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When it comes to behavior, genetics may play a larger role than you think.

If music is a window onto truth, what does screaming reveal?

Big Think columnist Adam Frank makes the case for why the 2023 video game Alan Wake 2 is a boundary-pushing piece of art.

What a long strange trip it’s been.

A physicist discusses the boundaries of reality and experimentation.

Daydreaming can be a pleasant pastime, but people who suffer from maladaptive daydreaming are trapped by their fantasies.

Ancient societies revered dreams. Modern science tells us why.

A recently identified stage of sleep common to narcoleptics is a fertile source of creativity.

The cosmic microwave background offers clues.

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy utilizes a non-ordinary state of consciousness to heal.

Are you a video gaming master? Put it on your résumé.

A vitamin that makes your body repellent to mosquitos sounds too good to be true, because it is.

A long-maligned treatment outperforms the trendy one.

A key question is how to keep that relief going without relying solely on repeated ketamine infusions.

A philosopher unpacks the paradox in using the word “evil.”

There’s an enormous evolutionary advantage for flamingos to stand on one leg, but genetics doesn’t help. Only physics explains why.

People underestimate their opponent’s capacity to feel basic human sensations. We can short-circuit this impulse through moral reframing and perspective taking.

Research shows self-ratings of personality traits like diligence are generally more accurate than ratings from others.

Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod saved countless lives, but some religious leaders denounced his invention.

Experiencing too much pleasure and not enough pain may yield counterintuitive consequences.

Roughly half the world population, including in America, has insufficient levels of vitamin D. UV irradiated mushrooms can help.

Opponents of 19th-century American imperialism were not above body-shaming the personification of the U.S. government.

Smallpox was nothing new in 1721.

The treatment is here, but are we ready?

Think of the nicest person you know. The person who would fit into any group configuration, who no one can dislike, or who makes a room warmer and happier just […]

“Large-scale indiscriminate killing is a horror that is not just a feature of the modern and historic periods, but was also a significant process in pre-state societies,” the researchers wrote.

It was a concept borrowed from the Iroquois, and one that America never quite mastered.

So far, the research is mixed.

A series of recent studies found that people with healthy levels of vitamin D were less likely to contract COVID-19 and suffer severe complications from it.

German researchers have just solved the mystery of how these substances work.