The Latest from Big Think

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Dance classes are low in physical activity, study says, but there's more to the story.
Ian Mitchell argues that alcohol may make you friendlier, but only to certain people.
What happened when researchers strapped fake WiFi routers to people's heads to test if electromagnetic sensitivity is real or imagined?
Should ABC hold George Stephanopoulos accountable for undisclosed contributions to Clinton organizations? If he's a journalist, yes. But is he? The Good Morning America host represents an ill trend in mainstream journalism.
Developers out of New Zealand are working on a system that will mimic angry customers in order to train telemarketers in real conflict management.
How do people living in non-democratic states see their government and enact change? Lily Tsai takes us into how Chinese citizens see their government and give themselves a voice.
Unsurprisingly, researchers have found sadness stays with us the longest, or at least that's how people tend to remember it.
Worldwide, there is an annual net loss of 11 billion trees. Despite all reforestation efforts, this loss reflects the fact that while deforestation is a mechanized, rapid, and highly efficient process, reforestation, mostly done by hand, is a tiresome, laborious, and highly inefficient one.
2mins
The administrator of the nation's top environmental agency discusses strategies for encouraging actionable responses to climate change.
Whether we're professional athletes or cellphone gamers, falling just short of our goals can be motivating, not crushing.
Researchers are using music to light up unconscious minds, but the results only bring more questions about its effectiveness for coma patients.
A study suggests that long-term depression can more than double one's chances of suffering a stroke.
Scientists are keeping their eyes on social media in order to track and map the appearance of auroras.
The transcendental philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson stressed that maintaining an open mind requires the ability to understand that contrary opinions are not innately steeped in ill will.
Businesses that make their employees feel young for their age get more out of their workforce.
Human intelligence is richer than logic: It includes "being funny, being sexy, expressing a loving sentiment — maybe in a poem or in a musical piece."
1mins
Technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil says our brains, as complex as they are, are constrained by an upper limit of 300 million “pattern recognizers.” But our future, cloud-based “virtual brains” will have no such constraints.
Science and all of society benefit from an informed and knowledgeable public, yet not enough academics are recognized by scientific bodies for their contributions to popular writing.
The unique sight of a comet only scratches the surface of an amazing story. “Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes […]