Surprising Science — March 18, 2011

The Dawn of Personalized Medicine

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Conventional chemotherapy is like trying to turn off the lights in your kitchen by nuking your house. Personalized medicine will try to turn off the lights by flipping a switch.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A group of cult members dressed in white participating in an outdoor gathering or ceremony under a partly cloudy sky.

Thinking

Are religions simply cults that have gone mainstream?

Or are cults the religions we find distasteful?

A statue of a man with his hands on his head, symbolizing regret.

Thinking

How fear of regret influences our decisions

A simple dice game shines a bit of light on the psychology of regret.

Charles bridge in prague, czech republic.

Neuropsych

An untold story of LSD psychotherapy in communist Czechoslovakia

Uncovering the story of Milan Hausner, the Sadská clinic, and LSD psychotherapy behind the Iron Curtain.

The Present

The plastic paradox: How plastics went from elephant saviors to eco-villains

Do the benefits of plastics outweigh the costs?

A model of the Colossus depicting the grandeur of ancient Rome.

The Past

This virtual 3D model lets you wander the streets of ancient Rome

Archaeologist Bernard Frischer spent decades uploading the ruins of the Eternal City to the cloud. Here’s what it looks like.

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Liberal Education and Entrepreneurship

I have to admit I’ve been warming up a bit to the out-there techno-optimism of Ray Kurzweil displayed so prominently on BIG THINK. He (like lots of people) has been […]