The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
Playwrights and theatre professionals across the country are fed up with the lack of diversity among writers produced on the American Stage. These activists are armed with years of pent up frustration... and lots and lots of data. But what strategies should they take to accomplish their goal?
Political cartooning, curious cartography and questionable punning all rolled into one: what's not to love about an artwork like Crimea River? The photorealist painting shows a pouting Putin, shedding a […]
Starbucks has partnered with Arizona State University to provide thousands of its employees free college educations through the latter's online program. The unusual perk is expected to improve the quality of Starbucks' workforce. Other companies would be wise to emulate the coffee giant.
CAMBRIDGE – There is nothing better than fuzzy language to wreak havoc – or facilitate consensus. Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that philosophical puzzles are really just a consequence of the misuse […]
Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst for the US Army during the Iraq War, has penned a call for more transparency from his prison cell at Forth Leavenworth, Kansas.
Recent observational evidence is helping to resolve the age-old debate over whether animals experience the same pleasurable feelings that humans do during sex.
Although Twitter is hailed as a democratic medium for the dissemination of marginalized political views, experts have found that it is mostly an echo chamber for the opinions expressed by elite television personalities. 
The average American with a full-time job works 1,700 hours a year. That’s a lot of hours. Given how much time we spend with our co-workers, shouldn't we want to […]
How glassworker Loren Stump’s artwork is pushing the boundaries of the artform into uncharted waters. “I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is […]
Mindfulness meditation works on the brain by decoupling regions that have tended to function together.
A new partnership between Twitter and the Weather Channel will customize target ads based on users' locations and the current weather.
A vast reservoir of water exists beneath the Earth's surface, enough to fill the oceans three times over, say a team of American scientists who have produced the first direct evidence of the water.
An Idaho School Board is considering a new social media policy that forbids teachers from friending, following, or posting about students and their parents. The policy change stems from an incident involving a high school basketball teacher who was fired over a controversial photo.
Food labeling is about to get more honest after the Supreme Court ruled against Coca-Cola in a lawsuit brought against the soda giant by POM Wonderful. Coca-Cola had been labeling a juice "Pomegratate-Blueberry" despite the fact that the product contained less than 1% pomegranate.
By 2025, one in five nanotechnology professionals will hail from India, according to a new study. Investments in personnel and infrastructure will determine the breadth of India's presence in the industry.
How do we know how old the most distant objects we see actually are? “Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back […]
The creator of television shows such as Scandal and Grey's Anatomy told Dartmouth graduates on Sunday to fight for causes with action, not hashtags. Her attack on Twitter (in)activism has been lauded by some, panned by others.
MILAN – Digital technologies are once again transforming global value chains and, with them, the structure of the global economy. What do businesses, citizens, and policymakers need to know as […]
Here's some inspiration for your next overnight flight. NASA released this photograph taken by an intrepid passenger on a 747. This is not your ordinary #airplane Instagram shot. NASA explains: […]
"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself." - D. H. Lawrence