The Latest from Big Think

As usual, California is the battlefront for energy and climate change issues. Oil refiners Valero and Tesoro have spent $5.5 million dollars in support of California’s Proposition 23, which would […]

How is it that we're able to focus on a distant conversation while ignoring the person who is speaking right in front of us? Tony Zador, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, breaks down the brain mechanisms that allow us to have selective auditory attention.

There's no such thing as a verbatim, facsimile memory, says USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. When we reconstruct events in our minds, we are pulling together set sequences of specific details stored in different parts of the brain.

Random acts of kindness have been shown to increase everything from self-esteem to happiness level. At the same time, the paradox of choice is known to increase our cognitive load […]

Delusions of control seem built into the human mind, even when they aren't comforting. More than a few people, for example, would prefer to think hurricanes are punishments for abortions […]

"Positive psychology is a movement in social psychology which attempts to change the way that we think about humans," explains positive psychology expert Shawn Achor. "Instead of focusing merely on […]

Politico reports that senior Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are trying to sell lobbyists for the energy and telecom industries on the idea that the Republicans will […]

What future is there for journalism? Or is there a future in journalism for many of the bright young things who will have read a recent article titled ‘The Hamster […]

72% of women say they've faked an orgasm in their current relationship, while 55% of men claim they know when the woman they are with is faking.

If you watch The Daily Show, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that host Jon Stewart’s father was a physicist.  The popular program, along with its partner in satire The […]

"Science validates the notion that people with a strong social network live longer. It's not yet clear if the benefits apply to those who turn to the Internet for friendship."

"Just a few small changes in the social behaviors of even solitary animals may set in motion an evolutionary cascade ending in massive, globe-spanning migrations."

The Boston Globe says more must be done to ferret out conflicts of interest in peer-reviewed journals, which are a key way doctors keep informed of cutting-edge research.

"Online video radically changes the reach and speed of the improvement cycle. Things like dance, snowboarding and TED talks keep getting better, and faster..."

"Gaga's entire persona seems to question what's expected of women." 'Lady' with suggestions of gentility, sweetness...'Gaga' with intimations of infantility, madness...

A mobile-web advertising company is facing a proposed class action over its use of an HTML5 'trick' to track iPhone and iPad users across a number of websites.

"For sound mental health, the fundamental question is not whether a thought is negative or positive, but whether it is accurate."

The German government is banking on help from imams educated at German universities to improve the integration and "success" of its young Muslims.

Is piracy an enemy or a necessary part of business in a digital world? This Swedish video game developer sees it as the latter and even a benefit in terms of marketing.

How would a medical audience respond to a lecture that was completely devoid of content, yet delivered with authority by a convincing phony? Overwhelmingly positively...