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How can the government change the framework of choices that particular people are faced with so that their own small errors in risk perception don’t expose the whole of society?
How much would you pay to prevent the death of a child, or anyone else, from gun violence?
While guns don’t kill people, they certainly do make killing easier.
Tea growers have won legal protection for the name, ensuring that, as with certain specially-produced wines and spirits, theirs is the only tea that gets to be called Darjeeling.
Reporters Without Borders has launched a site that "publishes content that has been censored or banned or has led to reprisals against its creator."
The town of Lens, in northern France, put out a massive effort to convince the Louvre to come. In addition to its art, it's bringing 750 jobs to the area.
As I mentioned earlier, I took part in a discussion panel at Skepticon V last month, How Should Rationalists Approach Relationships and Marriage? The video of that panel is now […]
I hate having to write posts like this, but it's too huge a story to ignore. Less than two weeks before Christmas, America is again reeling from a mass killing […]
Despite the convictions we hold of our own moral correctness, we are easily brought under the influence of group morals, i.e. our behavior is motivated by our desire to be faithful to a group.
Oliver Sacks, professor of neuroscience at NYU, challenges fellow neuroscientists who have capitalized on near-death and out-of-body experiences to justify their belief in God and heaven.
Researchers at Northwestern University are testing a new chemical formula that relieves the symptoms of depression within hours. The drug works similarly to Ketamine, the animal sedative.
Children begin to show empathy and charity before they understand what those words mean, says pediatrician Perri Klass. And, she says, parents can help cultivate these prosocial attitudes.
In the developed world, the fight against infectious disease has largely been won. Anti-aging advocates say medical research should now concentrate on slowing the process of aging.
Nathan Harden writes with his characteristic techno-confidence that most higher education will be online soon enough. That means that most non-elite private colleges and many mediocre public institutions will soon […]
One consequence of mass killings like this week's horror in Newtown, according to reporting by Kristina Fiore, is this: Involuntary commitments of mentally ill men will increase for a while. […]
We're very fortunate at Big Think to have so many great thinkers and writers in our midst, and the woman of the moment right now is Maria Konnikova, author of […]
The field of tissue engineering is close to some big advances after helping to create human tissues that can be stored like data on computer chips and tested to create novel drugs.
An increasingly coveted cancer treatment has Mary Mulcahy, MD, Northwestern University, asking when the harms of tough medicines outweigh the benefits they can realistically deliver.
The most comprehensive report ever on global health concludes that, for the first time, our access to food as a species is more unhealthy than the shortages that have plagued us.