The Latest from Big Think

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Consulting firm OPower released a report this week showing a drastic drop in household energy use during the 2012 Super Bowl.
The chief medical officer for Britain's Department of Health warns of the "apocalyptic scenario" that could occur if more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and no new versions are created to take their place.
Inspired by a comic strip, a geneticist has created a text editor that restricts writers to the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language.
3D printing has taken the technological world by storm as innovators figure out how to use the latest additive manufacturing technology to print out everything from small toys to large buildings. 
Earlier this month, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, removed a small oak tree from its sculpture garden—a story of little to no note, right? But just as the mighty […]
NewSpace SmallCaps often face challenges: tight budgets, game-changing competition, lengthy development schedules and cash flow crunches. To reduce some of this pain, NewSpace companies have found significant advantages in tapping […]
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Speak Spanish? Lose weight? Then set aside $100 of your pretax income to donate to the Westboro Baptist Church.
Rio de Janeiro and Rome are two cities that have pledged to hold racing competitions in 2014 using all-electric vehicles.
A company has developed a system that can be used to validate ID in almost any environment.
Today we are releasing our whitepaper The Explosion of Conscious Media, created in partnership with Gaiam TV, the premier aggregator of Conscious Media content. The report defines Conscious Media and […]
Used by police in riot situations, it could help identify perpetrators long after the event is over: The DNA "sticks to clothing through several washings and to skin for about two weeks."
In response to a rising wave of crime on campus, three Cornell University students have developed a prototype of a device that blinds an attacker and takes their picture.
So I’ve gotten several emails this morning asking me what I think about this article by Paul J. LeBlanc, the president of Southern New Hampshire University. It’s a plea for […]
Announced this week, the US military's Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program has as its goal the development of electronics that can dissolve into the environment around them.
I tried something new this week on the first day of my spring term humanities seminar. Rather than hand out the syllabus and introduce the themes and texts coming up, […]
Question: Which contest is the nec plus ultra for puzzle fans and quiz aficionados everywhere?  Answer: The MIT Mystery Hunt (MMH), which kicks off every year on the Friday before […]
Due to arduous competition for limited scientific funds, the pie-in-the-sky ideas that may potentially hide brilliance underneath, are often ignored, abandoned, or simply never undertaken in the first place.
An aging man, a physician, learns he has Alzheimers. Determined to avoid the worst of it, he assembles a lethal collection of pills. As the next few years pass, the […]
Since its launch earlier this month, the Web site Rinkwatch has experienced an influx of data from volunteers in Canada and the United States.
The parameters that determine the solar system region in which planets could possibly support life were created 20 years ago, before exoplanets were discovered.