bigthinkeditor

“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.” – Galileo Galilei (born on this date in 1564)

While President Putin has released some political prisoners, the act itself was a kind of de facto acknowledgement of the corruption and the repressiveness of Russia’s political and justice system. 

A new study states that it took 60,000 years to kill more than 90 percent of all life on Earth. 

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison (born on this date in 1847)

Although we live in an information age, we don’t really know what information even means.

A newly released video captures Felix Baumgartner’s world record-setting free fall back to Earth from the edge of space, from his perspective. 

“I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.” – Boris Pasternak (born on this date in 1890)

“If all you do is mock the people who disagree with you, you miss your chance to honestly engage with them, learn about where they come from, and — just maybe — teach them a little piece of something that they might not have known before.”

Ethan Nadelmann describes the War on Drugs as a prime example of the risk perception gap becoming a risk in and of itself.

The International Criminal Court might indict a sitting president in Africa, but what is the likelihood that it will indict Putin?

“The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.” – Brendan Behan (born on this date in 1923)

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”- James Dean 

“An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man.”- Sir Thomas More (born on this date in 1478)  

“Accursed be he that first invented war.” – Christopher Marlowe (born on this date in 1564)

“I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.”- Adlai Stevenson (born on this date in 1900)

The pleasure center, increasingly hard to satisfy, is screaming “More!” But primitive centers that control breathing and heart rate are not building up tolerance at the same pace and are whispering “Enough.”

The Bill Nye-Ken Ham/ Science Versus Creationism debate scheduled for tonight has caught fire on social media. Here are some of our favorite Tweets in anticipation of the debate. 

The greatest enemy we face – one that is indeed greater than any external threat – is the uncontrolled mind. 

The role of the human is not to be dispassionate, depersonalized or neutral. It is precisely the emotive traits that are rewarded: the voracious lust for understanding, the enthusiasm for work, the ability to grasp the gist, the empathetic sensitivity to what will attract attention and linger in the mind.

A machine taught itself to create these images, after being shown a single image of a cow. 

“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.”- Rosa Parks (born on this date in 1913)

Bill Nye argues that we need a generation of scientifically literate students in order to be successful in the 21st century.

“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”- Gertrude Stein (born on this date in 1874)

A major advance in the use of microscopes for scientific investigation allows scientists to watch the brain create memories. 

Rick Smolan: I wonder if 50 years from now we’ll look back, maybe Julian will be the hero and J. Edgar Hoover will be the enemy of the state.

The astrobiologist Dr. Rhawn Joseph has filed a lawsuit to compel NASA and its administrator, Charles Bolden, to take a closer look at the rock. 

Pete Seeger is being remembered by many as a national treasure, a man who encouraged multiple generations of Americans to essentially rethink everything they were taught in school.

“Don’t be bored, make something” is a message that Joey Hudy, a self-described “maker” and STEM-advocate, has been taking to Maker events across the country. 

A new book entertains the notion of how we can engage with those books that we haven’t read, or only skimmed, or perhaps only heard about. 

If disruptions are threatening you from outside your industry, how can you see them coming?