The Latest from Big Think

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Since I've run out of blog ideas—and have New Year's Eve parties to get to—today I'm just going to post some of the things that people who are more interesting […]
Next July, the United States Postal Service will commemorate the pioneers of industrial design with a limited-edition stamp collection. Each of the 12 stamps features the designer's name, the type […]
One of the best things about Christmas for me is the Barnes & Noble gift card in my stocking. I am always excited to get it, because it means I […]
I am back from my break - it was a good time in New England, even with the Snowicane that kept us at home for a couple days. I definitely needed […]
1. The Tea Partiers--and many other conservatives--distinguish between the view of our Founders (good) and that of the Progressives (bad).  The Progressives (beginning around the turn of the 20th century) […]
Spiritually unmoored, many people nonetheless experience intense elevation during the magical moments that sport often affords, says David Brooks.
Every fad has its golden window, the period between Wow and Enough already. So it is with flash mobs, those hit-and-run performances that keep springing up.
U.S. politics, often decried for its "partisanship", is all too bipartisan in its deeply dysfunctional consensus on tax and wealth, says Columbia economics professor Jeffrey Sachs.
We don’t look at Nature only from the light of reason. To look for explanations behind natural phenomena is, as Einstein remarked, akin to an act of devotion.
Newly published research suggests keeping a potential romantic partner guessing can pique his or her interest—mystery can be a powerful motivator of attraction.
"When we learn to tolerate boredom, we find out who we really are," said one speaker at a recent conference on boredom who lamented our over-stimulated culture.
Our ultra-costly and ultra-punitive system is neither protecting victims nor rehabilitating lawbreakers. It's time for a new and less costly approach, says Sunil Dutta.
The financial crisis has created an environment where, because of government-funded bailouts, big banks are getting bigger, as the small ones struggle.
Nearly two centuries after Tocqueville, both fear and hope still brood over the puzzle of America’s innermost nature, and America’s influence on the wider world.
The standard cosmological model holds that most of the matter in the universe remains missing in action; now a small but vocal group of cosmologists is challenging that model.
Since I've run out of blog ideas—and have New Year's Eve parties to get to—today I'm just going to post some of the things that people who are more interesting […]
The Czech dissident Jan Prochazka was spied upon for years by the Communist government in Prague, but he didn't let this inhibit his conversation. He spoke to his friends as […]
Mind, soul, personality: whatever you call it, most people agree that their memories, thoughts, and perceptions reside in the brain. Yet for all its importance, the brain has been notoriously difficult […]
When a sick kid is too young to speak, doctors naturally ask a parent or other caretaker how much it hurts. Only half of the answer, according to this study […]
Despite heavy news and advertising attention, and the Obama Administration's attempts to grow the market for fuel efficient cars through major tax breaks, sales of small-size cars were flat in […]