In the classic Western film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, James Stewart’s character confesses that he wasn’t a hero, only to hear the newspaper man he’s confessed to respond, […]
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Over the next few months, Big Think is rolling out a series of interviews with leading economics experts to analyze the financial crisis and answer some pressing questions: Who’s to […]
Once science operations begin for James Webb, we'll never look at the Universe the same way again. Here's what everyone should know.
In 1990, we only knew of the ones in our Solar System. Today, we know of thousands, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The human brain makes a striking deviation from the normal building plan.
Finding out we're not alone in the Universe would fundamentally change everything. Here's how we could do it.
Scientists believe they have the answer, but philosophers prove them wrong.
New study suggests the placebo effect can be as powerful as microdosing LSD.
Psychedelics are going mainstream. Here's your reading list.
One look at the uncertainties and the assumptions changes the story tremendously. Is there intelligent life out there in the Milky Way beyond our own Solar System? If so, how […]
How the half-hour commute and motorised transport changed our cities into huge metropolises.
We assume that life is ubiquitous in the Universe. But what if it’s just us? When it comes to the question of extraterrestrial life, humans optimistically assume the Universe is prolific. […]
Intelligent aliens, if they exist in the galaxy or the Universe, might be detectable from a variety of signals: electromagnetic, from planet modification, or because they’re spacefaring. But we haven’t […]
Our brains are famously flexible, or “plastic,” because neurons can do new things by forging new or stronger connections with other neurons. But how, exactly, does it do that?
New research from UC Davis shows forty volunteers still experiencing cognitive gains seven years after an intensive retreat.
The scientific quest for immortality is predicated on the belief that evidence may already exist in the form of Near-Death Experiences and reincarnation.
This list of 10 non-winners is 50% women, but 100% outrageous. In science, advances often come in great leaps. In hindsight, it’s easy to identify perhaps hundreds of small steps […]
Scientists share that thing they want everyone to know on Twitter with the hashtag #MyOneScienceTweet.
Attempts to unite religion and science are not new. A big part of the challenge is finding the right language to draw parallels with, and physicists have been especially willing to walk this line.
Last week's events in Nepal and Baltimore were drastically different. Yet how people responded to two tragedies offer insight into how we deal with trauma and how we decide to offer compassion.
A scathing critique of antidepressant medication, just written by a psychiatrist in Wales, UK, is making waves across Britain and you can expect ripples to reach the U.S. in the coming days.
The nature of our Universe defies our intuition. That just might be the greatest thing of all. “I asked the Zebra,are you black with white stripes?Or white with black stripes?And […]
In my post last week I linked to some work by Evan Selinger, a philosopher at the Rochester Institute of Technology who has been thinking hard about the ways seemingly […]
More science, more stories, and more spectacular scientists are coming to Starts With A Bang! Image credit: BBC, The Story of Science. “Men at some time are masters of their […]
The twisting path to becoming less dumb has led to many stops.
Sometimes the urge for instant gratification makes perfect sense.
The most basic definition of collective intelligence is to get group of people to do something collectively that seems intelligent. A profound definition is the creation a global brain.
Read Part 2 here. To finish off Saturday night, atheist comedian Keith Lowell Jenson and journalist Ted Cox gave a demonstration of “ex-gay” conversion therapy. The quack idea undergirding this […]