bigthinkeditor

bigthinkeditor

What happens when the only piece of evidence in support of a radical idea—e.g. that vaccines cause autism—is clearly and definitely refuted? Belief in the evidence is strengthened!
Rather than becoming an ally, India is more likely to become one of the Asian countries that will tend to balance China’s strategic rise, says Harvard professor Joseph Nye.
Food writer Adam Gopnik travels from the White House kitchen to the famed elBulli restaurant in Catalonia, Spain and finds that savory flavors are the new fad in desserts.
British scientist Simon Conway Morris believes there are only two possibilities for alien life; either we're alone or aliens exist, and they are out to get us.
Often referred to as the hormone of love, oxytocin is coming into sharper focus and its social radius of action turns out to have definite limits.
What happens to the digital legacy of those who have complicated online profiles, passwords, digital assets such as music and who happen to be—dead?
Cattle and other livestock create tons of damaging greenhouse gases. There may be one environmentally friendly solution: eating bugs. But will anyone go for it?
A technology cleanse means you unplug for a short time with longer-term benefits for your relationships. But be warned: As with any other diet, it isn't easy.
There is a point in every child’s development where he begins to realize that the content of his parents’ minds is different than that in his own, says author Malcolm […]
While it's established that polygamy can be a source of oppression for women, to over-simplify and construe it as necessarily generating abuse is unproductive.
The PR people within the music industry are masters of spin. The music industry isn’t doing so badly as they claim. In fact, year after year more music is being sold.
Understanding the neurobiology of religious belief is a far cry from explaining it away.
The EU should make 2011 the year when it finally takes the lead in helping Bosnia on its journey from a war-ravaged ward to a stable member state.
What can we learn from visualizing the nature and shape of collective decisions about the inclusion of a topic in Wikipedia?
As much as I disagree with the blasphemy law, I do not think that criminalising the act of blasphemy is violative of any fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The cognitive revolution of the past 30 years provides a different perspective on our lives, one that emphasizes the relative importance of emotion over pure reason.
Artificially separated from a natural cycle of light and dark, the bodies and brains of mice go haywire in ways that may mimic the human effects of circadian disruption.
The idea that language shapes thought was taboo for a long time, said Dan Slobin, a psycholinguist at the University of California, Berkeley. “Now the ice is breaking.”
Statistical analysis must find ways to expose and counterbalance all the many factors that can lead to falsely positive results — among them human nature and the effects of industry money.
Budding public intellectual and critic of foreign aid, Dambisa Moyo says the promises of globalization have not been realized. The Independent interviews the economist.