Drought-stricken Los Angeles County fired silver iodide into clouds during this winter’s El Niño as part of a process designed to elicit up to 15% more rainfall. This form of weather-manipulation is called cloud-seeding.
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The way to a healthy mind is through the stomach, according to psychiatrist Drew Ramsey. The right foods can decrease your risk of depression by 50%, and treat clinical mental disorders.
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If everything is relative, as Einstein says, then how do cosmologists measure these quantities in ways everyone can agree? “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the […]
You’d think in the age of Uber and Airbnb someone would have figured out how to put Big Textbook in its place. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than just waving a magical disruption wand and putting Follett out of business.
Physicist Lawrence Krauss explains why understanding new theories in physics is so hard, and why it’s so much fun.
Before he “jumped ship to the useless, unemployable arts”, young Salman wanted to be a physicist. This and more on Big Think’s weekly podcast, Think Again.
Why we’re positive the Universe isn’t all there is, and what the different possibilities for a Multiverse are. “Go, then. There are other worlds than these.” –Stephen King When you […]
Named by The New York Times as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court, Cory Booker points out that strict constitutionalists should want a new appointee put forward before too long.
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SETI researchers have found a major radio telescope signal and are trying to nail down where it’s from.
Knowing the details of genetic variance may help improve personalized medicine.
While cult leaders are alive and well, nowhere is this trend more apparent than in the vegan food industry.
And if it were, is there any way we could detect that this were the case? “Do I believe, for example, that by using magic I could fly? No. How would […]
It’s worse — and better — than you think.
One of the fathers of string theory proposes a new equation that may reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics.
A noted neuroscientist’s new study illuminates what remarkable invention made our brains the largest of all the primates.
Experimental philosopher Jonathan Keats dives into the work of Buckminster Fuller, an early 20th century oddball scientist whose visionary ideas we are only now catching up to.
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Big Think+ is a video-driven platform that catalyzes happiness and performance in professional environments by cultivating leadership, creativity, and self-knowledge. Learn more at edge.bigthink.com.
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Wilt Chamberlain dominated basketball. Yet given the chance to improve one critical element of his game, he let popular opinion override physics.
Professional women are at a disadvantage due to what’s called “the confidence gap,” an idea popularized by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay. Shine is a new company that seeks to close that gap one text message at a time.
You know what self-driving cars will help reduce? Phantom traffic jams. You know the ones, where traffic seems to just halt. You see no accidents, no construction, no state trooper—everything has just slowed for what seems like no reason at all.
Ontological design is way cool.
Studies confirm that having experiences makes us happier than material possessions.
Looking at how our technology and culture compare to Star Trek’s vision of the future.
We can all rattle off a few Greek philosophers to win a trivia prize, but how many Golden Age philosophers are you familiar with? Here’s a primer.
The darkness we see from Earth can never be 100% dark. “All I want is blackness. Blackness and silence.” –Sylvia Plath If you take a look at the night sky […]
How Costa Rica achieved 100% renewable energy, and what it means.
Experimentation-out-of-love is often inefficient and hard to measure. It isn’t always “solution-oriented.” But it’s as necessary and natural to us as breathing, and all too easily swept under the rug.
If you thought the Kuiper belt was just icy worlds of various sizes orbiting like Pluto, think again. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this […]
When our imaginations run wild, it’s important to remember that’s our fault, not the data’s. “Otherwise we are trying to communicate with someone who doesn’t exist with a system which doesn’t […]
Just the thought of money causes your brain to react in ways similar to being high on cocaine.
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