The Latest from Big Think

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The mere presence of an image next to a statement makes it more likely that people will believe the statement. It's a psychological fact that demonstrates the malleability of our beliefs. 
If the pace of technological advance holds steady according to its historical rates, we will be able to upload a significant part of our identity into computers well-before century's end.
A good thing about ELECTIONS is that they remind us we have a CONSTITUTION. They especially remind us that we're a really, really constitutional people. Lots of Americans really hate […]
By isolating a group of neurons that influence how the brain experiences time, researchers think it possible that an individual's sense of time could be tweaked by altering neural signals. 
The “Defense of Marriage Act” is going to get a Supreme Court hearing soon, and in Maryland, same-sex marriage is being put to a referendum on November 6. There is […]
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Professor Larry Lessig presents his plan to end cronyism in Washington at The Nantucket Project, a festival of idea on Nantucket, Massachusetts.
• The big news, of course, is that the U.S. presidential election is on Tuesday. Take heart, progressives: although the media and the Republicans are straining mightily to pretend that […]
In the years ahead, new techniques which seek to restore the balance of healthy bacteria in the human gut could form the foundation of a fundamentally new kind of medicine. 
A European health organization has publicly castigated an American genetics company for keeping large swaths of genetic data private, perhaps delaying the advent of personalized medicine. 
The power to remain healthy despite life's pressures lies within us, suggests new research out of Penn State. People who become upset today face health consequences in the future. 
When the Italian artist Salvatore Iaconesi was diagnosed with brain cancer, he felt dissatisfied with the options given to him for treatment, so he went crowdsourcing online...
American hospitals are increasingly offering competitive pricing on treatments not covered by insurance. They can often beat foreign hospitals on price and quality of care. 
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t give in very often. During his reign, Bloomberg has pushed for smoking bans in bars, restaurants and city parks. He has wrested control […]
Today Abigail Fielding-Smith published what I think is a fantastic piece of journalism on southern Yemen and Aden.  I encourage all of you to read her fine piece. Indeed, as […]
A higher percentage of Americans believed in the British crown in 1776 than the percentage of Americans who trust Congress today. Larry Lessig has an idea to change all of that.   
How much infrastructure and training do children need to use a laptop or a tablet? Do they need, for example, schools and teachers? Do they need to have seen computers […]
Samasource founder Leila Janah has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund the development of Samahope, a site described as a kind of "Kiva for surgery."
Imagine you are a scientist who has just received the latest issue of the most important journal in your field. As you look through the papers published there, you'll probably […]
A FinderCodes kit contains "smart tags" that, when scanned, put the finder in touch with the owner.
I’ve been contemplating the notion of a graduated return to normalcy for about a year. A few days from election, with Obama’s chances having dimmed considerably, would seem to be […]