Personal Growth

Indian activist Anna Hazare has left jail to embark on a two-week public fast over his demands for stronger anti-corruption laws. The government is stumbling for a response.

A newly declassified State Department document sheds light on why Colin Powell became the first member of any U.S. administration to apply the label ‘genocide’ to an ongoing conflict. 

Creativity has recently decreased among American schoolchildren, says a recent study. Since 1990, children have become less able to produce unique and unusual ideas.

A skin cancer group and advertising firm have used a spoof tanning product to trick 14,000 sun-worshippers into learning about the life-threatening effects of excess sun exposure.

Women employ a more participative leadership style, are more likely to share information and power, and have strong relational skills that make them seem empathic to their staffs.

A new analysis of carbon meteorites suggests that they likely carried some of the building blocks needed for D.N.A. to the Earth, according to a N.A.S.A.-funded study.

French philosopher Raphaël Enthoven meditates on the nature of reverie. Rather than firing neurons, daydreaming is ‘a sweet drug that plays with fire’ and ‘the world before concepts’.

In the last fifty years, a remarkable sea change has taken place in the field of astronomy: Life, once considered unfathomably rare, is now thought likely to exist elsewhere. 

N.A.S.A. is working with the private space exploration company, SpaceX, to plan a mission to Mars that would cost ‘millions, not billions’. The mission would search for signs of life. 

Whether it’s swinging on a pendulum or riding a rocket tricycle, the former M.I.T. professor, now on YouTube, finds different ways to assist students as they study the laws of physics.

From his iconic I ♥ NY logo to his prolific newspaper and magazine designs, Glaser is revered for his exceptional visual output and his thoughtful reflections on the role of design at large.

Why does anything exist at all? The idea that the universe simply appeared out of nothing is difficult enough; trying to conceive of nothingness is perhaps even harder.

Countries including China, India and Iran are engaged in a new race to explore space. Efforts include building research centers, rockets, satellites and lunar rovers. 

Poverty means making more trade-offs and resisting more temptations due to limited resources—depleting the very willpower people might have used to lift themselves out of it.

Movies are Justin Timberlake’s priority these days, but he also owns a part of MySpace, restaurants, a fashion line called William Rast, a record label and even a golf course.

From stock trading to lawmaking to data-driven school reform, we are becoming increasingly dependent on mathematical models to explain the slippery complexity of human nature. 

Composer, singer, mother, AIDS activist; Alicia Keys wears many different hats, but they all seem to match her spirit of self-respect, humility, and desire to be a role model for her son. 

The British nonprofit group Raspberry Pi aims to inspire young programmers with a desktop computer so inexpensive that schools could hand them out to students free of charge.

Fearing budget cuts, N.A.S.A. chief Charlie Bolden told Congress that the next-generation space telescope has greater potential for discovery than the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The private rocket company Space-X is currently developing the Falcon Heavy, a heavy-lift rocket capable of carrying twice the payload of current rockets at half the cost. 

Earlier today, Big Think reader Tricia Adams forwarded us an article highlighting “33 Interesting and Inspiring Academics Worth Following on Twitter,” which she thought might be of interest to you, […]

As N.A.S.A.’s space shuttle program prepares for its last launch ever, some say the political compromise that initiated the shuttle program also compromised decades of research.

The super-human abilities of sports superstars like Roger Federer and Tiger Woods are self-fulfilling prophecies, says Jonah Lehrer. Because of their status, their opponents choke. 

The satirist has successfully petitioned the Federal Election Commission to create a Super Political Action Committee, allowing him to spend unlimited funds to influence political elections.

Want more authority? Acting more authoritatively is one step but you must also eliminate the limiting beliefs that undermine you. For instance, the need to be loved.

With the economy struggling, it can be hard enough to operate a profitable business—let alone one that tries to improve the world. But tough times may be increasing interest in social ventures.

Facebook privacy is the new oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp, says Alexandra Petri. She sees us in the grip of a digital Stockholm syndrome. Sometimes we want to leave, but we never will.

A SEAL’s smartest weapon, like a scholar’s, is his mind: his capacity to assess complex situations. This assessment is then coupled with the courage to achieve a given goal, and the humility to move on quietly to the next task.

A healthy dose of skepticism and a realistic look at the odds you’re up against can do a lot more to help energize you toward a goal than a rosy image of a successful outcome.

A private Danish rocket launched recently had its first successful test flight. The event is a huge step forward for the team’s plan to eventually loft people on cheap suborbital spaceflights.