Looking down at your phone to read text messages puts a stress on your neck equivalent to tying a 60-pound bowling ball around your head, says Kenneth Hansraj, a New York back surgeon.
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“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied,” said John Stuart Mill.
Because the tone of a conversation affects how we react, and because physical cues help set tone, emoticons are much more than cute or trite.
Food is at the center of many American holidays. And changes to the climate pattern will affect where and how food is grown.
When we measure ourselves against someone in close geographical proximity, and if there is a history of close competition, we create a rivalry.
A scientific legend in his own time, James Watson was awarded the Nobel Prize for helping discover the structure of DNA. Tomorrow he will sell the medal for income at a Christie’s auction.
Should we get vaccinated? Fluoridate our water? Fight global warming? Believe in evolution? The Big Bang? Dark matter? Find out. “Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has […]
Researchers at Columbia University have found that when stock traders come from different ethnic backgrounds, they are less likely to inflate the value of the financial products they are trading.
When we see the future through rose-tinted lenses, we are less likely to take the action necessary to achieve our goals.
Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser shares the chilling history of myriad Americans who have at one time or another had the authority to launch nuclear weapons.
Julie Sunderland, the Director of Program Related Investments for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, explains how the Foundation works to include and incentivize the private sector in order to accomplish its ambitious goals.
Ideas about religion can be so powerful that people can’t endorse them without giving up a part of their identity. It’s the same thing with diets.
Only in America do people trample each other for sales a day after being thankful for what they already have.
Sam Harris is embarrassed by the word “spirituality” because of its past misuse as a religious term. Despite its spooky etymology though, he argues that there’s no better word in the English language to describe one’s personal and intimate exploration of human consciousness.
Rather than clear arable land for solar power farms, engineers have proposed using the millions of square miles of roadway and parking lots to gather in solar energy.
Conversations between mother and daughter contain more emotional content than conversations mothers have with their sons, according to a new study.
A new Spanish law encouraging foreign investment allows entrepreneurs to obtain an extended-stay visa.
Driving while tired creates the most likely conditions for a road accident, especially when drivers are on the road between 2am and 5am or received fewer than five hours sleep the night before driving.
The heralded economist and Harvard president emeritus explains why the price of oil is dropping in North America. He also discusses how American energy independence can’t be achieved just by reducing reliance on foreign oil.
“Nobody’s going to pay for smart in the future because the smarter the doctor, the smarter the lawyer, the smarter the engineer, the smarter the financier, that’s all going onto software. So we move up the ladder and we say that what we really value and what will rise to the top is intelligence. And what is that? That’s the ability to figure things out that you’ve never learned before.”
-Futurist Edie Weiner, from her Big Think interview
Most young women in the workforce don’t remember firsthand the battles their mothers and grandmothers fought over issues that are still relevant today. Among those who’ve read about them or […]
At a foundational, psychological level, putting off your responsibilities for what seems like innocent short-term pleasure is a powerful emotional coping mechanism.
The severity of a given climate strongly correlates with the extent to which a god intervenes directly in human affairs and supports a clear moral code.
If we ate fewer calories we would reduce harmful farming and industrial practices, and begin treating animals more ethically.
The Universe was 99.999999% Hydrogen and Helium after the Big Bang. Billions of years later, there’s a new contender in town. “When it comes to atoms, language can be used […]
Arrests were made on both sides this weekend as protesters challenged the racial insensitivity of a traditional Dutch Christmas festival featuring the character “Black Pete”.
A recent study out of Russia concludes there are two new sleep types: those who are most productive at the start and end of the day but feel sluggish during the middle hours, and the reverse.
While our culture praises innovation and invention, we owe our greatest successes—including those of the innovator and inventor—to imitation and outright copying.
The extreme action dance pioneer takes us through the theory behind PopAction and how flying, falling dancers teach audiences about resilience and hope.
Too many top minds have “positive capability” bias. That label usefully contrasts with Keats’ “negative capability,” a poetic idea that applies to many unpoetic experts. It explains why Shakespeare’s psychology is better than much of the modern “scientific” sort.