Latest Articles

Latest Articles

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

A spoonful of sugar has always made the medicine go down – but shouldn't we be asking whether we need this type of medication in the first place?
Researchers used a technique from biology to illustrate how Pacific Asian cultures developed.   
Disney does more than make cute movies. Researchers from its innovation branch want to turn your living room into a magnetic field. 
Libertarian transhumanist Zoltan Istvan is running for Governor of California in 2018 and, among other things, he wants to conquer aging and death for all!
The Middle Ages see a resurgence of interest among the alt-right and some conservative thinkers.
Amoebas one-tenth the width of a human hair may someday help diffuse a bioterror attack.   
Irish Travellers, a group facing much discrimination and inequality, is given formal ethnic status in Ireland.
If black holes lose information in an event horizon, then do we have a paradox with our cosmic horizon? “The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” -Edwin Hubble […]
"My theory is true, if I do say so myself." SPOT stands for “Spontaneous Preference For Own Theories,” and it’s a newly identified cognitive bias.
5mins
Altered states of consciousness are documented across cultures, from shamans to Silicon Valley coders. As different as these experiences seem, there are four neurological features they all have in common.
7mins
Americans understands very well what feels wrong – and there's a piece of U.S. economic policy that the establishment and educated elites haven’t been fully honest about, says Pia Malaney.rn
Only 15% of Wall Street's capital actually flows into the "real" economy, while much of the rest slushes around within Wall Street itself. As a result, the financial sector does not create the same opportunities for the real economy as it once did.
5mins
Where is your mind? Professor Daniel Siegel answers this question with a more revolutionary one: Where isn't your mind?
Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Novelist and essayist Gish Jen on how fundamental East-West differences in the sense of self play out in art, culture, business, education, and more. 
You may have heard of Laniakea, but don’t count on it being real. “It’s the gravity that shapes the large scale structure of the universe, even though it is the weakest […]
Apparently, Einstein shared a similar outlook on time as what’s proposed here.  
Cognitive scientist Guy Claxton believes we should think of our entire body as our brain. 
It may be possible to treat eczema with a super-effective ointment made from your own microbes.
How likely are you to help a stranger? What if you were in a war zone? If you think that the desperation of conflict really brings out the worst in people, you might be surprised.
Neuroengineering, defined as the application of engineering principles to neurological problems, then becomes how we engineer our relationship with existence itself.