Richard Dawkins: The Importance of Doing Useless Things
From poetry and ballet to mathematics and being clever, life is laden with frivolous pursuits that hold no bearing on our ability to survive. However, Dawkins explains that the ability to perform such actions comes as a byproduct of the evolution of the human brain, perhaps because being clever is sexy.
Michio Kaku: The Supergenius
Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind (http://goo.gl/1mcGeb). Here Dr. Kaku discusses Asperger syndrome, autism, savants, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton… and the characters on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. New York City skyline image: http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk For the curious: http://goo.gl/k5qCWP For the curioser: http://goo.gl/z70aRG Transcript – If you […]
The benefits of a good night’s sleep – Shai Marcu
It’s 4am, and the big test is in 8 hours. You’ve been studying for days, but you still don’t feel ready. Should you drink another cup of coffee and spend the next few hours cramming? Or should you go to sleep? Shai Marcu defends the latter option, showing how sleep restructures your brain in a […]
Why sitting is bad for you – Murat Dalkilinç
Sitting down for brief periods can help us recover from stress or recuperate from exercise. But nowadays, our lifestyles make us sit much more than we move around. Are our bodies built for such a sedentary existence? Murat Dalkilinç investigates the hidden risks of sitting down.
Lawrence Krauss: A Universe from Nothing
Lawrence Krauss: A Universe from Nothing Why is there something, rather than nothing? This question has long been the domain of philosophers and theologians, but science can now finally weigh in. Physicist Lawrence Krauss sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss how recent scientific developments have found an elegant solution to this baffling question.
The incredible story of how hatmakers really did ‘go mad’ 300 years ago
The expression ‘mad as a hatter’ is based from the real-life behavior of hatters from the 17th century. It turns out that the process they used to make their hats was poisoning them and driving them insane. It wasn’t until 1941 that hatters discovered what was causing them to behave so strangely.
Lawrence Krauss: The Flavors of Nothing
Theoretical Physicist Lawrence Krauss explains the different types of nothing. Or something. Transcript– When you think about nothing you have to be a little more careful than you normally are because, in fact, nothing is a physical concept because it’s the absence of something, and something is a physical concept. And what we’ve learned over […]
Explorando otras dimensiones – Alex Rosenthal y George Zaidan
Imagínate un mundo bidimensional: tú, tus amigos, todo está en 2D. En su novela de 1884, Edwin Abbott inventa este mundo y lo llama Planolandia. Alex Rosenthal y George Zaidan llevan el principio de Planolandia a una dimensión más allá y nos piden que reflexionemos sobre cómo podríamos ver las dimensiones de manera diferente a […]
Michio Kaku: Escape to a Parallel Universe
Like many physicists, Michio Kaku thinks our universe will end in a «big freeze.» Unlike many physicists, he thinks we might be able to avoid this fate by slipping into a parallel universe «in the same way that Alice entered the looking glass to enter Wonderland.»
Michio Kaku: What’s the Fate of the Universe? It’s in the Dark Matter
Why should you bother to wake up tomorrow knowing that we’re all going to die billions and billions of years from now when the universe turns to absolute zero, when the stars blink out, when we have nothing but neutron stars and black holes? Dr. Kaku says that billions of years from now we may […]
These are the world’s fastest animals
Cheetahs have a reputation for speed. While the big cats may be able to reach speeds of 75 mph, it’s nothing compared to the top speeds of other animals. It’s not even the fastest mammal! Here are the fastest animals on Earth.
Here’s how much taller humans have gotten in the last 100 years
Humans have grown dramatically taller over recent years. This video shows the countries where people have grown the most in the past 100 years.
Stephen Hawking says we’re going to need another planet
Stephen Hawking says we’re going to need another planet
Why do we dream? – Amy Adkins
In the 3rd millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets. In the years since, we haven’t paused in our quest to understand why we dream. And while we still don’t have any definitive answers, we have some theories. Amy Adkins reveals the top seven reasons why we might dream.