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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
A key component in a popular Indian spice could delay liver damage and cirrhosis, according to a new study published in the research journal “Gut.”
While consolidating medical records into electronic databases might cut down on loose paper and red tape, one doctor argues the efficacy will be diminished because of privacy concerns.
Portion sizes in paintings of Jesus’ last supper have grown exponentially in the last 1,000 years in a strange parallel of changing eating habits, showing that art imitates life.
Forget Rahm Emanuel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has “earned the badge of the toughest nut in F***nutsville” and is one of history’s most skilled vote-getters, writes Richard Adams.
In a break with diplomatic custom, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netinyahu held closed-door talks yesterday in an attempt to smooth US-Israeli relations.
Carl Varjabedian, a photographic maverick, captures the surreal beauty of the American West in a manner worthy of tall tales and American dreams, writes NPR.
The press didn’t just do a lousy job of explaining the stakes during the healthcare debates, they failed us on a much more fundamental level. According to the Columbia Journalism […]
Edmund White’s eloquent consideration of Cheever in the new New York Review of Books remembers the late author’s connections with Chekhov, his love/hate relationship with Catcher in the Rye, and […]
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A rock tune celebrating his work has become an Internet hit. But did it please the professor himself?
Set against last weekend’s Washington jamboree organised by pro Israeli AIPAC, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, the meeting of senior officials of the United […]
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As the celebrated mathematician writes his memoirs, he reflects on the combination of good luck, hard luck, and constant dreaming that made his life a success.
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The mathematician has long believed the traditional understanding of market fluctuations would need to be replaced with his fractal model. Unfortunately, he says, “my time…has come.”
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The word “fractals,” which Benoit Mandelbrot invented, has caught on with everyone from kids to club owners.
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The father of fractal geometry marvels that his work has led to computer renderings of natural shapes that are indistinguishable from the real thing.
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The geometry of fractals may be relatively new, but humans—especially artists—have perceived them in nature for ages.
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How a quest to combine aesthetics with mathematics produced one of math’s most famous, and gorgeous, images: the Mandelbrot set.
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What are fractals? The man who invented the term—and the geometry to go along with it—explains how complex natural shapes such as mountains and coastlines can be represented mathematically.
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A conversation with the mathematician and Professor Emeritus at Yale University.
This week’s installment of “The Future in Motion” features a clip from an interview with Dr. Nate Lewis, a chemistry professor at CalTech. He and his team are busy developing […]
This is my 100th post on Mind Matters. Hence the cake in the pic, which was made for a wedding by Seattle’s Jet City Cakes, using H.R. Giger’s designs for […]