
"Secession wasn’t evidence that the South didn’t have a reasoned intellectual life. In fact, it was the strongest evidence that it did," according to the teaser on a blog post […]
In Yemen, Hillary Clinton's recent remarks about Iran's influence in Yemen sound as crazy as President Salih's remarks about a secret room in Tel Aviv controlled by the US sounded to Americans.
Lonely people, it seems, are at greater risk than the gregarious of developing illnesses associated with chronic inflammation, such as heart disease and certain cancers.