bigthinkeditor

Sorting out America’s fiscal mess is relatively simple. What’s needed is political courage. Tax code reform and spending cuts are essential, says The Economist.

As reassuring as that G.P.S. voice can be, you may want to turn it off next time you’re trying to find your way. It may be dumbing down a region of your brain.

A healthy “attention span” is just another ineffable quality to remember having, to believe you’ve lost, to worry about your kids lacking, to blame the culture for destroying.

Humans could be walking on Mars within the next couple decades, for only a fraction of the cost if explorers are given one-way tickets. It’s not a suicide mission, say cosmologists.

In an effort to translate the Bible, Protestant missionary groups have documented many endangered languages and now secular anthropologists are showing interest.

Legendary physicist Sir Roger Penrose says he has found the first evidence of an eternal, cyclic cosmos that is refreshed by Big Bangs, of which there have been many.

The idea of empowering the public is a contradiction in terms: power is gained, not granted. When you ‘empower’ people, you’re not empowering them, you’re enfeebling them.

Many people who don’t develop dementia are nonetheless discovered after their deaths to have the brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Digital forces are threatening to weaken, or even destroy, the traditional basis, role and funding of the press. But what are the virtues it brings?

There seems no end in sight to Japan’s current decline, as jobs are lost, pensions cut, companies move overseas and social cohesion disintegrates.

Supposedly, the proper use of statistics makes relying on scientific results a safe bet. But in practice, widespread misuse of statistical methods makes science more like a crapshoot.

Americans still venerate marriage enough to want to try it yet nearly 40% think marriage is obsolete. Time Magazine explains its latest survey and the future of the American family.

Astronomers have for the first time discovered a planet in the Milky Way that came from another galaxy. The planet has a mass of at least 1.25 Jupiters.

Nearly 1 million children work full time in Bolivia’s tin mines, in cemeteries, on buses, or in the markets. It’s a tough life, but at least they’re unionized.

A new book tells the story on the “triumph of capitalism” in the U.S. in the remarkable 35 years after the Civil War when American economy exploded in size.

The US military has issued a warning that social networking sites could endanger the lives of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because of new features that reveal the user’s location.

Dire warnings about global warming can backfire if presented too negatively, making people less amenable to reducing their carbon footprint, new research shows.

Capitalism has solved the need to keep wages low and consumption high by bringing future consumption into the present by dramatic extensions of credit.

“The critical thing is to figure out a way to get the technology engine restarted,” says the venture capitalist. “And we should have less government regulation to enable that.”

Technological innovation is the most important thing that developing countries should focus on, says Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and PayPal founder. In his most recent Big Think interview, Thiel […]

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey thinks companies that pay competitive wages and focus on “higher purpose” in customer interactions will ultimately create the most value for their shareholders.

Are women and African-Americans at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease—as some data suggests—or are there other factors in play? 

We tend to prefer a world in which wealth is more evenly distributed, even if it means we have to get by with less. Jonah Lehrer says inequality is our original sin.

One hundred and fifty years after his birth, Anton Chekhov’s plays have become almost as much a part of modern theater’s repertoire as Shakespeare.

Germany geologist Andreas Dahmke defends the process of storing carbon dioxide underground to prevent global warming. Nuclear power is far more dangerous, he says.

Scientists at Europe’s best particle-physics laboratory have been able to trap a very small amount of antihydrogen—the simplest type of anti-atom—for the first time.

The 20th century’s most revered man of letters was a staunch defender of tradition while being fiercely critical of capitalism, which drives the need for “the dull wage”.

Google has combined the powers of fashion nerds and computer nerds to create an algorithmic personal shopper that isn’t lying when it says something looks great on you.

Had all the corporate life you can stand? Freelancing is a very real option. If striking out on your own sounds scary, Forbes offers some advice for becoming self-employed.

A famously global company, Walmat is going local by selling produce grown at regional farms. The sustainable business strategy is aimed at the company’s bottom line.