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Aesthetic Values
The secret sauce of humor is incongruity. AI knows this as well as we do.
Big Think columnist Adam Frank makes the case for why the 2023 video game Alan Wake 2 is a boundary-pushing piece of art.
It’s not just fun: DNA origami has the potential to revolutionize engineering at the nanoscopic scale.
We are wired to value things more when we work hard at attaining them — even if, objectively, they aren't worth that much.
"Time Warp" all the way back to 1800s spiritualism, magic performances, and spook shows.
The great philosopher spent the final portion of his painful life in a vegetative state. Did illness get him there, or was it his own philosophy?
Once at the pinnacle of Amsterdam’s art scene, Rembrandt van Rijn eventually found himself outcompeted by his own students.
He is only out-sold by William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.
Rejecting romanticism, these famous paintings depict war as it really is: sadistic and senseless.
In ancient Rome, collective bathing was the norm. In the West today, it’s the exception — and that’s too bad.
The philosophy of sex is going through a recalibration period.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a medieval airship!
Art isn't a side note in human history; it's the main text.
By probing the Universe on atomic scales and smaller, we can reveal the entirety of the Standard Model, and with it, the quantum Universe.
Don’t argue with science. Just do it.
These landscapes — of geographical differences in head shapes — have vanished from acceptable science (and cartography).
What better explains the prevalence of heavy metal in Scandinavian countries: culture or economy?
Rocks and minerals don’t simply reflect light. They play with it and interact with light as both a wave and a particle.
Those white, marble statues you see in museums all over the world were originally painted with bright colors.
The carnival spirit was in full swing when the priests got wasted and made indecent gestures while dressed like pimps.
The key to its success lies not in its understanding of technology, but in its understanding of human nature.
10mins
People are having less sex than ever. 3 experts explain the keys to maintaining a passionate relationship.
500 sheep were slaughtered to produce the 2,060 pages of the "Codex Amiatinus," a Latin translation of the Bible.
You can learn a lot about life through literature's most unrespectable and heinous characters.
Man does not live by measurement alone.
John Templeton Foundation
These composers channeled the horror of the Holocaust and Hiroshima while honoring those who lived through it.
The deep-thinking oddballs of West Coast cycle racing valued mid-ride marijuana over sports science.
To understand Vincent van Gogh, we must first debunk the myth of the tortured artist. Van Gogh believed his illness inhibited his creativity.
Burj Al Babas may one day be full of wealthy vacationers, but for now it’s a ghost town in the center of Turkey.
Yoga is more than just standing on your head. It's about uniting with the divine.