bigthinkeditor

The emphasis on quantifying what students learn has substantially reduced or eliminated opportunities that children have for exploring, interacting, and learning on their own.

Born at the end of the so-called “long Enlightenment,” Lincoln had no reservations about being guided by “Reason” or preferring it to passion. Providence, however, also played its role.

Protestors and opposition leaders in Bahrain are calling on the Sunni king to dissolve the government. Will these protests successfully usher in a revolution or be stifled like in Iran?

M.I.T. physicist Alan Guth has suggested that new universes—known as “pocket universes”— are constantly being created, but they cannot be seen from our universe.

It was heartening to see that there are tens of thousands of people protesting in Madison day after day. That’s the beginning, maybe, of what we really need here: a democracy uprising.

Deep in the lush undergrowth of corporate America, security, consulting and PR companies see lucrative business opportunities in helping WikiLeaks targets get their retaliation in first.

Bernie Madoff languishes in jail; bankers continue to profit as the poor lose their homes. Stealing from the rich is punished more than stealing from the poor, says Danny Schechter.

In a different age, politicians quoting Shakespeare might not have gotten far with voters; in Bard-mad 19th-century America, it was a sure way to win over a skeptical audience.

The ultimate question is not whether cameras work. It stands to reason that they can work when used wisely—just as a hammer works for certain tasks. But not everything is a nail.

When the actor and director Dennis Hopper died last year, it sparked renewed interest in his ‘other’ career—a chronicler of Sixties America with a stunning collection of photographs.

In recent years, scientists have begun to outline the surprising benefits of not paying attention. Sometimes, too much focus can backfire; all that caffeine gets in the way.

Surely there is something more ambitious to be done with our modern technology than trying to guess what kind of microwave someone will want next. Something like preventing murders.

For poets and philosophers through the ages, the mind and heart have been fellow travelers. Now medical researchers are putting the dark bond between the two under a microscope.

Apple has levied a new tax on publishers who sell subscriptions through the Apple iTunes Store. Now, one new report suggests Apple is being investigated by two federal agencies.

The true worth of a film is no longer decided by the crowd that assembles in an American city. It is decided by youngsters in countries such as Russia, China and Brazil.

Congress has no chance of closing the budget gap unless lawmakers go to where the big money is: defense, entitlements and tax breaks. The defense budget is not sacred.

People confess under torture, or if they are mentally incapable of grasping the situation. But sometimes suspects who are perfectly healthy still confess to crimes they didn’t commit. Why?

An emerging field of neuroscience indicates that the endocannabinoid system may be more responsible for feelings of euphoria after exercise than endorphins.

Want to protect against the effects of Alzheimer’s? Learn another language. Recent brain research shows that bilingual people’s brains function better after developing the disease.

In the wake of the Palestine Papers and the Egyptian uprising the “peace process” as we know it is dead. The myth persists, however, of “the deal that almost was”.

It is time the scientific community became proactive in challenging misuse of scientific evidence. We must make evidence accessible and explicable, says the U.K.’s chief science advisor.

Facebook users with more friends suffer more stress and “neurotic limbo” from feeling they have to continually update and amuse their larger audiences, according to new research.

Why has the royal family of Bahrain allowed its soldiers to open fire at peaceful demonstrators? The heavy hand of Saudi Arabia may not be far away.

Everyone knows someone that has been touched by cancer. Over one and a half million Americans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2011, and more than 560,000 […]

The real challenge for Internet freedom? U.S. hypocrisy. And there’s no app for that. Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom didn’t address the U.S. and Internet oppression.

The war in Afghanistan is based on four lies, including the premise that NATO allies are there to fight international terrorism. Negotiating with the Taliban is the only solution.

Biology and the natural world are helping economists build new models to understand the dynamics of the financial sector and why the sub prime loan crisis caused so much damage.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is best treated with cognitive behavioural and graded exercise therapies, say British scientists writing in The Lancet. But some support groups disagree.

Morality is not like some kind of cosmic bank, where you can deposit good deeds and use them to offset future misdeeds. People ignore heroic pasts when assigning blame.

One way or another, it’s clear the food price bubble has reached crisis levels. But why hasn’t it reached America? And will the honeymoon soon be over?