Words of Wisdom — January 9, 2014

George Washington Carver on Common Things

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” -George Washington Carver (born on this date in 1864 – we think)

bigthinkeditor

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

-George Washington Carver (born on this date in 1864 – we think)

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Researchers Map the Universe with 1-Percent Accuracy

A team of researchers has measured the current size of “baryon acoustic oscillations” (BAOs) from the early universe in order to determine the distances to galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away to within 1 percent accuracy.