It’s the most natural thing in the world – for an American parent especially – to praise a child for her intelligence or talent, rather than for how hard she […]

As a marine biologist points out, upwards of 70% of Discoveries viewers fell for the ruse and now believe that Megalodon isn’t extinct.

The first lab-made burger has been dubbed by some the Frankenburger. It has also been dubbed the 'Googleburger,' since Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, funded the $330,000 experiment as a potentially transformative project for the benefit of humanity. 

As subscribers to Big Think's YouTube channel know, we are proud participants this week in the first ever YouTube Geek Week, which is showcasing new videos, creative collaborations and all things geek through August 10. 

This time-lapse video, recorded by the Messenger spacecraft en route to Mercury, shows what it looks like to say goodbye to planet Earth. 

One Big Think editor has taken a vacation from idea-hunting (for the moment at least), and nonetheless stumbled upon a big idea, pictured above. Can you name the big idea?

The humanoid robot, named Kirobo, is scheduled to blast into space around sunrise from an island off southern Japan on board a supply ship bound for the International Space Station.

Saturn, Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter will all be visible in the August night skies, as will the annual Perseid meteors. A number of nebulas will also be easy to find among the constellations.

A brain-to-brain interface between a human and a rat enables a human to control the rat’s tail simply by thinking. 

What does this picture mean to you, on the occasion of the president's 52nd birthday?

In the video below, Liam Neeson alerts us to the plight of children we can't see.

What does Mercury's surface look like?

While the N.I.H. has prohibited research involving it sown chimpanzees since 2011, VandeBergargues that chimpanzees and gorillas may die from diseases "that could have been prevented or treated by medical products developed from research with chimpanzees."

The Ukrainian designer Alexey Kashpersky's digitally enhanced drawings were awarded first prize in a competition that charged participants with conveying "humanity's complex relationships with [the HIV] virus, be they emotional, political, or intellectual."

Advanced analysis of DNA from all over the world has revealed that men's most recent common ancestor lived 120,000 to 156,000 years ago. 

It is quite possible that future generations will view A-Rod, and his baseball peers who have used PEDs, as victims of circumstance. 

The Buenos Aires transport authority released video footage of train drivers sleeping, reading and on their mobile devices while operating trains at high speeds. 

Every decision we make depends for its success on our ability to weigh the evidence and choose the wisest course, given our objectives. In session 5 of her Big Think Mentorworkshop on The Seven Essential Life Skills, Ellen Galinsky reviews the research and offers tips for building critical thinking skills in adults and children.

The future of Comet ISON does not look bright," says the astronomer Ignacio Ferrín of the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia.

Doctors offered to turn off Stephen Hawking's life support machine in 1985, the British cosmologist revealed in a new documentary to be released along with his memoirs this fall.