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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
Forty percent of the world doesn't use toilets, says UNICEF, resulting in disease carried by dust and flies and contaminated food and water supplies — the toll is 2 million dead annually.
NASA says our sun is preparing for a stormy period and, according to the National Academy of Sciences, "A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina."
Ideological debates that lack context during a financial crisis are like a bikini, says Marc Lackritz of the Financial Times: "What they reveal is suggestive; but what they conceal is vital."
Stanford Economist Paul Romer wants "dysfunctional nations to kick-start their own development" by leasing territory to foreign governments, an idea criticized as "neo-colonial".
Garrison Keillor eavesdrops on some twenty-somethings at a local cafe and reasons that instant communication would have sapped modern literature of its best tropes, e.g. longing and reflection.
Among children whose parents consistently use mobile devices, "feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition are widespread," says Sherry Turkle, director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self.
NYU professor Tunku Varadarajan asks: How can we account for the success of Indian American political candidates in the South given the region's history of institutionalized racism?
Incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) narrowly managed to hold off a labor-backed challenge in the Democratic primaries from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Ben Smith reports that after the election a […]
The established poet William Carlos Williams wrote in 1956 of newcomer poet (and friend) Allen Ginsberg that he "sees with the eyes of the angels." Williams most likely referred to […]
UCB Comedy shows what happens when someone upends a cup of joe at BP HQ. Photo credit: Flickr user TN Something Special Cakes, licensed under Creative Commons.
Speaking of green prefab houses, how many square feet, exactly, do you require before you’ll call it home? What about 220? I realize that, as a recently apartment-searching New Yorker […]
In just under a month’s time – July 7th to be precise – many Londoners will have cause to stop, think and remember that terrible summers day five years ago […]
Penn Jillette visited Big Think and talked about his early conversion to atheism, his libertarian views, the unique chemistry between him and Teller, the history (and the future) of magic, […]
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The Amygdaloids' "Mind over Matter" appears on the band’s newest album, "Theory of my Mind."
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Joseph LeDoux talks about his band, the Amygdaloids, whose songs are about the mind and brain.
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When you have a phobia about something you don’t understand, it could be from an experience you’ve had in the past.
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The neuroscientist researches how memories of fearful situations are often altered at the point of retrieval.
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A conversation with the NYU neuroscience professor.
The Middle East isn’t just the geographic center of the planet. With so much activism on different sides regarding the region, particularly with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict recently stoked […]
Bottled water is one of the environmental movement's biggest scapegoats – and for a reason: Only about 10% of plastic bottles are recycled; the rest end up in landfills, or […]