Latest Articles

Latest Articles

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

Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks the American Academy of Pediatrics' proposal to aid in female genital mutilation gives tacit support to a practice which should be condemned outright.
While Facebook and Google have come under recent attack for alleged violations of privacy, enforcement of existing laws should be prioritized over new regulation, writes the Economist.
Husna Haq at The CSM explains why she is and other Muslims are so offended by depictions of Mohammad and why it's no surprise Pakistan has banned Facebook for the rest of May.
An American biologist, Craig Venter, is making waves after creating the first self-replicating cell whose DNA is synthetic; immediate uses could include synthetic vaccines and biofuels.
The Impressionists now stand as the ultimate in artistic comfort food for the mainstream public. The billowy softness of their images graces office walls in framed reproductions and countless calendars. […]
In light of the French Council of Ministers recent approval of a measure to ban the wearing of full-face veils, Joan Wallach Scott's discussion of France's battle against the burqa […]
Caitlin Flanagan’s essay, Love Actually, in the new Atlantic, reminds us why mothers and daughters find adolescence uniquely challenging. A girl becomes a woman, and yet her relationship to that […]
Don't look now, but John McCain is in trouble. The latest Rasmussen poll finds that 52% of Arizona Republicans support Sen. McCain (R-AZ), while 40% prefer former Republican Congressman J.D. […]
The University of Alabama in Huntsville – in partnership with NASA and NOAA – has taken Earth’s temperature, and determined that (based on satellite data collected over the past 32 […]
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While the system continues to revolutionize and evolve, its unchanging failure is its inability to monetize.
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The centerfold of a Superman comic book inspired the inventor who sent the first-ever Internet message.
He is serving a life sentence in a Parisian prison and considered an icon of a bygone Cold War-era type of terrorism. So you wouldn’t expect to hear much from Ilich […]
"Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box," says a researcher who sees similarities in the brains of creative people and schizophrenics.
The New Yorker asks what disagreement between the Gospels means for Christian faith and why the public is still intensely interested in the topic given our secular times?
Cheese, among other organic material, may power the future since sugars like lactose can be fed to bacteria cultures inside of full cells to generate electricity; the Economist wheys in.
Steve Chapman sees the Supreme Court's recent decision to ban life sentences for minors as a much needed compromise between conservative and liberal views of the Constitution.
"Researchers at UC Berkeley are perfecting microscopic fibers that can produce electricity from simple body motions such as bending, stretching and twisting," reports the L.A. Times.
People who deny generally accepted scientific truths use fragile reasoning to regain control over their lives from an indifferent Nature, such as claiming that business created swine flu.
Mark Levine of UC Irvine laments Obama's pragmatic path where his empty promises to change America's foreign and energy policies mark the way.