The Latest from Big Think

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If you're feeling a bit sleepy, a coffee nap could be just the thing. Half coffee, half nap, having a caffeine drink just before a nap gives you a little shuteye followed by the full benefits of caffeine. 
What happens when an artist decides to share her sketchbook with her four-year-old daughter? Image credit: Mica & Myla Hendricks, via their (fully funded) Kickstarter page. “If you can’t share, […]
After following 634 couples over nine years, researchers at the University of Buffalo found that partners who smoked marijuana together were consistently less violent toward each other.
Today's children are spending an average of seven hours a day on entertainment media, including televisions, computers, phones and other electronic devices. Studies have shown that excessive media use can […]
A bill recently passed by California legislators would establish standards for "affirmative consent" with regard to sexual activity on college campuses. "Yes Means Yes" could be influential to other states' legislators if it survives initial litigation.
Should homeless Americans be entitled to 24/7 access to restrooms? An increasing number of advocates are pushing the issue to the forefront of homeless-rights discussions.
Data matters. It's important to harness data to find more efficient ways to operate. But making data a higher priority than your workforce is extremely unwise.
Rather than maintain its landlines, the university is opting to subsidize cell phones for employees at its new online learning initiative.
If we came to be just a few billion years earlier, we’d never know. Image credit: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight. “After all the ‘Universe’ […]
Neuroscientists fascinated by the teenage psyche have come together to publish a series of studies on what makes juveniles tick. Their findings reveal why teenage boys in particular act in such a risk-averse manner.
While you can't prevent your financial institution from being breached by hackers, you can still protect your information by not falling into their traps.
Everyone knows there are two things you never bring up in conversation—politics and religion. In this secular age chock full of wars fought over one faith or another, many never […]
In my post last week I linked to some work by Evan Selinger, a philosopher at the Rochester Institute of Technology who has been thinking hard about the ways seemingly […]
There are six cardinal rules that can determine if your viral campaign will be successful or not: clarity, ease, immediacy, multiplicity, versatility, and the ability to make participants feel good about themselves for having taken part.
Sometimes the best way to combat stress is to examine it not as a mysterious toxin but as a tangible, solvable equation.
Bill Nye, everyone's favorite Science Guy, recently visited Big Think to talk SpaceX, NASA, and the budding space tourism industry.  Would Bill jump at the chance to visit space? You […]
"Companies that model best practices, that model the most upstanding principles, end up as the most profitable. It’s not a trade of profits versus principles." -Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and Founder of […]
"Sometimes I think that a parody of democracy could be more dangerous than a blatant dictatorship, because that gives people an opportunity to avoid doing anything about it." Aung San […]
This photo was snapped by Marco Belluci in Kalabougu, Mali.  His description: Kalabougou is a village located across the Niger river from Ségou (Mali). The village is known for its […]
August 30, 1984: the Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Kennedy Space Center on its maiden voyage. STS-41-D was NASA's 12th Space Shuttle mission. One mission's crew members was Judith Resnik, who […]