The Latest from Big Think

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With the global income gap continuing to widen, Oxfam International releases a statement that focuses on the rich rather than the poor.
A debate is raging between economists: Some say the world has picked the low hanging fruit of innovation while others say a new era of unimaginable innovation is yet to come. 
New research suggests that loneliness acts on the body similarly to physical stress by causing the inflammation of certain proteins associated with conditions like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. 
A study which followed 200 British medical patients diagnosed with depression found that the use of self-help books, coupled with counselling sessions on how to use the books, alleviated depression. 
A new consumer study concludes that the happiness derived from anticipating a new purchase is often greater than the emotional benefits received from the material good itself.
Sadly, much of the passion and intimacy of new love is bound to fade. Still, there are concrete ways to maintain positive feelings and warmth in long-term relationships, say psychologists. 
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How can we train our brains to think like Sherlock Holmes? This question occupies Konnikova's book, and her answer can be summed up in one word: mindfulness. Mindfulness is "staying […]
I just got back from leading a 9-day meditation retreat in the wild and cactus-filled desert of Arizona. And I feel exuberant, inspired, and powerfully awake to the presence of […]
Recently I had occasion to browse my collection of yellowed "second-wave" feminist paperbacks, from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I bought most of them at used book stores in […]
A new technique which asks patients to move their eyes rapidly while recalling past traumatic events successfully relieves symptoms of the disorder, but psychologists don't yet know how.
The development of cooking technology has both benefited our health and caused surprising physiological changes, such as prompting the emergence of the overbite, which all humans now have.
Because such a wealth of personal information on nearly everyone is now available online, a person's anonymous genetic information is enough to identify an individual's full name.
By making adult skin cells behave like a specific class of stem cells called pluripotent cells, scientists are looking to establish the field of regenerative medicine and test drugs in new ways. 
The ability of food to affect all of our senses, and recent technological developments that have made cooking a more precise exercise, have caught the attention of the professional art world. 
So what will you be doing Sunday night?  My advice:  Watch more TV!  Now you innovative and disruptive BIG THINK readers might think you don't have the time.  But that's […]
Never mind remembering creative strings of data: Google is researching small devices -- a USB card, a wireless "smart ring" -- that will automatically log you into a Web site or database.
An algorithm developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University easily deciphers long passwords that make grammatical sense.
Who could have saved us from the global financial crisis? In a word, women. The release of the Federal Reserve’s transcripts of policymaking meetings up to 2007 has shed new […]
Surveys that compare student test scores from different countries often fail to take socioeconomic differences into account, say the authors of a new study.
Researchers mined data from 8 years' worth of comments on a road rage complaint Web site and created a taxonomy of behaviors that could be helpful in new driver education.