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No wonder we only have a couple of kids, rather than 10 or 12.   

Introducing Thomas Cathcart’s new Big Think blog series, Why Philosophize?

Physicists trying to develop a quantum theory of gravity have found that they needed to dust off the “many worlds interpretation” and apply it to their theories in order to make them work out.  

You’ll work harder and you’ll work longer hours and you’ll make big things happen for your company at the same time.  So everyone wins.

What if the NSA scandals result in a more fragmented global Internet? What if they are used as an excuse by repressive regimes to violate their own citizens’ privacy?

Don’t stop at the first explanation that occurs to you, ask your inner rivals what competing explanations they can come up with.

             A lot of work on climate change these days is trying to address what seems to be a major part of the problem; people don’t care all that much. […]

So now that he’s been named Time‘s man of the year and all, it might be safe to say something good about Pope Francis on BIG THINK. Liberals like the […]

We have a general bias to read intentionality into things, to see things as happening for a reason, to believe that objects around us have been designed for some purpose. 

If I actually have to motivate you then perhaps actually I am discounting what you really are as a person.  I’m saying you’re a lump that needs to be motivated.

I think it would be really good if nonscientists learned enough so they could come out and make these arguments for the scientists.  

Gloria Feldt: I have my religious beliefs too and they tell me that using birth control is a good thing and that birth control is basic healthcare that should be part of any insurance plan.

We’re going to have to learn how to cooperate on a much wider scale around the work than we’ve ever done before.

China’s unhealthy obsession with foreign education and degrees is a turn-off for many foreigners BEIJING – The marketable and exploitable obsession of the Chinese for everything “Western” is legendary and […]

I went to Detroit this past weekend to speak to the Knight Foundation’s art grantees. Knight is a non-profit that is concentrated on “transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media […]

Here are two maps that are also cartograms, using the same method to present each country’s population size: one square represents one million people.

Everybody built very big missiles all through the end of the marketplace at once and they kind of canceled each other out.

Maria Konnikova: the good news is that you can become more creative and I think that everyone has a certain degree of creativity in them.

Like a greyhound race, politics is a competition. And as the rabbit keeps moving ahead, the greyhounds are incentivized to keep chasing. Consistency bias is simply the failure to admit that’s what we’re doing. 

It’s more important to have a useful perception of reality than an accurate perception of reality. 

Where do new ideas come from? One tactic is to train your brain to innovate through the use of thought experiments.

The key question is will manufacturers in this country recognize and further exploit the benefits of having production close to manufacturing?

How was Earth’s most well-known precious metal made? “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul;wisdom is better than silver or gold.” –Bob Marley Throughout all of recorded human history, there’s […]

How do you lift a poem out of history and “into your own history”?

“Slacktivism” online is exactly as deep as the paper-thin knowledge and commitment that fuels it. 

As subscribers to Big Think’s YouTube channel know, we are proud participants this week in the first ever YouTube Geek Week, which is showcasing new videos, creative collaborations and all things geek through August 10. 

Taking on challenges is a critical life skill because no matter where we’re born or the kind of advantage or disadvantages we have in our lives, none of us can escape challenges. 

“You can’t live or die every day thinking about redemption,” a self-reflective Eliot Spitzer told Big Think in 2010.

I wrote a book called Standing on the Sun because a physicist said to me once, ”To understand the way that the solar system actually worked, Copernicus had to be standing on the Sun.” 

Even for city dwellers, the wonders of a dark, night sky might be closer than you imagine. “Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” –Walt Whitman It was just […]