Latest Articles

Latest Articles

The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.

7mins
The Yemen expert describes the major changes he’s witnessed in visiting and studying the country, and the “three layers of crisis” that it confronts today.
18mins
A conversation with the Middle East and Yemen expert at Princeton University.
No one writes like this. It’s crazy. No one will ever write like this again. Here are the opening paragraphs of Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; the Zen story […]
This week Dan Kennedy at Media Nation castigated the late Jerome Salinger for being on the wrong side of the fair-use copyright battle over use of his work. The iPad […]
As he arrived to appear in front of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, the chant went up “Blair to The Hague!” Demonstrators had been kept well away from […]
The American Museum of Natural History has produced a handy video map of the entire known universe, all to scale. Hypnotically fascinating (it’s a reminder, for one thing, that over […]
Following the death of iconic American author J.D. Salinger yesterday, publisher Roger Lathbury recalls a book deal with the eccentric writer which went sour.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged today that Saddam Hussein didn’t become a bigger threat after September 11, but that the “perception of risk” changed.
Gun lovers converged on the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas for the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show to check out the highest tech offerings.
Schizophrenia has a significant environmental link and can be triggered in the womb by an infection, with the symptoms lying dormant for years, according to new research.
How can America’s banks be regulated properly if the Senate is owned by Wall Street? asks The Independent writer Johann Hair, who fears corruption is “smothering America’s future.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestine will not accept Abu Dis as the capital of their future state and will insist on receiving control over east Jerusalem.
Militants in Somalia’s capital have attacked African Union peacekeepers exactly a year after President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took political office. Up to 12 people were killed.
Iran executed two men yesterday alleged to be members of the opposition group Mujahedin Khalq, which is reportedly involved in a mosque bombing in 2008 which killed 13 people.
French authorities are planning to appeal against the acquittal of former prime minister Dominique De Villepan over allegations of a campaign to smear President Nicholas Sarkozy.
The most urgent relief operations in Haiti are ending as the deliveries of aid received so far are reaching the most immediate needs, according to UN and US aid officials.
What we have of Jerome Salinger’s writings can at best be a mere introduction to his deeply felt literary world. It’s practically criminal that all the quiet readers out there, […]
Just as your mom always suspected, brilliance lies within you. And not only you, but nearly every seemingly normal human being. That’s the provocative thesis of David Shenk’s forthcoming book, […]
As medical research advances, the possibility of using scientific findings to enact smarter, more concretely-attuned policies to better the lives of us all is becoming an imminent possibility. Today’s interview […]
Overlooked in much of the post-State-of-the-Union discussion was President Obama’s renewed insistence on bringing America’s rail system up to speed for the first time in decades. Amid the countless issues […]