"Some astronomers believe a hidden mini star nicknamed Nemesis is orbiting the sun, but a new analysis of life extinction cycles on Earth suggests this dark companion may not exist."

"It makes no difference whether determinism is true or false. We can’t be ultimately morally responsible either way." A philosophy professor takes the gravity out of the free-will debate.

"We’re not in a double-dip recession yet. We’re in a one and a half dip recession." Robert Reich says the President should advocate a WPA-style public works program.

"The dignity of sumo wrestling vanishing. Allegations of match-fixing, dope-smoking, orgies, and ties to gangsters among the sport’s top stars have enraged the Japanese public."

Publishers are irrevocably changing their industry as they make more and more titles available as e-books, says Goodnight Gutenburg. Soon agents may be publishing their authors electronically.

Once the process of aging is correctly identified, will pharmaceuticals be able to counteract it? Slate reviews two books that take on aging and the human endeavor for immorality.

Ta-Nehisi Coates asks, "How does one deal with finding out that one of your most beloved artworks was created by a man or woman whose personal behavior is (or was) odious?"

"Behind every successful entrepreneur is a vast network." And the more diverse the network, the better, says a study of successful entrepreneurs' social networks.

The average person flushes more than 7,000 liters of water down the toilet every year. With more than half of the world’s population using flushable toilets, this amounts to trillions […]

“Words matter.” This was what Obama said during his campaign. Did his celebrated belief in—and unique gift with—language factor into his choice of artist Ed Ruscha when considering a gift […]

“[The painting is] one of the most powerful, horrible and yet fascinating pictures that has been painted anywhere in this century,” wrote the New York Tribune in 1879 of then […]

“I think the primary technological barrier that keeps us from being more emotionally engaged with video games is the barrier of speech,” says Jesse Schell, the video game designer and […]

A strange, rare flower that smells like decomposing flesh is set to bloom any moment at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Sumatran Amorphophallus titanum is endangered in the wild due to deforestation, and even in cultivation it is difficult to grow.

A great tower would have had a place at the World Trade Center site. But instead we’re doing a building that is “not that different from a lot of commercial […]

“Green” architecture has become so central to the making of architecture that it’s not longer a big deal.

There’s a tremendous interest in sustainability and green architecture, and a greater sense that buildings reflect their larger context.

The rise of celebrity architects has made building design part of the general cultural dialogue. People want to see more buildings that “arouse their passions, whether positively or negatively.”

Technology can sometimes create the illusion that a building can be created without a creative hand, or without a creative idea behind it. That’s not true at all, says the […]

The economic downturn has drastically cut the volume of new buildings. But the pause may “cleanse a lot of the crap out of the system.”

The U.S. Navy has successfully tested a sea-bound laser weapon, ushering in a new era of warfare. In light of this news, Big Think presents a timeline of the history of laser technology.