Technology & Innovation

Big Think’s Chief Economist Daniel Altman examines the origins of the Euro Zone and some of the inherent challenges it faces.

“Americans are happier when national wealth is distributed more evenly than when it is distributed unevenly,” says a recent study examining current and past wealth inequality. 

Yesterday I received from an old friend and partner the document below. As most of you, if not all, maintain accounts at both banks and brokers, or at least one […]

Gustav Klimt’s “Litzlberg on the Attersee” sold for $40.4 million to the din of jobless and struggling union workers picketing outside Sotheby’s auction house in New York City last night. […]

Statisticians and business professors have developed a mathematical function to detect the presence of stock market bubbles. LinkedIn was a bubble, they say. Gold prices are not. 

Several of the most recent recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry and medicine share their work habits, their inspiration and what else put them on the path to Nobel gold.

Book publishers have largely been silent on privacy but now one is suing 27 people for distributing its books on BitTorrent. A similar strategy won the music industry few fans.

Here’s why the B.B.C. has switched off its auto-feed tweets during the day—human tweets are more likely to get people interested and engaged, retweeting and clicking through.

Two interesting case studies of videos that went viral: one was followed by 1 million online product sales and the other translated into none. The difference? A call to action and a link.

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has called on Apple to help the “dying record business” by supporting new talent, instead of bleeding musicians like a “digital vampire”.

Will China become the banker to the rest of the world? Here’s why the E.U. can’t rely on the U.S. but could rely on China to help bail it out of its  liquidity crisis.

“The $2.6 trillion the United States is spending on health care is too much, and we can reduce it without rationing or sacrificing quality,” says Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D.

How can individual employees as well as managers create a more pleasant work environment? Thinking positively and giving to others are two good places to start. 

Born in Moscow, Teichberg moved with his parents to Queens and later attended Princeton. After trading derivatives on Wall Street, he now spends his resources fighting the industry. 

While WikiLeaks had the ability to transform political institutions, its creator’s personality often overshadowed the information it released. Is Assange simply too rebellious to lead?

Beyond wind and solar, a variety of carbon-free energy sources—biofuels, geothermal and advanced nuclear energy—are seen as possible ways of meeting rising global demand. 

Software has enabled one utility company to cut power consumption by up to 50 percent by more intelligently managing the delivery of electricity to homes and businesses. 

In addition to demotivating  talented workers, an opaque and dictatorial leadership style can silence innovation from below, leaving the leader in charge of coming up with all the great ideas.

Nokia has released a new smartphone which uses the Windows operating system. Its technical specifications and design have received positive reviews but is it too little too late?

Unemployment among those aged 16-29 is at its highest rate since WWII. “Follow your passion,” while hard to argue with, is clearly an inadequate career plan.

Amazon, aggressively expanding its publishing efforts, can sell a lot of books. But many writers don’t want to publish to an algorithm, they care about making culture and art.

Pay for a fast food lunch with your credit card then see weight loss ads next time you’re online. That kind of outcome is likely under moves Visa and Mastercard are studying.

Digital communication, such as via Tweets, worsens the unhealthy popularity of curt, rapid opinions. Is comment, like a strangler-fig, getting stronger than the politics on which it feeds?

Much of the Arab world has undergone a revolution of sorts, but a leaderless one. The common consensus is that economic conditions will worsen before they improve.

Why are China’s SMEs–the beating heart of the country’s economic dynamism–struggling to get loans from the formal financial sector? Local governments are crowding them out.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita sees key messages of Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement – as two misguided responses to the powerlessness many Americans feel.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Richard Branson all dropped out of school before becoming huge successes. They are exceptions, to be sure, but should we reconsider the value of higher education? 

I am optimistic for the economic and social outlook for the United States! During the next four or five years we will, once again, shift into gear. “Occupy Wall Street” […]

While countries in North America and Europe suffer through a downturn that has people questioning the very foundations of their economies, something far more positive is happening in South America. […]

New, free navigation apps with an emphasis on social features and crowdsourced data are providing competition for premium providers such as TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot and Navigon.