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The confluence of two cultures is always fraught with misunderstandings, miscommunications, and misinterpretations. But perhaps no case exemplifies this more fully than that of the Yanomami. In 1968, the Yanomami were catapulted to global fame after the American anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon published his shocking, compelling and highly controversial book, Yanomamö: The Fierce People . The first 13 months of fieldwork had been pure culture shock — his earliest encounter had been with a househo

During most years, a report from the director of the OSTP — the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy — wouldn’t be a topic that made national news. Established by Congress in 1976, it’s simply an advisory position: where the appointed director, colloquially known as the science advisor to the President (previously an unofficial position), makes recommendations about science and technology, regarding both domestic and international matters. Normally, a scientist serves in that posi

For years, I wanted to be a writer, and for years, my wanting added up to exactly zero actions required to be a writer. I had my idols: Mark Manson, Tim Ferriss, Brené Brown, Ramit Sethi, James Clear, people who thought for a living and put it on a page. I looked at them and thought, “I want to do that.” But I couldn’t hit publish, not in public. Academic articles were fine. They were a currency and a necessity to earn my PhD, part of the game I’d signed up for. And if we’re honest, probably few

It’s hard to fathom just how far we’ve come in our understanding of the Universe over the past 200 years. Back in the early 1800s, we didn’t even know how far away the stars were, what they were made of, or how they worked. We didn’t know what the Universe was, how big it was, or even what the laws were that governed it. We were up to seven planets in the Solar System, with Uranus being discovered in 1781, and had uncovered several asteroids: objects in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. We

Today, the CMB — cosmic microwave background — remains observable. This composite image shows the microwave sky as imaged by three generations of spaceborne CMB missions: COBE (1990s), WMAP (2000s), and Planck (2010s). With time, we’ve become more sensitive to smaller-magnitude temperature and polarization features at progressively smaller angular scales. Credit : Smoot Cosmology Group/LBL/ESA This leftover radiation from the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years on, measures 2.725 K. The unique predicti

The second map ever featured on Strange Maps — back in 2006, when it was still a fledgling WordPress blog — was a literary take on Maine. It showed the real and imagined places that tether Stephen King’s horror stories to the rugged landscape of his home state. On the map, fictional towns like Derry, Castle Rock, and Lake Kashwakamak jostle for space with the real ones that inspired them, including Bangor, Skowhegan, and Portland. I was mesmerized by both that duality — the tension between actua

When we gaze out into the abyss of space, it seems like the most peaceful, serene of sights. Night after night, the planets and our Moon migrate predictably — like clockwork — while the stars, the Milky Way, and even extragalactic objects hardly change at all over time. Sure, there are occasional cataclysms, including stars that die and new lights that briefly appear before fading away, as the shining stars burn through their fuel, evolve, and sometimes even interact. But space itself, although

Philosopher Jonny Thomson walks through Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s 3 conditions for the kind of stupidity that destroys societies: outsourcing your thinking to an authority, willful ignorance, and conformity. He shows how each one shows up today, from AI answering our moral questions to political parties enforcing loyalty over conviction. This video A philosopher’s guide to thinking for yourself in an age built to think for you is featured on Big Think .

Physician Giulia Enders spent years studying the gut before realizing no organ works alone. Here, she walks through 5 body parts — the lung, the immune system, the skin, the muscles, and the brain — and what each one reveals about how we work, heal, and recover. This video Physician: The outdated mindset that gets in the way of our healing is featured on Big Think .

Big Think hosted its inaugural live event to bring our summer special issue, The Opt-Out Nation , to life. Join our candid conversation with the editors and writers behind it, featuring voices from The New York Times , WIRED , and County Highway . Hosted by Big Think producer and director Dan Hayes. This video Live with Big Think: Inside “The Opt-Out Nation” is featured on Big Think .

As humans, we instinctively understand that time has profound worth, regardless of any workplace benefits. This is what sabbatical alumni mean when they ascribe a feeling of humanity to their time off. Unfortunately, the burden of proof for many is to somehow provide an equation of increased productivity. While this misses the point of what taking time off is all about, there is a lens from psychology that can help us understand the benefits in more tangible terms: conservation of resources theo

Psychologist Paul Bloom explains why morality, the thing that makes cooperation and trust possible, is also what drives cruelty, cycles of revenge, and wars where both sides believe they’re the moral ones. This video The psychology of revenge, in 19 minutes is featured on Big Think .