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Most Americans not only misperceive currently levels of income inequality, says Joseph Stiglitz, they underestimate the tectonic changes that have occurred in the last ten years.   

American citizens adopted 13,407 fewer international children in 2011 than they did in 2004 – a 60% decline from that peak year. The biggest decrease has come from the adoption […]

All of the ways we currently measure happiness are filled with errors, says University of Illinois professor Deirdre McCloskey, who argues today’s society is not especially consumerist. 

What’s the best single piece of advice for grads in a fragile job market? Take the poll, then find out what other Big Think readers are saying. 

Following in the footsteps of urban bicycle sharing programs, a folding car originally designed at MIT in 2003 may finally reconcile the long dispute between the city and the car. 

Researchers at an English university have created a robot that learns language like an infant. The achievement represents a major advance in the creation of artificial intelligence. 

What is so special about touching a piano John Lennon once owned? Why do we yell at our laptops? What drove the Yankees to dig up the Red Sox jersey […]

“Be yourself” can seem like risky advice in a competitive job market. But you know what’s riskier? Being nobody. Apple Ad Man Ken Segall explains how he followed his passion […]

The philosopher on why Melancholia is actually an optimistic movie.

Without question, it’s the desire to “know” that drives scientific inquiry. But as scientists at the forefront of physics or biology will tell you, the more we learn, the more simplistic earlier frameworks seem and the more complex the puzzles become. 

Younger Americans, raised on YouTube and social media, might have missed the significance of the twentieth anniversary of the verdict stemming from the Rodney King incident.  Mr. King was, of […]

Small groups of people have better ideas and get more done. Making sure meetings are populated only by people who have something to contribute is essential to good business. 

For the first time since Google appeared on the scene in 1998, search engines are undergoing a fundamental change by learning to operate more like the human brain. 

Ten ways you can cut food addiction by changing the information going in your body and upgrading your biological software.

Previously limited to explaining the behavior of subatomic particles, quantum mechanics may govern biological life and be selected for by evolution, says cosmologist Paul Davies. 

Perhaps the world’s most fiercely original aerospace engineer, Rutan has pioneered beautifully designed aircraft that (successfully) go against the grain of conventional wisdom. 

Would you be happier working for a company or being your own boss?

The future of film is collaborative storytelling, says Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards.

People in positions of power need to be committed to increasing the representation of women on boards and in other leadership roles, or it won’t happen, says Monique Leroux.

Anecdotal evidence has long associated genius with mental instability but new neurological research suggests there is a solid biological reason why psychosis inspires creativity. 

Many of our cities still bear the scars from past centuries’ segregation policies. So new urban movements want to take advantage of urban population growth to make the city a better place. 

There’s a big difference between being smart and being wise, and also being intelligent, frankly, says futurist Edie Weiner.

We don’t really want what we think we desire, says philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

The question as to whether or not we are hardwired for religion and spirituality is an important one, says pioneering neuroscientist Andrew Newberg. “When we look at how the brain […]

Internet policy expert Rebecca MacKinnon discusses the social possibilities and challenges presented by new digital technologies.

What is the Big Idea? Halla Tomasdottir guided her financial services company Audur Capital through Iceland’s economic meltdown in 2008. The company not only survived, but its unique “feminine values” […]

Access to mobile computing, to allow employees to check email outside of working hours, increases productivity up to a point. After that it just burns people out and makes them unhappy.